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Are you bookin’ it to buy an iPad?
Apple has released a new product, and I’m of course a little obsessed—but not standing in line yet.
Why not?
I know it has lots of nifty features and fun things it will do, but my sticking point seems to be: Will I honestly read books on an iPad (and/or any e-reader)?
See, I’m a book fella from way back (a lifelong bibliophile who worked for two publishing houses, and also one of those snobs who much prefers hardcovers), so the first time I held an iPad and launched a book, I kept tilting it and flipping it to check out the type on the spine, the specific kind of binding, and I almost held it up to smell the ink on paper.
Therein, my predicament.
A good friend—an academic who has lived and breathed (and written) books her entire life—is about ready to give in and buy a Kindle, but mostly because she’s running out of bookshelf space. But one of her justifications is how e-readers encourage you to indulge your random thoughts and whims. In the mood for a little Shakespeare? Download Hamlet and dive into your favorite soliloquy. Need a good spook? The latest Dennis Lehane is waiting for you.
For me, aside from the first-blush physical considerations (is an e-reader, especially the iPad, too heavy and awkward to hold, and just not the same as holding a real book?), there is the same thing that has held me back from buying all my music online. I want to have and hold a book, just as I’m still intrigued by the magic of an LP cover and especially the liner notes.
To be able to go over to my bookshelf (and music shelf) and pull at random, on a whim—that for me is magical and revolutionary.
So, am I letting the future pass me by if I don’t jump on board now, or soon? While I don’t think the printed book will ever go away, the future is surely full of bytes and I should probably sink my teeth in now or risk feeling like I’m left in the dust.
And how about you?
Categories Digital Media, Outside the Square
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No, no I’m not.
This subject has been on my mind a lot lately. Like you, I’m a book person. To me, part of reading is enjoying the smell and the feel of a book. The way you can curl up with one, browsing through a library or a bookstore, and keeping it on a shelf to pick up another time is all part of the process. I’d love, one day, to have a “library” of sorts in my own home.
I really do feel that you lose something, if not all, of that experience with e-readers. I remember reading about a private school that replaced their library with e-readers and it made me so sad. That magic, as you say, is just lost. And I wonder if you lose something in the reading process along the way.
So, I just can’t get behind an e-reader, and I don’t care if that leaves me hopelessly in the dust. I’ll proudly be there, curled up in a chair with my favorite old, worn paperback.
Count me in the “old-fashioned” crew. There’s something about being able to flip through a book, ACTUALLY flip the pages, to find a barely remembered passage that just isn’t replicable on an e-reader.
Just last week I had the experience of trying to find a passage in a long-ago finished book. No amount of online searching could land me on it…I had to physically pick up the book so that I could recreate the sensation of not only where in the book it was, but where on the page.
Can’t do that with an iPad….
I am not in a rush, but I can see other possibilities. The iPad, for me, will be all about the third party apps. There will be apps that will change the face of business. There will be apps that help us find new ways to consume media, and there will be new apps that help us make sense of all this connectedness. They make take a little while to hit the market, but it is the apps, not the iPad, that will make the difference.
Being a true Gemini, I have one foot in both camps. Gavin’s sentiments are what will push me over the edge (and into the Apple store) eventually. But I am never giving up my book, and music, shelves!
I too am a book person and still love to go to the library and book stores (New England Mobile is my fav!)and browse through the stacks! There is no doing that with an ipad or Kindle. You read it and poof it’s gone! How do you go back and re-read it? Please pardon my ignornance but there’s nothing like a rainy day curled up in the chair with a good book.
I think it’s a very similar thing that has happened with music. When the iPod came out people were scratching their heads wondering why the heck they would put all of their music into digital files just for the sake of portability. We all enjoyed album art and liner notes. But look at what the iPod has done…
Digital music is still around today (and going strong) but look at the comeback of vinyl. More and more albums are being pressed to vinyl for the same reasons you point out here about the tangible love of books. I love flipping through bin after bin in a record store. I love the smell of a 40 year old vinyl that still sounds amazing.
I think we will see large room for both, at least for a while…