The E-Conversation

(photo courtesy of the "Slash" exhibit via AM)

Nearly everyone has an opinion about the e-reader and most are rather passionate about it. I expect New Yorkers are going to have a unique perspective because of storage issues. Few people have the luxury to house the books they might want to collect.

Having read quite a few opinions about e-readers (and I never know if these people are just cranks or naysayers), I thought I should poll friends of mine, who are neither cranks nor naysayers.

From DM: “am anti-e-reader. I like holding a book. That said, if I was a commuter (from the burbs) I would definitely get one.... just to have the ability to flip back and forth between books and mags.”

From LO: "I don’t have an e-reader and I don’t think I want one. I like the feel of a book in my hands. I also get most of my books through the library. Nypl.org is one of the best websites I have ever used. You order books on-line, they send the books to your nearest branch (one just opened up two blocks from my apartment), they send you a notice that the book is ready to be picked up, and you pick it up. Just genius. Good tax dollars at work!

I travel a lot and so an e-reader seems like I would be the ideal candidate but I’m not interested. I stare at a computer all day; I don’t want to have to stare at one in my free time. I like electronic gadgets but I like the feel of a hardcover or paperback in my hands. A good time would be to sit on the beach with a cocktail in one hand and an e-reader in my other? Doesn’t work. You sit at the beach with a cocktail in one hand and a book. You sit by the fireplace with a cocktail and a book. Call me old fashion, or screw that, make me an Old Fashion and give me a book!"

I doubt, though, that any of us expected the iPad to be able to do this:



Hee!(thanks to NK for finding)

From MR: "I have a kindle and I love it, I think its brilliant, I have books "stacked up" in my read list because they are so easy to download, I pre-order books, I actually forgot that I bought a couple things ...so maybe that's dangerous. But I think its great; you can change the size of the type, which is great when I forget my glasses.

When I first got it though I kept reaching out to flip the page! Took a bit to get used to but now I like it - not for reference books though, or for anything you need to study, even though you can underline and take notes, I think it would be so much easier to mark a page and refer back to it, vs. doing an electric search for a term. But for novels, I think it is fantastic."

While I expect to continue buying real books and hope to buy the second generation of the iPad, I am concerned about book culture. Will book stores go the way of record stores? What about libraries? Even though I frequent Amazon all too often, these institutions comfort me.