I came upon the following sentiment
in the New York Times Magazine and it seemed to capture my own feelings about
why physical books are so important:
Reading on-screen tempts us to see things
only through the pinhole of our immediate curiosity. I don’t mean to sentimentalize the Reading of
Books, but as a practical matter, when you hold a book in your hands, it is
very different from what happens when you are [reading something on] a glassy,
featureless screen. Online, your
experience is personalized, but it is also atomized, flattened and
miniaturized, robbed of its landscape.
Physical books require you to literally hold some of the context of what
you are reading, and that is a crucial dimension of understanding.” (Maria Bustillos)
Most of my well-educated friends
have abandoned physical books and have been reading almost exclusively on Nooks
or Kindles, or Ipads. In recent years, I’ve
gone in the complete opposite direction:
not only have I rejected digital texts completely, but I now buy only
those books that I can get in handsome hardcovered version. These are usually first or second edition books
with clean pages, tight bindings, and unmarred jackets. I search for the books I want on Amazon and
buy used editions that usually cost less than either an e-version or paperback
version of the book.
There’s nothing quite like the
pleasure involved in holding a beautifully-made book in your hands. I actually think that it makes the act of
reading infinitely more pleasurable than reading the same text in an inferior
print or digital version.
I’ve decided that I only want
books around me that I know I will want to re-read in my old age—in the
twilight years between retirement and death.
To this end, I’ve been ruthlessly selling my paperbacks, worn
hardcovered editions, and those books that, while considered classics, I know
that I will never read (sorry Herman Melville).
In my dotage, I see myself in a
large spacious room, surrounded by wall-to-wall bookcases, each of which is
filled with sumptuous editions of the works that I love. Shakespeare is there of course, along with Kierkegaard,
Jane Austen, Seneca, and Henry James….but so is John Kennedy O’Toole (A Confederacy of Dunces), J.R.R. Tolkien
(Lord of the Rings), and of, course, Helene
Hanff (84 Charing Cross Road, the
ultimate book about lovers of beautiful books).
As I picture my own death, I’m
reading an old favorite—Heller’s Catch 22,
perhaps, or maybe Nietzsche’s Zarathustra—in
a typically handsome edition. As I near
the end of the book, my heart simply stops and I slump forward, my bald head resting
falling gently onto the pages of the book I have been reading.
Could there possibly be a better
way to go?
I totally agree that physical books are way better than technology, when you hold a book and read it there seems to be more power in the words you are reading. Youre imagination kicks in, you actually start to live the words you are reading. There is nothing better.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that we are in agreement. I recently went overseas with ten other professionals, though, and I was the only one holding a physical book. The rest were all reading using Ipads or Nooks. And these folks were all over 45--the prime demographic for physical book readers!
DeleteThere are benefits to both formats, but I still love holding my books in my hands....Where I can annotate in the margins...and, lately, not fear that the technology will change making my "book" as useful as an 8-track collection.
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