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E: eBooks

I love books. 

That’s not exactly an earthshattering statement on a writer’s blog.  I’ve entered kind of a Renaissance over the past year-and-a-half in reading.  I hadn’t read a lot over the course of my mid-thirties for whatever reason, but now I’ve taken up the page again and have managed to always stay in the midst of some book or another.  I’ve read quite a few paper books in recently, but the majority of my reading has come from the artificial soul of my little friend, the Sony Reader.

There seems to be a lot of animosity in the blog world about eBooks (even as there’s excitement about the potential of ePublishing – which seems contradictory).  This post in no way is an attempt to “sell” anyone on eBooks or convince them that eBooks are better than paper books.  I certainly don’t want to suggest that paper books are on there way out.  I hope not, because I love paper books.  I still go to the library, for crying out loud.

The only point I want to make in this post is this:

I love my eReader.

I mean, I really, really love it. 

When I first saw the readers come out, my impression was generally, meh.  I’ll take my paper books, thank you.  Then wife decided to get me one for Christmas, and since my wife can keep a secret the way a politician can keep a campaign promise, she told me.  Because she told me, I was able to research, and anticipate.  By the time I opened the package, I couldn’t wait to fill its empty shell with the contents of human knowledge.  Or the part of it I could afford anyway.

My Sony Reader is awesome.  I have just under a hundred books on it, and room for lots more.  I can read in line at the DMV, or in a hospital waiting room, or anywhere  want, since it fits in my pocket.  If I’m going away somewhere, I don’t have to decide what books to bring; I just bring the Reader and decide what I want to read.

I’m freer to try new things now, since a lot of self-published works are only 99 cents.  Why not give something knew a try at that price? 

Anyway, I understand the love of the paper book.  I have it, too.  It’ll be a sad world when all the books and bookstores and libraries are gone.  That’s one thing that makes me feel good about being older: I’ll probably be gone before that happens.  On the other had, I read a lot more now because of the Reader.  If this technology can help increase reading, make people who wouldn’t think about picking up a paper book read an eBook, if it in any way increases interest in reading, then I’m all for that.