Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
None of those three choices apply at all. I never really found the book-browsing experience all that pleasurable in the first place ... to be perfectly honest. So nothing to "forget" or to be "displaced" here.
I like to read books. Pure and simple. I don't care about holding them, sniffing them, feeling their texture, locating them, talking to other people who are trying to locate them, lovingly perusing their spines/covers, or leaving them in conspicuous places so people can notice them and hopefully be impressed with my impeccable tastes. I like to gobble up their contents and move on to the next one, ASAP. That's it. Nothing else. I've always loved book guts waaaay more than the physical object previously known as "book."
So ebooks were a complete no-brainer for me. No gasoline involved, no time spent traveling to where the books all hang out before I buy them, no shipping and handling costs to get them delivered to me, and no annoying person trying to make small talk and generally delaying my mission to immerse myself in my new book's guts. That, and being less than a minute away from "that sounds like a cool book" to "look at me reading that cool book." And oh yeah ... Free Sample Chapters of any book that catches my eye and the synopsis doesn't turn me off.
The "book" is a lie ... the "words" are where all the value lies. Ebooks allow me to easily skip right past all the distracting lies.
Enjoy your (I'm assuming) brief sojourn among the philistines.  |
I actually still very enjoy browsing in bookstores, but other than that I agree completely with everything Diapdealer said. Whn ereaders came out, I was totally against them. Prefer the feel of the book in my hand, the smell, cover art, blah blah blah. Then the Kindle 3 came out and it was affordable, and I learned of the free public domain stuff available hear and on Project Gutenburg and elsewhere, and I became a convert. I've had my Kindle for over 2 years now and have not looked back.
The physical book itself is enjoyable, but also a distraction. It's an imperfect vehicle. I find I read much faster with my kindle because it does a great job of getting out of the way of the words. It's a "purer" book reading experience. Not having to hold a bulky book open means it become possible to read in more situations (i.e. being able to easily read while eating lunch which is my ritual every single workday).