Quote:
Originally Posted by John1997
I am one of the "love the feel, smell and ambience of real books." One of the joys of going to college was that the library had _real_ books. Especially the law library where almost all the books were beautifully leather bound. There was a wonderful feel compounded of the aroma and the glow of old leather. When I started practicing, the small firm I worked for also had a lovely library with leather bound books in floor to ceiling bookcases and a gorgeous mahogany table on which to spread out (bookcases and table constructed by a single grateful client, incidentally).
Now, of course, research is all done in computer databases and I carry a small library around in my JBL Lite. I appreciate the efficiency, but I miss the experience of the books. I especially miss the ability to spread a dozen books around on the table all open to some important and related issue. It was so much easier to synthesize all those related thoughts when I could just glance at different books to see how different authors had handled the same issue.
Maybe I need a dozen jbl's???
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I don't think so, John.
That was well said, and I completely relate, on both counts. Like you say, it isn't always just a matter of the abstract/sensual appeal, but when it comes to research, paper books make it easier to keep open/flip back and forth/find things at a glance. Of course, then ebooks allow copy/paste...
To me, what all this means is that ebooks and pbooks are both awesome in their own ways. They can serve different purposes at different times, and it's wonderful to choose the format, depending on whichever need is strongest at the time.
No one needs to feel belittled or have their taste dismissed for preferring either one over the other.
It's not like religion or football, thank goodness! We can appreciate and enjoy both without feeling like we're cheating.
