I haven't watched Andy Rooney in ages (partly because my TV will not pick up our CBS affiliate for some reason
). I usually don't agree with a lot of his views and I don't really agree with his views on e-Books.
However, what he said isn't really very different from people in my life who, for now, will not read e-Books. There are lots of people who like the feel of pulp books and feel that reading from a pulp book doesn't just include reading the text but holding the book, smelling the book, turning the pages, etc. They also like displaying their libraries with all their physical books. My husband, who is in his early 30s and much younger than Andy Rooney, always finds it weird when I read a book on my iPod Touch. He has expressed similar views. He just likes paper books and for now that's fine since there is an abundance of paper books still available. He's not preventing me from reading e-Books so we're good.
A friend of mine (who is younger than Andy Rooney, my husband and myself) actually said to me that she hopes libraries will eventually go back to all paper books and that she couldn't understand the appeal of e-Books. She's afraid that e-Books will threaten librarians (I want to apply to a MLIS program and start in the fall). I told her that I didn't mind e-Books and that I think libraries will still need librarians even with e-Books. However, I wasn't angry with her for stating her opinion and I didn't even think it was stupid.
It's just a preference. While there are still pulp and e-Books around, people can easily act on their preference and one isn't necessarily better than the other. I do think that eventually, e-Books will be much more available than pulp books but that probably won't be for a while. So if you want a paper book, get it. If you want an e-Book, get it. In the end, we're all reading.
