Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
I think people like Franzen also overlook the reality that keeping a large and permanent paper library is still an economic privilege for many people. I live in a city where real estate is very expensive and I will never be able to afford a single-family home unless I get an inheritance or win the lottery. They just posted a story in the paper about a two-bedroom home that was badly in need of renovations and was right beside a train track, and even that fixed upper was half a million dollars! So where does Franzen expect I am going to store all this permanent paper in my cramped inner-city apartment? Ebooks have opened up the concept of 'owning a library' to people like me who would otherwise be borrowing the books they read from the public one.
It is fine to say he does not prefer them, but to imply that those who read ebooks are less 'serious' readers is downright offensive.
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I agree. I have simply run out of space in my apartment to store any more paper books. I'm talking boxes of books stacked in front of filled bookcases, boxes of books in closets, stacks of books on the coffee table, etc. I keep my books and I re-read them. It's not that I don't want to buy paper books; I just don't have any place to put them anymore.
