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Originally Posted by nomesque
Mmmm, I get a little grumpy with these sort of arguments too. My primary interest in books is the story/information. That's what I want. The smell, the 'experience' ... meh, whatever. On the bright side, it's good to know that there'll be people lining up to buy my books when I replace them with ebooks...  |
Did you read the blog post. I thought there was some good arguments in it. And the smell was not an argument:
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Yes, I know I have a strong attachment to the old “scrolls” which is what the principal compared books to. Guilty as charged. I love the texture of paper, the act of turning pages, even the smell of books–well, most books anyway. But I have to remember, that may only be a sentimental attachment on my part, and a new generation of readers may not have this attachment at all.
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New reader might not have that attachment so this is not an argument for paper books.
But I think the following might be a good argument (it is definitely a good argument if a paper book is compared ti a Gen 3):
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My first thought was that there is a certain spatial awareness that plays into my understanding of a story. I am at the beginning. The middle. So close to the end. Three pages left. Omigod, I’m almost there. The end. Sigh.
Didn’t mean to get carried away there, but there is a spatial quality to a book as I read and flip back and forth, rereading passages. On a computer you can flip back and forth too, and maybe seeing the page number or scroll bar at the side is enough for some readers, but on a computer, one page is the same as another, its place within a book doesn’t stand out. I write my entire books for the most part on a computer, but periodically I have to print it out to really “see” the story, and to understand its progression. Reading it is on a computer is not enough to grasp the story as a whole. I can’t help but feel the reading experience of an electronic book might too closely resembles the reading experience of surfing for information online, where pages encourage skimming, while real paper slows us down and encourages lingering. But again, playing devil’s advocate, this may just be my own perception developed through habit and tradition.
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I think this argument is correct and I am waiting for better user interfaces to ebooks before I give up on paper books.