E-bookreaders vs. Books

I was recently asked if I prefer a Kindle or a normal book.  To me, this question represents the prevalence of a new way of reading and book buying.  E-book readers are now a part of our reality, just as movies, which were probably considered novelties at their inception, have become commonplace.  I’ve heard e-book readers are portable and easy to store, that they offer fast delivery, that they’re more environmentally friendly, and many more enticing qualities.  Despite these advantages, I do not plan on buying one.

One very practical reason I’ve heard against e-book readers is the annoying need to recharge them.  My reasons, on the other hand, are based on my own feelings towards reading; they are subjective, in other words, so they may not necessarily apply to others.  I will not deny that there are those who get perfect satisfaction out of a Kindle.  However, I think my opinion has merit in regards to the reading experience.

To explain the enjoyment I get from reading is difficult for me—in this case, words are meager things—but I will do my best.  I read books to go on a journey.  When I get caught up in the story, I feel its breeze on my face and its ground beneath my feet.  I can hear the noises of its settings and smell its smells.  Most of all, I can hear the characters, their struggles, their passions, and their failings.  I see them in myself and myself in them.  We resonate with each other until I reach a state of connection I can only describe as being in two worlds at once, being two people.  This is not pure escapism, because I get into stories not just to experience a world other than my own, but to have that other world inform my own.  These stories can make me consider things in a different light, even if they do it in ways that couldn’t occur in the real world.  I even think that fantasy is essential to this experience for the very reason that it gives us something different and fantastical to identify with.  Too much of the same—stories that only take place in the world as it is—leads to stagnation, as you are only taking knowledge from one place.

What aids in this experience is the fact that everything is tangible.  The book is “real.”  The pages, the words, the world is in your hand, making the story just as real.  I cannot see how a Kindle can give the same experience.  It’s like the world of the story is separated from me by a sterile screen.  They destroy the magic.  They reduce the words and the intimacy that comes with them to mere data, scraps of code that are there one moment and obliterated the next, just from the simple act of turning the page, a wholly transitory experience.  They are too much a product of this digital age and world, a buffer against the connection to any other. 

And so, I find I must stick with plain old books. As I say in my profile bio, I love writing.  That love extends to the written word, and even if they’re printed rather than handwritten, I can see the care and labor the author put into crafting them.  The image of the written word is just banal.