This morning, on my little arts newsfeed, I spotted this piece, which muses on the possible consequences of publishers forcing Amazon to raise their prices on e-books. Naturally, when people feel like they are getting wrung out on prices, they go elsewhere. But that wasn't the most fascinating part of the piece; in my mind, this was:
"What has kept illegal e-books from taking off? First, all the electronic reading gadgets on the market are subpar, if you ask me, making the reading of books, newspapers, magazines, and even cereal boxes painful. The resolution is poor. The fonts are crap. The navigation is chunky. Not since the eight-track player has modern technology produced such a heap of garbage. If you're looking for the reason e-books constitute just 1 percent or 2 percent of all book sales, stop the search."
Me, a Luddite? Yes. Guilty as charged. I love my French press more than electric coffee pots (It's easier to clean, the coffee tastes better and I don't need to use disposible filters) and consider it close to a perfect technology, so long as I don't drop it on the floor. I guess I see books in the same way. Not that the book industry should adopt a Flintstonian attitude or anything, but man. I really am in love with the ancient, and what I consider perfect, technology of the paper book. For one thing, once I've paid 9.99 for a paperback, I don't have to worry about it possibly dissolving into a chaos of splintered pixels. So long as I keep it away from fire or water (or puppy teeth), that book is in my library forever. And what shall I hand over to my favorite writer when he shows up at Left Bank Books to read? My Kindle? A printout of the title page? There's just no romance to the e-book, and my relationship to books is steeped not just in the poetry of the language but the feel and smell of the pages, and how the cover reminds me of what my life was like when I bought that book. The e-book just seems ... I don't know, sort of cold and super-efficient by comparison.
That said, I've never used a Kindle. Why do people like them? Who has one? Please, if there is anyone out there who can argue the case for e-books to this Luddite, I am open to hearing what people like about this technology. Even if I decide only to use it to read cookbooks. --Stefene Russell
