Booking Through Thursday ~ Electronic vs. Paper

Today's Booking Through Thursday is a little different. Instead of posting on each blog we're to join a discussion in the comments on that post. Here's what it says...

Something a little different today–

First. Go read this great article from Time Magazine: Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature. (Well worth reading.)

Second. Stop and think about it for moment. Computers and digital media are changing everything we do these days, whether we realize it or not, and that includes our beloved books.

Third. DISCUSS!

To be different, today, I’d love to see a discussion here, in the comments, rather than scattered amongst all our separate blogs. Because this is an issue that affects ALL of us, and I’d really like to see us hash out the merits and demerits of this evolution.

Tell us what you think. Do you have an ebook reader? Do you read ebooks on your computer? Do you hate the very thought? How do you feel about the fact that book publishing is changing and facing much the same existential dilemma as the music industry upon the creation of MP3s?

Sure, feel free to write about this on your blog, but honestly–I’d love to see an in-depth discussion, and you can’t do that by flitting about the internet reading 100 different, individual essays. You can only get that by having the back and forth of conversation.

So, today, USE THE COMMENTS!

There you have it! Go on over to Booking Through Thurdsay and throw in your two cents!

I'll go ahead and throw in some of my two cents here as well...

I don't have an ebook reader, nor do I care to get one. I don't like reading ebooks. Call me old fashioned but I'd much rather feel the paper in my hands. Also reading on screen hurts my eyes after a while and it's harder to go back and find something you want to look at again electronically.

However, I know change happens and that ebooks will become more prevalent and that is fine. They would also need to greatly improve the electronic readers, though. I can see advantages of it (i.e. having lots of books to choose from in one small package), but I still prefer paper. I don't think it will be the same kind of change as the music industry where they stop printing paper books all together.

Also, what about libraries? Checking out ebooks? Lending ebooks to friends? And many of us like to buy used books. They claim that ebooks are cheaper...but they aren't compared to used books.

I don't think ebooks will completely take over (whew!). But I can see them co-existing.

And as a side note...as long as spell check doesn't recognize "ebooks" neither will I! LOL