Wrapped Up in Books: Rise of the eReader

I know that everyone reading this assumes that I love books. It’s hardly necessary for me to mention how I love the faintly sweet, dusty smell of pages, or the way that you can flip to the end of the book just for second to see how many pages there are (and – dare I say it? – to make sure your favorite character’s name appears because you’re worried that she might die). I also don’t need to wax poetic about how much I love being able to dog-ear pages with my favorite quotes on them (never with library books, of course), or about how great it is to watch your bookmark inch steadily along the binding while you guesstimate how much longer it will take to get to the end. However, all those beautiful qualities are currently being threatened by books’ most powerful nemesis: the eReader. I’ve heard the arguments before. You can dog-ear pages in your eReader, or you can type little notes in the margin. But it’s not the same. When I’m underlining a quote that I find particularly inspiring or heartbreaking or well-written, I want to do it with my own pen and my own hand. I don’t want some electronic cloud of technology doing it for me. Hands off, you cold, heartless fiend. And what’s all this about percentages? I’ve spent my entire reading life judging books by their page numbers. I know what it means to be on page 200 of a book that is 600 pages long. But say I’m 33% through a book of unknown total length. How much longer will it take me to get to the end? I haven’t exactly been counting the hours: I’m assuming that this book is actually worth reading and therefore too deliciously distracting for me to be carefully calculating the time I’m spending on it. We all know why eReaders can’t have page numbers, though. Every eBook would have to be about 1000 “pages” long, since, on a good day, you’ll read about 50 words before you need to skip to the next “page.” Oh, I’m sorry, did you enjoy being able to have two pages open to you at a time? Or perhaps you are one of those foolish people who likes being able to see, with a quick glance, that something really important like a kiss or a death is coming up? Stupid reader. EBooks are so much more convenient. Also, I can’t be the only person in the world who loves to buy books as souvenirs. Just like no trip to France would be complete without bringing home a postcard of a Claude Monet painting, no trip to Ireland would be complete without picking up a copy of Ulysses. Too bad it doesn’t quite mean the same thing to say, “See this version of Oliver Twist? Yeah, that’s right, I downloaded it in London.” Phew. Okay. So I’ve got some pent-up rage about eReaders; everyone has their pet peeves. However, something happened recently to teach me a lesson: my mom won a Kindle in a raffle. At first, I thought, “She’ll never use it” – because technology isn’t one of my mom’s many strong points. However, just the other day, she surprised me by asking me to download the new Stephen King book, a stereotypically fat piece of work called 11/22/63, for my dad to read. Within minutes, it had downloaded to her screen. She didn’t even have to get out a credit card – her information was saved in the Kindle store. And, yes, despite the fact that only a smattering of bold-print words could fit onto each miniscule page, I found it remarkably easy to get used to flipping along. When I asked my dad how he was finding the book – with, I admit, a hint of amused skepticism in my voice – he said that he was “Only 33% of the way through, but so far it’s all right.” He then proceeded to briefly fill me in on the plot with nary a complaint about the fact that said book was only available on a Kindle. Trust me: if you saw the number of books in our house, you would understand that this was a big win for eReaders everywhere. That conversation got me thinking. I finally had to admit that I was wrong about eReaders. Their lack of page numbers might leave me as lost and confused as I would be trying to navigate the metric system, and it’s true that I’ll always prefer the smell and feel of real books… but maybe there are some good qualities to those damned things. After all, it would be convenient to have hundreds of books at your fingertips in a light little piece of technology while you travel. And even – no, especially – I can see the advantage to being able to start reading a book that you want right away, no shipping or store-going necessary. So, if you’re thinking about snapping up an eReader as a gift for you loved one this holiday season, don’t give up on your choice. Just don’t forget to wrap up a real book while you’re at it.