For as long as I can remember, and possibly more rapidly than at any other point in history, our generation has experienced a constant evolution of technologies and platforms by which we consume entertainment. The starting point for my generation was FM radio, cassettes and VHS. Each of those technologies gave way several times over; Now we can get crystal clear "HD audio" beamed to us from satellites, perfect digital audio and video downloaded directly from the Internet at a fraction of the size they used to be, and videos with quality 100 times better and 10 times smaller than the VHS tapes from my youth.
As my generation has reached their late twenties and early thirties, I'm seeing many of us collectively hitting a wall for how much progress we're willing to take. Specifically in the area of books. Just a few short years ago, marked by Amazon's introduction of their Kindle e-reader, the e-book market really exploded. I say "exploded" not because it was born along with the Kindle, just that it was the beginning of the public-at-large's accessability and awareness of e-books. And while the Kindle and other e-readers have been very successful overall, I'm hearing a lot of resistance to the digitization of books from people a lot younger than I would have expected. The reasons for the reluctance to move to digital books has, for the most part, fallen into two categories: A distrust and dissatisfaction the medium, and nostalgia.
I can understand the distrust of the e-book medium, even if I don't subscribe to it. I'm sure we all remember Amazon's hugely ironic gaffe last year when they remotely deleted copies of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. After that incident, many people became wary of investing in e-books with the knowledge that their provider could remove it or alter it at their chosing. Certainly, there is something a lot more concrete and permanent about a physical book that a digital book can never match. Many people have also balked at e-book, citing their price as the problem. The argument goes that, since the book is being sold in digital form, it should be hugely less expensive than a physical book. While most newer paperbacks cost somewhere in the $14-16 range, and their equivilent e-books are sold for about $10, that is apparently not a big enough drop for some people.
I get it. Traditional books are more permanent, trustworthy and, well, traditional. There is a definite advantage to them on these counts and while I feel the advantages of e-books make these tradeoffs worth it, I can't fault anyone for thinking otherwise. It's the other reason -- nostalgia -- that kind of trips me up. Nearly every time I ask someone why they won't give the Kindle or another e-book reader a try, they initially cite things like the cost or the distrust of the medium, but when they're pushed to explain their reasoning a little more fully, nine times out of ten it comes down to a vague statement about it taking the experience out of reading. This statement often includes the words "cold," "mechanical," or "joyless."
I can tell that these reasons are made at a very emotional level, and it's quite possible that you can't talk someone out of those arguments. However, I wanted to state, officially and for the record, that this has not been the case for me over the past eight months. In December of last year, January and I bought a Kindle as a Christmas present to ourselves and it's done nothing but enhance my reading experience. If you think you can't develop a strong attachment to a book by reading it on an e-ink display, you're dead wrong. A gentleman I follow on Twitter was mentioning this week that he was working his way through Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho. The thought of the book instantly transported me back to a scene in southern California at sunset, sitting on the boardwalk after a huge rainstorm, where I was enjoying a local beer, the conversation of the locals, and lazily working through the same book on my Kindle.
Similarly, over this past month I have been obsessively working my way through Tana French's Murder Squad mystery series. After what has felt like the hottest summer in the history of the world, we've actually had several nice cool weekend in a row. I have no doubt that years from now when I think of these books, I'll remember sitting on the front porch with Gus, reading chapter after chapter and enjoying a the first cool breezes we've felt in months.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the memories, the nostalgia, are attached to books themselves. It's not the physical book, it's the characters you've come to know. It's not the physical act of turning actual paper pages, it's in remembering the stories. If you've been holding off on giving the Kindle or the Nook or some other e-reader a try because you're afraid the joy of reading will be lost to a "cold and mechanical" device, just give it shot. If you're anything like me, you'll find that the convenience of having your favorite books with you in a single place translates to reading more, and reading more diversely.
What about you? Have you given e-readers a chance yet? What are the reasons holding you back?