By K. A. Laity
Enough already: eBooks are not the future. They are very much the present.
Yeah, Mashable has a story about how Kindle books are outselling hardcovers on Amazon and the L. A. Times has a long article on how ebooks are transforming the reading experience. The intangibility of ebooks nevertheless gives a lot of people a feeling of discomfort.
We like our stuff. We like touching our stuff. Digital downloads—whether music or books—don't really have that tactile facet (although the iPad feels pretty sweet in your hands…). Those of us who grew up with paperbacks and hardcovers (and CDs and DVDs and vinyl) may find it difficult to give up that physical presence.
I'm sure when Gutenberg printed his first bibles, there were doubtless people who said, "Well, Johannes, your bible is interesting, but I'm never going to give up my vellum. C'mon—it's painstakingly created by monks over months and sometimes years. There's great attention to detail. Each book is lovingly wrapped in a custom leather cover and individually composed in the unique hand of the scribe. Then it's decorated with charming marginalia."
"True enough," Gutenberg probably said. "However, you can have this one right away. All of you. And for much less money."
We like our stuff, but we also like getting our stuff right now. Want? Click. Have!
Stop cowering protectively over your bookshelves. There will continue to be printed books for a very long time. There will even continue to be handmade books for a long time. The digital revolution, however, has already happened. Jump on the wave to ride it or let it wash over you for now. But the wave is here. Like digital downloads of music, kids already born will consider ebooks the norm. That's what makes change happen. No one's going to take away your traditional reading experience. So relax, you don't have to change.
But you might want to do it.
Image via MacWorld