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I Don't Believe In Ebooks
Jan. 11th, 2013 08:28 pmI don't believe in ebooks.
This isn't some grand statement of Ludditism, or even strong personal preference. I read 'em: for some things they're unavoidable, for other things they're cheap, handy, and available instantly anywhere there's an internet connection, for that instant gratification buzz.
(Me, I still don't have an e-reader, and my e-retailer of choice is Kobo, since I hear B&N is expected to follow Borders out of business in the medium-term future, and Amazon, while useful, is too much of a monopoly to be trustworthy.)
But the Problem of Ebooks, if I may style it so, is one of preservation, continuity, and long-term trust. The digital medium is still relatively new, and data corruption is a thing that happens. (I distrust remote data hosting, in this newfangled "cloud" thingy: possibly this is because I am a small-l luddite, or possibly it is because I distrust the promises of strangers.) A cheap paperback, treated well, may still be readable after thirty years with no problems. Perhaps fifty, with a handful of precautions for decayed glue and fragile paper. A sewn-bound hardback printed on good quality paper, well-treated, can easily see out a hundred years and still be perfectly readable.
I'm sufficiently History!-minded, or at least sufficiently cheap, to believe that longevity matters. I want books to still be there when I go back to read them again five, ten, fifteen years down the line. I trust paper that way. I also like the heft and scent and tactility of paper books, but the experiential aspect is always down to personal preferences: longevity of one's personal possessions (I do not like this licensing lark with ebooks, it makes me suspicious) isn't entirely a personal concern.
So I don't believe in ebooks, because I don't believe - as discrete individual items, rather than as a class - their longevity and long-term useability is entirely proved out, yet. So my ebooks purchases tend to be on the cheap, and for things for which I don't expect to develop long-term attachments. If I develop an attachment, then I go looking for paper copies.
(I buy too many books. Still, a girl is entitled to a handful of harmless vices, I think.)
So I suppose I'm a Luddite, of sorts, in the end. Or just very averse to change.
This isn't some grand statement of Ludditism, or even strong personal preference. I read 'em: for some things they're unavoidable, for other things they're cheap, handy, and available instantly anywhere there's an internet connection, for that instant gratification buzz.
(Me, I still don't have an e-reader, and my e-retailer of choice is Kobo, since I hear B&N is expected to follow Borders out of business in the medium-term future, and Amazon, while useful, is too much of a monopoly to be trustworthy.)
But the Problem of Ebooks, if I may style it so, is one of preservation, continuity, and long-term trust. The digital medium is still relatively new, and data corruption is a thing that happens. (I distrust remote data hosting, in this newfangled "cloud" thingy: possibly this is because I am a small-l luddite, or possibly it is because I distrust the promises of strangers.) A cheap paperback, treated well, may still be readable after thirty years with no problems. Perhaps fifty, with a handful of precautions for decayed glue and fragile paper. A sewn-bound hardback printed on good quality paper, well-treated, can easily see out a hundred years and still be perfectly readable.
I'm sufficiently History!-minded, or at least sufficiently cheap, to believe that longevity matters. I want books to still be there when I go back to read them again five, ten, fifteen years down the line. I trust paper that way. I also like the heft and scent and tactility of paper books, but the experiential aspect is always down to personal preferences: longevity of one's personal possessions (I do not like this licensing lark with ebooks, it makes me suspicious) isn't entirely a personal concern.
So I don't believe in ebooks, because I don't believe - as discrete individual items, rather than as a class - their longevity and long-term useability is entirely proved out, yet. So my ebooks purchases tend to be on the cheap, and for things for which I don't expect to develop long-term attachments. If I develop an attachment, then I go looking for paper copies.
(I buy too many books. Still, a girl is entitled to a handful of harmless vices, I think.)
So I suppose I'm a Luddite, of sorts, in the end. Or just very averse to change.
