THE BOOK
VS.
THE E-BOOK 

A SUBJECTIVE LIST OF THOUGHTS AND ARGUMENTS COMPILED AND ARRANGED (SOME REPRINTED FROM OTHER SOURCES) IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER 

Printed books are everywhere--and many millions of them are homeless.  Buying a used  book on the street is like buying a rescue pet. 

 Books are forever. When you're finished  you can put in on a shelf where it will provide a memory marker of many interesting things when you look at it.


 There are millions and millions more book titles in print (for now). Books in Print offers a database of 7.5 million titles in the US alone.


 Real books require no software upgrades. No batteries ,no internet connection or special instructions.

Books are cheap. Used books on Amazon cost as little as 1 cent.

 

 You can use old books to hold your new books. Stack them up, lay wooden boards on them, and create bookshelves.



 Books don't melt or self-destruct. You can leave a book out in the sun or in a hot car.


 You buy it, you own it.  An e-book can be deleted from your e-reader and no one (not even customer service tech support) will be able to explain how or why it happened.  Books are yours. Period.

 No DRM (digital rights management). You can read your printed book at any time or any place.   No worries about having an "incompatible platform" or whether the folks at Apple see eye to eye with the folks at Knopf. 




 After you read a "dead tree" book, you can share it with a friend. And you can inscribe silly, heartfelt, personal, or clever notes in it. .





 On airplanes, nobody will tell you to turn off your book.



 

Books can swim, almost.  Sure, they may get a bit crinkly, or suffer minor injury but they're still usable. A mere droplet of water, light mist or a few grains of moist sand can kill your e-reader and all the books on it. 

 Used books can be resold. You can even donate them to Goodwill or other charitable organizations. 

Shoulder surfing. If the person sitting next to you is reading a real book, it's easy to sneak a peek at the title. 




"Dutch" meets a fan.

Book signings. Want to meet your favorite author and have your new book signed? How do you sign an ebook?


  Dead Tree Books don't get sick, crash, carry viruses, or go to sleep suddenly. They don't need virus scans either.



A print book is like a road trip.  You can see  how far you will be traveling.  And as you proceed you have a sense of how close you are to your final destination.  Coming to that final 1/4 inch of pages makes you think about what will or may or can happen next and how the author will find a way to bring the story to a close. 

 Bookmarks.  Paper, plastic, ticket stubs, Bobby pins. 

And multiple bookmarks (or dog ears) serve vital functions. Often serves as prominent place for important items like receipts, checks, "to do" lists,  grocery shopping lists, memo with titles of other books to read.

The images and drawings in many books are an integral part of the story. Sometimes they are the story and they often need to be bigger than an e-reader screen.  

  

 Books make great gifts (which is why they sell like the "Dickens" at Christmas time.)  How do you  gift wrap a download?

  For some,  the curating of a book collection and personal library is a satisfying and rewarding activity.

Books can be social lubricants.   Taking a book with you to the coffee shop can spark a conversation if the cover/title can be discerned. 

 Hiding things.  Where will you stow your secret stash? In a de-gutted Kindle? That hollowed-out copy of Das Kapital will be pretty easy for thieves or cops to spot if it’s the only print book in the house.

 Yes, interactive e-book technology is amazing, but it's no match for the surprise of having a pop-up literally leap out of the book. And what about Pat the Bunny? Yes, there’s an app., but will the next generation of children think rabbit fur feels like glass?

 Books come in different sizes.  And they can be beautifully designed and bound. And a big bookcase full of a variety of them is a wonderful thing. 

You can put your coffee on a coffee table book.  On a Kindle? Fugettaboudit!

   Books  evoke memories in ways a download can’t. No one stores old PDFs in a hope chest, or inscribes them to a child.  And if print books disappear, a lot of flowers will go unpressed.

Passing down books to a family member who will love them only has value if the book has a physical form. 

Technology can fail. So can companies. Because the technology is so new, your e-reader probably won’t even be compatible with digital books in five years. (Can you play 8 tracks on your CD player?) Your print books  will always be readable, come media-mergers or apocalypse.

  No one will mug you for a copy of The Corrections (though it would be no great loss if they did) . And if someone steals your backpack with your book in it, you won't be out an entire library. 

Burning. Not that I condone or expect such a thing, but in a society that allows free speech, the burning of books is a powerful political statement.  Besides, a bonfire of e-readers is probably very toxic. 

 Having a stack of unread books by the nightstand can be a pleasant reminder of good reads to come--and a hard to ignore  reminder of how much catching up you have to do.

 Sometimes,  the ability to have more than one book open so you can glance back and forth between them is critical.  (Thomas Jefferson invented a bookstand to assist in doing just that.) While tabbing back and forth is possible on an e-reader, it’s no substitute for seeing multiple pages at once.

 Power. Books don’t need much. Just the energy in your index finger, which is free and infinitely renewable.

Physical fitness.  Holding and carrying real books is good exercise.  War and Peace or Moby Dick can turn you into Popeye in a matter of weeks. 

Aroma.  You know it when you smell it.  If there’s one thing that separates the old-school book people from the technophiles it’s this. 

  Opening a real book is a physically engaging and empowering action. It’s a signifier.   It embodies possibility in a way that pushing a button can’t. It's you and the author greeting each other, shaking hands and saying--let's go!