I will be the crazy old lady with books

aka: Why I don't plan on buying an e-reader

I see them on the bus. I see them in my classes. I see them in libraries. 

I've been told again and again that electronic is the way to go. That one day we'll all be using them. It's a possibility I find absolutely terrifying. Thankfully, books still seem to have the upper hand on e-readers.

So why am I so averse to owning this seemingly convenient and up-to-date technology? Shouldn't a book lover be interested in what's up and coming in the book universe?

Well, yes. But the book lover in me is precisely the reason why I cannot bring myself to hop on this e-reader bandwagon. (Hooray for idioms!) I love books. Not just their content, but their physical form.Half the pleasure of working in a library is the book handling: processing books, shelving books, stroking the spines of the books on a shelf as you pass.When I read, I like to hold the book. Pages between my fingers, book spine in my grasp, the yellowed/browned colored pages.I like the smell of new and old books. I like seeing my books on my shelf, properly organized of course. The varying sizes and colors. I would rather have a room full of books, from floor to ceiling, than an e-reader. (Add in the rolling ladder, a la Beauty and the Beast.) And I would gladly lug them around in a bag, rather than accept of the ease of carrying an e-reader.

I already do this. On Tuesdays and Thursday, I carry around my enormous Complete Works of Shakespeare all day. Some individuals in my class have chosen to use an e-reader. Granted, this would be the much lighter choice but observation has shown me that oftentimes these e-readers do not work. Or they can't find the correct passage quickly enough. Or they don't have the right edition or the footnotes. My colossal Shakespeare book barely fits on my desk; but it's reliable. Completely dependable.

What about saving trees? What about the environment? I can find other more effective ways of being green. Just because I'm not buying books due to an e-reader, doesn't mean they've stopped printing them. And really, the jury's still out on whether e-readers are actually saving anything. Some sources say that the carbon footprint of an e-reader is actually more than a book. (Here are a few articles for furthering reading : Books Without Batteries, Are E-Readers Greener Than Books.)

Besides, e-readers have such unfortunate names. Kindle. Nook. Okay, okay, I understand. To kindle your imagination through reading. So small it can fit in every nook and cranny. I'm just not impressed. And yes, I am a word snob. But Nook? Nooks are for hiding in, not reading your books with.

I won't say that I'll never buy an e-reader. I try to avoid nevers (As I am a Jedi and "only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes." You just contradicted yourself there, Obi.). But if the time comes, chances are I'll probably be the crazy old lady hauling her books around still.

"Books have the same enemies as people:
fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content."

~ Paul Valery