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November 01, 2006
Pick a Nice Spot for Your Library,
But make sure that it's in your own home.
The Sony reader promises to keep 80 electronic books or hundreds more with a removable memory card. It further assures the readers that they don't have to leave home by leaving their favorites behind.
Isn't that great news? Ohmigosh, no.
If I bought one, what would I do with my books?
My War and Peace paperback with a red wine spot on p. 51 from when our plane hit a turbulent spot over the Atlantic?
My Introduction to the History of Woodcut in which my daughter wrote with childish upper case letters I LOVE YOU MOMMY?
Would I have to replace these by a cold-hearted box spitting out paragraphs of words across its screen?
I love books. I need to touch them and nurse them until the last page. I need to be able to flip back to the spot I was reading when the phone rang with wonderful news.
I love to touch the paper, its smooth coarseness.
I love the rustle of the pages that I still hear as I line each newcomer on the book shelf.
Would I replace my paper friends with a computer-chip card in a steel matchbox? No way.
Books are like dogs with their leafy heads in man's lap while the fire crackles across the room, the stew bubbles on the stove, and yes, while he's soaking his feet on a fictional dock on the back-page of the New York Time Book Review.
That's the only way I can imagine reading Maddalena!
Posted by Eva Siroka at November 1, 2006 07:24 PM