Sunday, January 6, 2013

Bathroom Monologue: Paper Vs. E-Books

Your book is made out of dead trees.

Your Kindle sucks electricity.

Your book doesn't work in the dark.

Your Kindle needs to be plugged in or it goes dark.

Your book is the same book every day.

An e-tailer can't rescind my paper copy of 1984.

If my Kindle falls apart, they’ll send me a new one.

I love the smell of my old books.

I love the grayscale on my reader.

I like to make notes in the margins.

I like never losing my place.

My book never runs out of batteries.

My Kindle never runs out of stories.

Yours is worse.

Yours is worse.

Both are risky in a bathtub.

11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Which 'he,' Lee-Ann, or did some lines take on a female voice for you?

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  2. Interesting list of common thoughts about e-book vs bound book reading. Check out our website, which is 100% carbon neutral for more facts and ideas about e-books, our preferred way of selling books.
    www.sullivanstpress.com

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  3. I still like both. It depends on the book I'm buying. I like the arguments though. :)

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  4. That last line is perfect!

    My Kindle is charging on a solar panel right now, heehee. My big pro-eBook argument is "I don't have to dedicate floor/wall space to a bunch of bookshelves." My big paper argument is "I can throw the book across the room and not worry about damaging it."

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  5. LOL Agree with Larry - the last line is perfect.

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  6. This made me laugh. As I mentioned on twitter, my favorite line was "An e-tailer can't rescind my paper copy of 1984."

    Personally, I'm an ebook guy and, for the most part, do not buy paper books anymore. There are some annoyances and risks with that, though, as noted in some of these points. My biggest annoyance is how hard (and in many cases impossible) it is to lend it to a friend.

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  7. I haven't yet succumbed to ebooks. And probably have enough unread hard copy books to see me out. Another argument in their favour - I cannot donate ebooks to my preferred charities. Or perhaps I can.

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  8. It all comes down to "own or lease". If I want to own, I buy a paper book. If I want to lease, I buy an ebook.

    Having said that, as with films and music, ebooks are a great excuse to "open the vaults" -- from my point of view, specifically to reprint Harlan Ellison's wonderful "Glass Teat" collections of columns he did for the LA Free Press.

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  9. LOL well both being risky in the bathtub is a very good point. I guess they both have their place in modern life.

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  10. I like both, though I may develop a preference for e-book since our shelves are overflowing. Also some books would cost a lot to order in paper form so I buy them as an e-book.

    Love the last line.

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