I love books. As a child, I read Nancy Drew. I loved books about autism and schizophrenia. I recently got an ipad. Wasn't sure I wanted it, but found it's so easy getting any book you want. I read two books while on vacation. Then I realized I could get all the classics online free such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "Jane Eyre", etc. So I loaded up all my paperbacks that I have been meaning to read and donated them to my local library. Now I'm ready to give away all my cook books because I can look up any recipe while I'm cooking and prop up my ipad so it's easy to read. While there will always be a few cherished books I'll not part with, I can't see having hard copies of books I'll only read once.
My concern is for the newspaper industry and book stores. With the disappearance of books, it's as if we burned all the copies. And my paranoid mind always thinks of conspiracy theories. In the future, if all the books are gone, what happens if there's a government that bans access to books online? Plus, my job is in the ink industry. While I want to be green, ink is my green, literally. When the post office raises rates, magazines and catalogs have to reduce their page count, or size or distribution list - a reduction occurs in ink. If I stop buying hard copies of books, less ink is sold. If I send evites instead of mailing invitations, card industries lose business and buy less ink.
Progress keeps moving on, but it can override tradition, nostalgia, jobs. I will always love the smell of a new book and the feel of pages under my fingertips. I like the look of books on bookshelves. Technology is a wonderful tool, but I hope we all keep a balance of the future while holding on to a bit of the past.
As a librarian I must admit that reading is reading no matter the format. Things change. But I think e-books and "real" books will continue to thrive together. Print books will evolve into an art form that e-books cannot mimic. We are a long way from losing print - we would need one to one computing and for formats to standardize. But I too, worry. I worry we will have another dark ages when all information dies because we have made it digital and we can no longer access it.
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