The Battle of the Bookworms

The fine folks over at Good give us a visual account of this war.  Bess broke it down for us awhile back too (E-books or "Real" books?).  It feels like a battle good and evil, where evil is winning.  I'm going to buy a physical copy of our next selection from the Tattered Cover.

E-Books or "Real" Books?

I have a confession to make: I possess not one but two different electronic reading devices. And if I get an iPhone like I'm planning to, it'll jump up to three. I should qualify that by saying the Kindle I use belongs to my company. I work at a little publishing company, and as we were exploring the idea of creating e-books, we purchased a Kindle. Our enthusiasm waned when we learned what percentage of sales Amazon offered publishers (but that's another story), so now I'm the only one who uses it. Don't tell my boss, but it's been at my house for two months now.


I like the Kindle because it's as easy to read as a book, and it's lighter than most paperbacks. It's great for traveling because you only need to bring one device and you can have as many books at your disposal as you want. Plus no one has any idea what you're reading, and I like to dip into some really cheesy YA. I just wish I didn't need to have a whole device for only one thing. That doesn't make much sense when you think about all the physical books it can replace, so maybe I've gotten spoiled with multi-tasking electronics. Another downside: I want to be able to buy e-books from any vendor and view them on my device, so I hate that the Kindle will only allow you to read books from Amazon. Those damn corporate monsters!


My other e-reader is my iPad. I happened to be in the market for a netbook when Apple introduced the iPad. It had most of the items on my wish list: a word-processing system (in the form of a Pages app); lightweight; Internet connectivity; and e-reading capabilities. The items it didn't have, well, I decided I could live without them. If any technology gurus are reading this, I also wanted the ability to save my documents to some kind of hard drive and an e-reader that could switch from backlit to e-ink technology (which is easier on the eyes, literally). Plus I wanted a Web-cam, but of course the iPad2 has that. (Should've waited for version 2!) While I like my iPad, I also wish it was a little lighter, and again I hate reading on a backlit screen, especially after staring at the computer all day.


I should be happy with either the Kindle or the iPad, but as you can see, each has its pluses and minuses. So what about physical books? I still prefer them when the subject matter requires a lot of photos and illustrations, when the book is a little work of art in and of itself, and when it promises to be a favorite. Yes, I still want to feel like I own my favorite books.

In my world, there's room for books of all different varieties of books in my life?

What about you? Are you team real-book or team e-book?

This book is fancy; I like it

I got Termite Parade in the mail, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I joked that the cover was disgusting, (it sort of is- he's eating bugs), but the book itself reminds me why I like holding a physical book in my hands. The cover is nice and thick, (though a soft cover), and the pages have beautiful raw edges.  It feels a little bit like a graphic novel, but it's not.

I really like a book that's pretty and well-made. I know a lot of people swear by their Kindles and iPads.  My sister just got one, and she loves it. I believe three of the five of us use eReaders.  I'm one of the bookworms who prefers a real book. If I'm teaching a book, I need to write in it. You can't do that with an eBook.  I even like the way the paper smells. Which do you prefer? Physical or electronic books? Do you think that in a few years our books will be like CDs, stored in boxes in the garage instead of displayed on shelves around the house? Sad. I hope not.