I don't like e-books. My students are beginning to show up in ever greater numbers with their texts on e-readers like Kindle, and I just want to scream! I know, it's green to use e-books. We're saving trees, they say. So let's find other kinds of "paper" to print upon. I admit I am old school, maybe just plain old. But I think we miss out on some important, juicy advantages when we don't have a "real" book in our mitts.
1. I don't need to recharge my books. They operate solely on my energy to turn their pages and hold them in the sunlight.
2. I can literally better grasp the material. When I hold a book, I know that I am touching paper, ink, and the sweat of the author. When I turn a page, I know where the last one resides, and I can anticipate what the remaining stack of pages has in store for me.
3. My books have a special residence on my shelves. They know where they belong as much as I do. When students come into my office, they quickly realize that this place is one of serious considerations, depth of inquiries, and a history of research. Books have gravitas.
4. I can find material in a real book usually faster than I, or anyone else, can find in an e-book. And I have proved it. I had ten students look in their e-book for a random subject chosen by another student, repeatedly. I was quicker on the draw, by far. But of course, I knew the material. Oh well, often experimentation favors the experimenter, in case you didn't know.
5. The bookmark is a tangible reminder of where I left off. I know there are e-markers, but they aren't the same. The last book I marked was with a marker I got at a convention. It was that day I met George, who later sent me some very useful references for something I was working on. It reminds me of when... See?
6. My books will never be accidentally, or intentionally, erased.
I may one day have no choice. Colleges across the country are going this way; libraries, too. It is estimated that in ten-twenty years, no books will be printed. The generation that grew up with the book will be too old to influentially complain.
Let's not ever forget that to hold a book and read it, smell it, caress it until we fall asleep, waking with it still by our side, is a tangible reminder that we are still alive.
Long live the (printed) book!
