Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Screen…

I wrote a little while ago about how things have changed, and just how strange I found it. Well, I have found something else that I want to add to the list – the humble book. It will probably one day end up in a museum next to cassette tapes and VHS players. Like I said in the previous post, I am not against these kind of advancements, I just think its weird how things change so quickly.

If you search for a title now on Amazon, for example, you are always given the option to choose the e-book. Now I don’t think I will ever stop buying the real physical thing, so in this case I do have to fall on the side of a nice paperback over a screen anyday.

Books have been such a huge part of my life from a young age, and I love nothing more that sitting down and reading. I don’t have a particular favourite theme or genre and have found recently I have read more non-fiction. What I love about books is the look, feel and smell of them whether they are old or new. Picking one up and going through the pages is sometimes like a challenge, and I love the fact that you can sort of chart your journey by seeing how many pages you are through. For example, Lord of the Rings was a big mountain to climb – one I enjoyed, but there is quite a lot to take in from cover to cover.

It’s not just long books though; I’ve read Pride and Prejudice so many times I can go to certain sections of it by just by gauging how many pages should be on either side. There is also the covers, which to me are just like going to buy a CD so you can look at the artwork. I mean MP3’s don’t come with some pictures to look at, in the same way a downloaded novel isn’t going to have an intriguing cover. They are one of the ways I sort of choose what to read if I am honest, even though I know you should judge it on that alone! I spied recently that some classics have started being published as ‘beautiful books’, which have the most intricately designed hard back covers.

How can you get all this from just looking at a screen? I mean we do this so much in our modern lives that it is quite nice to have a change.

There are many different arguments for e-readers. You can carry so many different titles on them; it costs less than a book; they have lights on them; they have a long battery life and so on. However, you can only read one thing at once, books don’t need any batteries and you can just sit somewhere which is lit.

Another argument is that e-books take up less space than the real thing and I suppose you are less sentimental about them. I would hate to get rid of any of my books, even the ones I haven’t read since I was a child, because they are all so special and unique to me. My house is going to be filled with the things, but I am pretty happy about that. I don’t really have any favourites, but I like finding a new story as well revisiting previous tales. At the minute I am considering re-reading Harry Potter.

Yes they cost more, but a book is a crafted thing of beauty and I don’t really mind about having to pay a bit extra to have printed words in front of me. I mean they have been in existance for hundreds of years and hopefully will be for many more to come. Cheers William Claxton!

Btw – he introduced the printing press to England and was one of the first retailers of printed books. What a guy.