Why an eBook is a book, and why it's not...
Yesterday my friend Jaye Manus, whose blog is indispensable for anyone with a passing interest in self-publishing, and merely incisive and fascinating for everyone else, took off from a remark of Stephen King's that drew a line (albeit a thin one) between eBooks and real books.
I spent some time thinking about Jaye's observations, and it struck me the extent to which eBooks and physical books are very different creatures.
An eBook is entirely functional and insubstantial. It exists for the sole purpose of providing a reading experience, one that is often (though not always) superior to that afforded by the physical book.
Its essential insubstantiality gives it several advantages. I don't have to give it shelf space. It adds no weight to my suitcase. If I want to refer to it again, I don't have to struggle to remember where I put it. I can call it back in an instant—wherever I am. (I did just that a couple of months ago in a flight lounge in Dubai.)
The physical book is also engineered to provide a reading experience, but it is also an object. I can put it on a shelf to help decorate a room, and take it down at will to admire it. It may be an attractive object irrespective of its contents; I have books it pleases me to own, even though I have not the slightest interest in their contents. I have others I've read and know I'll never want to read again, and nevertheless it would pain me to let go of them....
I've extracted the selection above from a much longer post (including much of Jaye's post, which started the whole thing) on my blog page, A Few Words for Writers. I hope y'all will have a look at it, and I wouldn't be surprised if your comments wind up being far more incisive and provocative than my post. Lord knows it wouldn't be the first time...
I spent some time thinking about Jaye's observations, and it struck me the extent to which eBooks and physical books are very different creatures.
An eBook is entirely functional and insubstantial. It exists for the sole purpose of providing a reading experience, one that is often (though not always) superior to that afforded by the physical book.
Its essential insubstantiality gives it several advantages. I don't have to give it shelf space. It adds no weight to my suitcase. If I want to refer to it again, I don't have to struggle to remember where I put it. I can call it back in an instant—wherever I am. (I did just that a couple of months ago in a flight lounge in Dubai.)
The physical book is also engineered to provide a reading experience, but it is also an object. I can put it on a shelf to help decorate a room, and take it down at will to admire it. It may be an attractive object irrespective of its contents; I have books it pleases me to own, even though I have not the slightest interest in their contents. I have others I've read and know I'll never want to read again, and nevertheless it would pain me to let go of them....
I've extracted the selection above from a much longer post (including much of Jaye's post, which started the whole thing) on my blog page, A Few Words for Writers. I hope y'all will have a look at it, and I wouldn't be surprised if your comments wind up being far more incisive and provocative than my post. Lord knows it wouldn't be the first time...
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What you're buying, with an eBook, is essentially access. You get to read it—as often as you like. I agree prices, esp. when set by publishers, are way too high. That will change, and in fact it's already changing. LB
When you have to move often as I have & have lived as long as I have, you learn to keep very few books. I still like to read physical, print books, but I buy very few & those are usually used, which I pass on to the library. What I like about ebooks is that on my iPad App for Kindle (I suppose it is the same if you have a Kindle.) I can quickly get the definition of a word or the location of a place if it isn't fictitious. In addition, I have quick access to the Internet if I want to learn more about something in the book. I recently read Catherine the Great by Robert Massie on my iPad & it was great fun to be able to look at pictures of the different palaces & paintings of various people.
Which brings me to another point. I buy very, very few ebooks. But I have a library card that give me access to a number of ebooks that are a snap to download. I'd encourage everyone to check this out at their local library.
In short I'm glad the library gives me the choice of either ebook, print or audio. And I use all three.
I love the physical feel of holding and reading books. I love flipping through them when shopping. I love their look, their smell, their feel. I like having my favorites on my shelves. I love tuning pages with kids as I read aloud. I like the fact that I can read them in any kind of light, and without batteries. I love that picking up one from a shelf leads me to another and to another. Etc.
But, I do like the convenience of e-books. The fact that I can carry 50 books with me as easily as one or two is appealing, especially if I'm traveling---if I have the battery power for reading. I like the fact that there are a lot of free modern and classic e-books out there that can fill my reading schedule. I like that if an e-book is available, I can get it NOW rather than waiting, that older and out-of-print titles are being reissued in e-format, and that Nook allows for library check-out.
HOWEVER... What I don't like about e-books and why I don't consider them real books is that I don't really seem to OWN the books I purchase. That is, I can't lend them to friends, easily or at all. I can't exchange them at a used book store or donate them to the library when I'm finished and know I won't read them again. Though I can put them (hundreds of them) on a shelf, the medium I have to store them (diskette, CD, DVD, etc) won't be as pretty as a cover.
In essence what I have is air---sometimes very costly air. Until prices for e-books are reduced drastically and until I can do what I want with the file once I've finished with it, I will continue purchasing hard copy "real" books.