Why am I reluctant to give an eBook as a Christmas present?
I've always liked giving books as presents for Christmas, birthdays and other special occasions.
There's something very satisfying about searching for, and then finding, that one book that will bring a measure of enjoyment to someone important in your life. It's a gift that doesn't lose its value a few days later; something that will stay with the person you gave it to and can be enjoyed time and time again.
I know that and yet, despite the fact that I have seven of my own books on Kindle, I'm reluctant to give an eBook as a Christmas gift.
I honestly don't know why that is.
I have more than a hundred eBooks on my Kindle and I've read some of them two or three times so I know that they also don't lose their value a day or two later.
Then, too, I've never had a problem giving someone an eBook for a birthday or anniversary present.
But I feel that, somehow, giving an eBook as a Christmas gift is just not as personal as handing someone a hardback wrapped in colorful paper.
That could simply be a function of my somewhat advanced age. I'm a Baby Boomer (I really don't like that term but...) and so I grew up at a time when an electric typewriter was the height of technology. Only about half the families in my neighborhood in East Haven, Connecticut had television sets when I was a kid. To save money, we were on a "party line" and sometimes had to wait 20 or 30 minutes for someone in another house to hang up before we could use the telephone. Our dream was to have a dedicated telephone line all our own... the idea of a cellphone with more computing power than NASA had when it sent the first men to the moon was beyond our comprehension.
In those days Christmas presents were solid - something you could touch. The fact that you could feel the cover of a book or the cool metal handle bars of a new bike made them all the more real, all the more precious.
You can't really touch eBooks, however. You can read them, enjoy them, even love them but you can't actually touch them.
So maybe that's part of the reason why I'm reluctant to give them as presents. Maybe they, somehow, just don't seem real to me the way a hardback does.
I know, weird...
If I'm honest with myself, however, I have to also admit that there may be a more selfish reason for my reluctance to give someone an eBook for Christmas.
The truth is, I like to see the look on people's faces when they tear off the wrapping paper and find a book they've wanted to read inside.
I just can't imagine that same look on their faces when they see an electronic message from Amazon or some other bookseller telling them that they have been "gifted" an eBook.
I wonder if anyone else feels the same way.
There's something very satisfying about searching for, and then finding, that one book that will bring a measure of enjoyment to someone important in your life. It's a gift that doesn't lose its value a few days later; something that will stay with the person you gave it to and can be enjoyed time and time again.
I know that and yet, despite the fact that I have seven of my own books on Kindle, I'm reluctant to give an eBook as a Christmas gift.
I honestly don't know why that is.
I have more than a hundred eBooks on my Kindle and I've read some of them two or three times so I know that they also don't lose their value a day or two later.
Then, too, I've never had a problem giving someone an eBook for a birthday or anniversary present.
But I feel that, somehow, giving an eBook as a Christmas gift is just not as personal as handing someone a hardback wrapped in colorful paper.
That could simply be a function of my somewhat advanced age. I'm a Baby Boomer (I really don't like that term but...) and so I grew up at a time when an electric typewriter was the height of technology. Only about half the families in my neighborhood in East Haven, Connecticut had television sets when I was a kid. To save money, we were on a "party line" and sometimes had to wait 20 or 30 minutes for someone in another house to hang up before we could use the telephone. Our dream was to have a dedicated telephone line all our own... the idea of a cellphone with more computing power than NASA had when it sent the first men to the moon was beyond our comprehension.
In those days Christmas presents were solid - something you could touch. The fact that you could feel the cover of a book or the cool metal handle bars of a new bike made them all the more real, all the more precious.
You can't really touch eBooks, however. You can read them, enjoy them, even love them but you can't actually touch them.
So maybe that's part of the reason why I'm reluctant to give them as presents. Maybe they, somehow, just don't seem real to me the way a hardback does.
I know, weird...
If I'm honest with myself, however, I have to also admit that there may be a more selfish reason for my reluctance to give someone an eBook for Christmas.
The truth is, I like to see the look on people's faces when they tear off the wrapping paper and find a book they've wanted to read inside.
I just can't imagine that same look on their faces when they see an electronic message from Amazon or some other bookseller telling them that they have been "gifted" an eBook.
I wonder if anyone else feels the same way.
No comments have been added yet.
