Every now and again an expert sounds the death knell of some item or other that we mere mortals can’t imagine living without. Inevitably they’re wrong. This week the object in question is the book. Frankly, I just don’t see it.

There were several stories in the trades this past week that draw the reader to an inescapable conclusion: the paper book is antiquated. The new way to read is with an e-reader. If there’s anyone out there who is still unfamiliar with the term, e-readers like the Kindle, Sony Reader and the Nook are hand-held electronic devices with very readable screens, adjustable font sizes and a glow similar to a back-light.

They are available for purchase in the $200-400 range. For around $10 you can download most any book onto it. In fact, many classics are available for free. E-readers hold about 1500 books and some have expandable memory beyond that. This way you could load your entire summer reading list and then some onto a hand-held device the weight of a mass-market paperback. Given its convenience and portability, digital books are a clear winner, right? Maybe.

Certainly there is room for e-readers in the book world of tomorrow. In fact, the fastest growing purchasing demographic of these devices is 55 to 65, likely because of the font and lighting features I mentioned earlier. There are prolific readers who are happily freed from toting numerous books on vacation and frugal readers who are tearing through Austen and Dumas gratis or enjoying the lower, paper-free price of a download.

But for all that, there are people like me. I love the feeling of a book in my hands. The smell of it. I like to curl up with it on the couch or stretch out on a chaise in my garden and smell the bougainvillea. As I sit in my office writing this, I”m surrounded by books. They’re my friends. In this new world, what would be on my shelves? I have a first edition of Tess of the D’Urbervilles that’s 120 years old. It doesn’t matter if I can read it on a Kindle. Solzhenitsyn can’t sign my Nook like he signed my copy of The First Circle.

No, paper books will never die. We readers become attached to them as children and that’s a love affair for the ages. As a writer, I celebrate the concept of making literature more available to people and I am happy for their ability to get it in whatever medium they want. But you’ll find me forever haunting the stacks, looking for the next paper-bound adventure to strike my fancy.

Tags: book, e-book, e-reader, kindle, nook, paperback, sony reader

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