Tuesday 17 August 2010

Reasons why eBooks are Rubbish: #1

I plan to make this an ongoing series. This will be very easy, because I can come up with infiinite reasons as to why ebooks are ultimately and irrevocably awful. I hate ebooks. I despise them with every ounce of my being. I think this is because they tear my soul apart: I am a secret geek and I covertly covet a lovely shiny iPad with its little app squares like polished cut gems and clever touch-screens that make it look like you're turning a real page and its smug little rounded edges that make everyone in a five mile radiance want to avoid and then kill you.

But, if I'm anything, I'm completely grounded in physicality, and I don't think I'm ever going to be able to give up the smell of a new book, the perfume of an old one, the blank margins to scribble in, the pages I can stick an old train ticket into or lining up a bunch of colourful spines on a shelf. Also, I'm very poor and I like reading in the bath - I can't afford to hold £700 above a tub of soapy water.

ANYWAY. Reasons why eBooks are Rubbish #1:
You can't do this with an old iPad.
 
 
Suck on that, Steve Jobs!!!!

Treehugger.com has lots more brilliant uses for old books here.

3 comments:

Deborah Swift said...

What a great use for a book! My book is coming out in the States for the Kindle. Still not sure if I approve or disapprove of this idea. Good thing - lots more people might read it. Bad thing - they'll miss the smell of the paper, the lovely tactile cover, its spine nestled snugly next to the others on their shelf - they do have bookshelves don't they? eek! What if they don't......

Rebecca said...

I don't understand houses without bookcases/shelves. There's something very odd about a person who doesn't even have two cookery books to splatter with sauce in the kitchen, or even a stack of dusty paperbacks in the bedroom...

And your book covers are very pretty, how will the Kindle ever recreate cover design?

Rose said...

So I found your blog via the Book Blogs 'latest post' discussion. And I agree with you on the ethics - but even more so on the straightforward pleasure of a real book, the extraspecial delights of a particularly beautiful one.

And I love the picture.

What makes me wary is that I'm the kind of person who didn't really see why I'd ever want a phone that does anything more than phone and text. And now I can't get enough of my iphone and the whole web in my hand. And I know myself well enough to know that every time I see a kindle on the tube I start to wonder... just last week I was flanked on both sides by kindle readers and had to come home and make a point of touching and looking at real books on real shelves.

Great blog btw.

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