Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for November 11, 2010

For me, books will always be better- I love getting tactile with my preferred medium!

I’m currently reading an e-book and a paper book. In the end, the experience is very similar for me. I like the paper book when I’m sitting at home. I like the e-book for travel.

I read an e-book on my iPhone while waiting in long lines. For me, it’s the words, and not the medium.

I like Barnes and Noble. It’s very relaxing, to me, to go to B/N get a cup of Starbucks Coffee and browse through the latest book about physics or astronomy. Before anyone says anything, I do buy an occasional book. I don’t buy from the internet. Even though one can buy a book somewhat cheaper, from the internet, I’d rather buy from our local B/N outlet. If they don’t sell books they’ll close the outlet. B/N is already in financial trouble.

twypsi Barnes and Noble, Chapters, both very relaxing, as are public libraries.

There’s just something nice about holding a book in your hand.

The entire book publishing industry has been down considerably during this current recession. Although the clerk talks of books being an affordable gift, they do tend to be treated as a luxury item when people are cutting their purchasing budgets. I know. I am a typographer, laid off the end of April.

I must admit, it has been nice to load up a bunch of books on the iPad I have regular access to (I haven’t bought my own yet). And with the electronic version, it’s so easy to look up a word you don’t know, or to search the book for the last time a particular character appeared if you don’t remember who they are. And my wife has problems with her hands, so she has difficulty holding a medium to large book for any length of time, we bought her a Kindle last year and she has returned to reading a lot. In fact, I think she has read more in the last year than she has in the 10 years we’ve been together.

Like they used to say: “Nothing like the experience of illuminated text on freshly scraped vellum! That Gutenberg thing will ruin the reading experience!”

For those of us with arthritis on the hands, the Kindle makes for pain free reading.

BRING BACK GOOD OLD FASHIONED PAPYRUS! BETTER YET, ABOLISH “READING” ALTOGETHER. IT LETS YOU STOP USING YOUR MEMORY SO YOU CAN’T MEMORIZE THE SAGAS AND EPICS.