Books - the future...........

I keep reading (ironic!!) and hearing on the news and in passing this seemingly never ending debate about the pros and cons of the e-Book compared to the "good old fashioned" book.

There seems to be so much debate from both the old and the young, and surprisingly, not always in the directional swing in or out of the favour that we all would naturally expect!!

I found earlier today a blog by a fellow MS sufferer ( www.imakemslookgood.weebly.com/blog.) and she is writing a book, one of the debates she is having is paper or e-book, if this was the TV series "The Big Bang Theory" it would be easy,  a quick game of - Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock and the problem would be solved!!

If you need the rules either watch the show or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock

Enough rambling on, let me put a theory down.............

I grew up with books, by the age of about 4 I was reading Steinbeck and at Primary school I had read every book in their library before I left!! My grandparents had a library in their house and I would spend hours, literally hours, sat taking down book after book and flicking through it, reading it cover to cover, re-reading it, taking down more books, rearranging books, and generally just sitting there inhaling the smell and soaking in the ambiance of the books.

The feel of magic that can only be brought about from the feeling of opening a new book, hearing the pages crackle and the faint smell of new paper drifting up, will never be replaced. The feel and smell of a well worn and loved tome will also never be replaced, as the volume falls into a place of comfort into the hand and the body and soul feels complete again; that is the magic a book brings. Not the words within, not the story, the history or the knowledge it reveals, just the physical BOOK.

So here we have a physical item, a new or well loved article. When we see it memories are evoked of where we bought it and where we took it. Places we read it or cities and villages it guided us to. We took the words held within and they spun a web that made us want to delve more and more into the abyss and mystery.

From the stories and tales we read, we learned about far off places, and haunts that may have been so close and familiar to us we had passed by daily for many years, and yet never thought, or really seen, what an author had. The words had inspired us to go and see, to visit landmarks, chase dreams or look for treasure, real or imagined, but either way conjured up from the words that a piece of literature had developed.

So here is the quandary, on the one hand is the magic inspired by the actual book, or on the other is it the words that conjure up the true picture that is beyond replacement??

So, here is a new slant, one that may have been seen, but may not have been said, well, I will say it!!!

I love physical books, and I love the words held within. I accept that a physical book cannot be replaced, I love my e-reader, but, it is not a book!! But there is a reason I NEED my electronic book, and why it is so good in the global scale of things...............

I am a disabled person, I have dexterity issues, not major, just annoying, I have found that handling books is an issue. Holding them, turning the pages without dropping them, or losing my place is a complete nuisance. I also need to flip backwards and forwards a bit between pages as I sometimes get characters muddled up!!!

My e-reader lets me flip pages, I can't lose my page, and I have dropped it a few times and it is fine!! I have thousands of books saved on this PC, on my reader I have a memory card and that has some 5000 books on it, that is 13 years reading, and then only if I read a novel a day!!!!! I do not read a novel a day!!!!

I do have about 6 novels on the go at the moment, but have I got these all over the house? No they are all on 1 device and I can flick between them as I want. I have lost the "feely touch" of a book, but the words are still the same, I am still reading and re-reading books. The same words are still taking me to magical lands, far away planets or dark alleyways where murderers lurk.

More importantly than all of these things, from a male angle, my wife got all her cupboards back, and the local charity shop got a HUGE delivery of books when my e-reader took over, so I was doing good!!!!

So e-Book or normal book, it is a tight call, I can get e-Books published and ready to go for FREE, normal books are not free. But a book is a real and tangible result. You put in the hours and here is the physical result, a finely printed, lovely bound, new book.

Wear my disabled hat - E-Book of course, why would I want a book to struggle with!!
Wear my gadget man hat - E-Book of course, real books are old hat, pah!!!
Wear my traditionalist hat - How can you not have a proper book first e-Book, pah!!!
Wear my real person hat - Perhaps by having a real book published first is the difference between an actual author and a person who can throw a few words together, put them into pages, and make an e-Book!!