Comments on: On Loving Paper More Than Words

By: Enough With The Smell of Books, Okay? | Booksquare

Enough With The Smell of Books, Okay? | Booksquare — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:02:30 +0000

[...] on your ereader, I just want to scream. Stop. The. Madness. Now. Our intern, Bernadette noted, in her one moment of sagacity, that it seemed that too many people focus on the physicalness of books, to the point that they [...]

By: Peter Jurmu

Peter Jurmu — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:13:51 +0000

I beat the hell out of my books. The bindings, the pages, and the covers are creased, stained, or torn. I throw away dust jackets from new purchases because they get in the way while I read. If a book on my shelf is in reasonably good condition, I probably haven’t read it yet (or found it too tedious to finish).

That does not mean, however, that I’m in love with books. To the contrary: the format doesn’t matter to me. I’m after what’s bound, and not the binding. Modern readers for some reason think stories always existed as they do now (a tendency I’m sure they share with people who wanted to stick with the clay tablet and the scroll–or oral histories). “I believe in hieroglyphics,” groan their mummified ancestors.

Of course I spin facetiously. I do have difficulty focusing when I use an e-reader, but that isn’t due to the inferiority of the format: I’m merely unaccustomed to it. If the idea of e-readers makes a lover of “real” books (whatever that means) bristle, I don’t see any guns pointed at heads.

By: deb smith

deb smith — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:17:00 +0000

I recently saw a fascinating 1940′s Encyclopedia Brittanica film about the book-printing process. Watching a slew of craftspeople slowly, tediously, lovingly create each copy of a book back in the day made me respect the bound word as a collectible treasure. Which is one reason it ticks me off to see stacks of old books turned into lamps and such. But there’s a difference between cherishing the physical artifact and appreciating the ideas inside the binding. I love my old books for both their content and their craftsmanship, but I love the new world of e-publishing for its potential to spread the word (literally and figuratively) farther, deeper and wider than a printed copy of a book ever could.

By: Lynne Connolly

Lynne Connolly — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:26:47 +0000

When I want to see a film I have a few choices. I went to see “Quantum of Solace” last night (awesome!) In the cinema. It was fun, and I enjoyed the communal experience. I’ll probably get the DVD when it comes out and when, in a year or two, it appears on the TV, I’ll probably watch it and curse at the adverts.
Same film, different ways of watching it.

When I want a book, my preference is electronic, but if I want a souvenir signed copy, I might buy it in print as well. But not hardback, I don’t really like hardbacks. I like the occasional audiobook, too, especially when I’m travelling.
Same book, different ways of reading it.

Printed books can be beautiful things, that’s for sure. I have some, like my limited edition of Yves St Laurent designs are treasures. I have others that I bought second hand, bent spines, creased pages, pages falling out, a bit smelly and with insects and other doubtful substances smearing the pages I would have preferred to read at arm’s length. I’m in the process of replacing my fiction print books with electronic ones, and I rarely buy a print book new now.

It doesn’t really matter how you read it, just that you read it. IMO of course.
And I was a librarian, for the first five years of my working life. But they don’t have just print books any more.