It happened quite innocently enough, as these things usually do and I still can't quite fathom why I stopped what I was doing to look.
I was propped up in bed with my MacBook and the novel I was reading when I noticed a video on Apple's website of a new product it was bringing to the market. I had seen the link to the video several times before but had ignored it. This Sunday morning, though, something prompted me to take a look.
I clicked the Play button and was greeted by the measured voice of one of Apple's designers describing this 'magical' product. Then I saw it: sleek, sexy and paperback thin. I watched, mesmerized. As a dazzling array of features was displayed -- like the ability to tap open a photo album or pull up a map of an address from the Contacts page -- a smile of pure satisfaction warmed my heart and, like the heroine in a Harlequin romance, I was under its spell.
I felt powerless to do anything but hit Play over and over. I just couldn't get enough. In that moment, I realized that I had fallen in love - with the iPad?
The thought hit like a splash of cold water to my face and jarred me to my senses. I looked around quickly and saw the book I was reading lying face down next to me. Feeling as if I had just been caught cheating, I slammed my laptop shut.
What was I doing ogling the iPad? I'm a booklover who loathes the idea of eBooks!
My life has been a passionate affair with books that began when I was very young and has outlasted parents, lovers and best girlfriends. I never read more than one at a time nor have I defaced them. I don't even buy secondhand or sell the ones I own. Consequently, my living room - no, my entire apartment -- is quickly being overrun by books, both the ones I buy and those I use in my job as a book publicist.
This passion has made me a witness to revolutions in far off places, led me up snowcapped mountains, down dark alleys, and taken me close to many loves and losses, which I have felt keenly as if they were my own. It is this love that several years ago propelled me to form a book club, Date with a Book.
Because of this deep commitment to bound books, I have been boycotting electronic books and readers like Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. To my mind, they just don't compare. I love holding a book in my hand, being able to tell whether it's a smooth paperback or a gritty hardback, feel and turn the page. And after spending my day looking at a computer screen, the last thing I want to do is to read a book on a device that would render it as static as an artifact in a museum's display case.
Don't get me wrong, I would appreciate the convenience of having my collection at my fingertips, especially on vacation and on long trips, but not even that swayed me - until now.
The iPad is, hands down, a beautifully designed product and Lord knows, I'm a sucker for beautiful designs. From the brushed metal case to the eye-catching features to the way it simulates the reader turning the page - all bring immense pleasure to my senses and set my imagination free to create new narratives. Watching the video, I could feel my previous objections to the electronic reader slip from my shoulders like yesterday's clothes.
I understand why, according to Apple, on the day the iPad was launched, 300,000 people lined up to declare their commitment to it - way more than did over the first two days of the iPhone's launch in 2007. I was not among that number. Yes, I did fool around and I did fall in love - but I decided to remain faithful to the format that has been my companion through sickness and health.
My rational side agrees. Beyond the cachet and the flash, it whispers to me, the iPad will be a flash in the pan if it doesn't fit into my life. You see, the iPad is not just a reader - I can watch movies, read and send email, surf the web, read newspapers and magazines. And that, more than anything, makes me concerned that I'd be too distracted to read my books. In addition, if I still have to buy books by Caribbean authors for my book club and if my clients' books aren't available, then the iPad will be just another gadget that is the equivalent of a clothes hanger.
While I am excited by the changes technology is ushering into the publishing world and the immeasurable value of eBooks from an environmental standpoint, I don't foresee a day when all books will be electronic. There's room for both to exist side by side and allow the consumer the option to choose.
I realize I may be a minority as the public's desire for the eBook is fast outpacing its appetite for bound books. According to the American Association of Publishers, last year, electronic book sales reported by 13 publishers jumped 176% while print book sales fell a dismal 1.8%. And recently, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that sales of eBooks would represent 6% of consumer book sales in North America by 2013, up from 1.5% in 2009.
I will always love the iPad and I feel a pang of desire whenever I see one but, for now, I will continue to just enjoy the dance. I can't quite make the decision to jump into bed, with the enemy -- at least, not yet.
Jason Pinter: The Konrath Effect: Will New Technology Ruin Talented Authors?
Kirk Cheyfitz: The Biggest iPad Problem: Publishers
The New York Public Library: Opportunity and Access: The Power of Today's Public Libraries
Apple - iPad - See the web, email, and photos like never before.
Apple iPad tablet: reviews, news, photos, and videos - CNET.com
You have written my exact thoughts :) Like you I have been looking at the ereaders out the corner of my eye. The Kindle, Barnes N Noble Nook et al. They feel good, they look good. But the feel and smell of a traditional book makes me WANT to read.
I would go crazy with an ebook in my hand, knowing that I have access to all the books I want and have stored would not allow me to concentrate on the one I am currently reading. I cannot fathom the thought! And touche on the "reading from a computer" thought. I mean, I cant curl up in bed with a kindle.
I know that one day I will break down and get an ereader, but that's one day, far away. In the meantime, I have tons of unread paper books on my shelf, so if hey stop printing books tomorrow I can hibernate for a while without feeling the effects :) Maybe even for a couple years.
Great article!
Looking forward to others.
Nicole
Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com
joy!
eisa
Carol
What a beautiful blog post. I have ready many ebooks out of necessity, but I prefer the feel of a book in my hands. I am also an active reader and love to interact with the words on the page. I do a lot of book reviews for my blog The Invisible Mentor so I like to take notes in the book. That would be impossible to do while using a book reader, though, when I had to review a book that was in ebook format I took notes in a MS Word document. That was a much different experience.
As a fellow book freak (the touch and feel kind), I fully understand your position and your dilemma. The technology is bound to be tempting, because like everything that is new and sleek, it does look so seductive. Yet, there is something so personal and tactile about the relationship one has with a printed book that I don't think the digital versions stand a chance of usurping this. Oh my, the surprise discovery of a rare title in a dusty old bookshop; the private joy of savouring it alone and uninterrupted. Bliss.
Apart from everything else, reading things from a screen is just so horrible and damaging to the eyes over a long period. It's bad enough being on screen or online for any length of time, i.e. during the working day, and then the thought of spending one's downtime to read in like mode is just unbearable. Books are beautiful and like good food should be handled well and savoured. So, as a luddite, I don't think the Ipad is going to intrude on this particular love affair.