Eden

I actually answer questions about e-readers at my job these days, and I swear, the most common question I get is "But what about the smell of books?" I feel like there's this kind of...almost cult-ish devotion that people have towards physical books that isn't really grounded in reality. I mean, yeah, some books have a really pleasant smell, but most of them don't smell at all, or just plain smell awful. I've noticed people will freak out at the slightest mention of throwing out or recycling a book in any way -- some libraries have to get rid of long-unused and damaged books under cover of darkness because the public backlash is so severe. This kind of devotion to physical books as an abstract concept comes off as really snobby to me -- instead of embracing the fact that a variety of formats that make reading even more accessible, they want to make reading and book-ownership out to be an exclusive club where only certain people are getting the "real" experience.

Print books have a lot of advantages, but so do e-books. Despite panicking and condescension on both sides I don't see either format driving the other out of existence.

I love ebooks, but I also really love print books. I'm a big fan of art-y bookbinding and things like that. A lot of the rapturous talk about print books seems...insincere, I guess? Not actually about the books at all, at the end of the day.

IDK, my thoughts on this issue are complicated.