In Defense of the E-Book

"Books are no more threatened by the Kindle than stairs are by elevators”

- Stephen Fry

Alright, kids...

Yes, I know you like the way an old book smells.

And yes, I know that you can't pass your digital versions of books down to your children.

And I even know that you enjoy the way your books look on your book shelves.

However...

In defense of the e-book I have a few things to say. Lately, I've become more and more enamored of the Kindle app on my iPhone. I think this is because there have been several super helpful features added with the last update.

For instance, have you ever been reading and wondered about when the first time a character was mentioned or just wanted to see more references to the character? Well, now thanks to the handy search button you can now see exactly when and where a character is mentioned.

We just type in Aviendha (from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series) and we can can read all our favorite passages with her in them.

Maybe you like to mark up a book. Totally understandable.

The highlight tab lets you do that. No only can you highlight but you can even see what other people highlight - which, can I just say, is a little Big Brotherish but it's still fun.

I mean, really! Why is it any of my business what other people highlight? In fact, it makes me less likely to highlight stuff if I know that my highlights are going to be scrutinized by other people. 

So, maybe that's not a plus of e-books.

Moving along:

Check this out!

Some books now feature a...um, 'features' section where you can see all kinds of things about the book. Summaries, characters, settings, even books that are recommended if you liked the book.

Cool, huh.

I especially like the Dictionary feature.

Who the heck knows what a susurrus is? Not me. Apparently Patrick Rothfuss does though because he used it in his first book. I love the dictionary function. I can just touch on the word and the dictionary automatically pops up for me. 

Hold up. Let's just take a moment and settle on the word susurrus for a moment. Is it your new favorite word yet? No? Let's take another moment. Keep settling on it...How about now? 

Let's make a deal, you sit and think about the word susurrus until it is your favorite word. Okay?

Am I all e-book now? Nope.

In fact, I stared lustfully at this for five minutes today in Barnes and Noble before I mustered up the gumption to walk away.

Me want.

Me want bad.

However, until then I'll have to live with the free classics download. Seriously, over one hundred classics automatically downloaded to your Kindle app for free. 

Except, not To Kill a Mockingbird.

Harper Lee won't sign the paperwork that would permit it to be an e-book. 

So...maybe e-books aren't that great after all.

But the word susurrus is.