Call me old fashioned, but I’m a fan of ink on paper.  My favorite kind is rectangle cotton paper with green ink, but I also love the stack of paper bound together form.  But being a fan of this (soon to become) old fashioned type of communication causes me internal conflict. You see, I’m also a gadget freak.  If it’s new, shiny and lights up…I want to buy it or I want you to give it to me.  But do you hear that? It’s…it’s silence, the internal kind.  I don’t find myself standing in front of an e-reader display trying to decide on the model, color and features I want, because I don’t want a NooKindle-readerTouch DX.  Nope, the thought never even crossed my mind.

I <3 books and pretty much everything about them.  I like turning pages.  I like their smell, new or old.  I like how their spines look like when on a shelf.  I like how when I’m about to go to bed I can drop it on the floor and not care if it breaks. Don’t even get me started on the sounds of breaking a binding.  You know what you can’t do with an eBook: turn pages, line a shelf, drop it, and/or smell it (well you can, but that would be weird).

I realize the argument for getting one is supported by those who read so much they practically could finance a few aisles at Barnes & Noble, but I think they might actually be hurting the oldest form of entertainment (reading, not prostitution).  It makes me sad to think that in a decade of two, if not sooner, eBooks will do to Borders what Netflix did to video stores.  In just the last few years, students have gone from the 50 lb textbook to being able to “rent” an electronic version.  The loss of burned calories from lugging those behemoths around has turned the Freshman 15 into the Freshman 20!  We all know that technology changes rapidly between generations (kids in high school now have never had to look at microfilm or use a card catalog at the library), but I think the world of books should be left just the way it is.  They make us slow down, use our imaginations, and realize that beautiful speech doesn’t consist of lols, brbs and omgs.

And if ANY of you say that buying paper books can get costly, I have two words for you….library card.