Sales figures confirm that, at Amazon.com, e-books are outselling hardback and paperback books. The popularity of the Kindle is cited as the reason for the acceptance of e-books more rapidly than expected.
Doomsayers will wail that this trend portends the death of the “book”. They were wrong decades ago when similar worriers predicted that TV would end the movie theatres (actually it has taken Netflix, Hulu, streaming video and online gaming to bring us closer to the end of those sticky floors and uncomfortable seats.)
Beautifully made books are a physical, visceral joy. Beautifully written books whatever the genre, become a part of our individual histories, provided we have read them rather than just displayed them for effect.
I was resistant to e-books, but succumbed when I got my first BlackBerry and found that Barnes & Noble had a free e-book application that I could download to my BB. B&N later developed the Nook, similar to the Kindle, but I didn’t want one more electronic device to remember to haul around.
I downloaded books to my BB and found I was reading more and more often … when waiting for appointments, when sitting in traffic, when just bored with TV. I found I could bookmark pages, navigate through the book, etc. Yes, it would be nice to have long uninterrupted time to read anything in an easy chair with a glass of wine, but that opportunity rarely presents itself.
So my advice … give e-books a try.
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