Bitten by Books
Am I eccentric, or is the rest of the world going mad?
I’ve recently begun to think of myself as an eccentric. Not in a ‘Look how non-mainstream I am’ kind of way, just in the sense that my tastes seem to be rapidly becoming outdated. You see, I like printed books. I don’t like people getting their phones out during social occasions. I’m never going to buy Google Glass.
I suspect there are a lot of people out there who, like me, suddenly feel as though they are living in the wrong time. A decade ago, when I was a teenager, I loved technology, and the idea of fancy new gadgets excited me. It still does, but now I’ve discovered the value of experience.
There are some things an eBook can never give you. You don’t get to feel the weight of the story you’re about to read, the smell of fresh paper, the soft whisper as you turn the pages. Granted, it’s a bit hard to carry 5,000 paperbacks on the train with you, unless you enlist the help of several bodybuilders, a team of pack mules, or an elephant. But no matter how bad the trains are, you’ll never have a delay that requires 5,000 books to fill the time.
All I want is something that is real. We spend so much of our time absorbed by technology, but it has very little meaning. An email, a text, even a phone conversation - none of these competes with a physical interaction. A ‘x’ isn’t the same as a kiss. It can’t electrify you (unless your phone is on charge and there’s a fault with the circuits).
I want real books. I’ll have bookshelves in my house when I own one. I won’t buy something new just because it’s electronic (“Look, a Bluetooth whisk!”) I want the weight of paper in my hands, I want to see the words on the page, delicate and fragile, easily obliterated.
Maybe I am eccentric, but the world is also going mad. Consider this: writing in various physical forms has been preserved for thousands of years. If aliens landed today, they could learn all about our history. From this point on, they’ll only be able to do that if they happen to have brought the right size USB cable.
Questions for readers:
If the printed book disappeared tomorrow, would you be sad?
Is there anything in your life you don’t want to go digital?
If the power went off forever tomorrow, what would you have lost?
About Rewan Tremethick
Author Bio:
Rewan (not pronounced ‘Rowan’) Tremethick is a British author who was named after a saint. St Ruan was invulnerable to wolves; Rewan isn’t. His paranormal detective noir, Fallen on Good Times, is being released towards the end of May. Rewan has already had two murder mystery novellas published.
When not writing, he can be found drumming, reading, and pondering. He works as a freelance copywriter, so it’s hard to find a time where he’s not writing anything. Rewan is a fan of clever plots, strong woman who don’t have to be described using words like ‘feisty’, and epic music. He has dabbled in stand-up comedy, radio presenting, and writing sentences without trying to make a joke.
He balances his desire to write something meaningful by wearing extremely tight jeans.Watch the trailer for Fallen on Good Times on Rewan’s YouTube channel.
Connect with Rewan
I also don’t have to squint to read print so small I need a magnifying glass. I know that the book I read is as hygienic as my reader. I know that my book isn’t going to fall apart in a few years because the glue holding it together has rotted. Cheaply produced paperbacks can actually smell nasty. Of fish glue, for instance. I had one that smelled like that after five years, so it was a pleasure to get rid of it. I don’t have shelves and shelves of garish paperbacks, I can actually put my well-produced books out and know that they’re displayed better, instead of being crammed two deep.
But it’s not either/or, is it? I have some beautiful paper books, which I’m very proud of owning. I have some signed copies by my favourite authors that I don’t have to spoil by reading, because I have the e-version. I still buy paper books, mainly text books and non-fiction, but some things, like atlases can be massively improved in e.
And when I travel I have 300 books at my disposal and I can carry more things in my luggage. Because of my poor eyesight ebooks have been a boon. I won’t read them all, but I can read the one I’m in the mood for, instead of forcing myself to read that thriller I picked up at the station but now I don’t fancy.
You’re not eccentric. You’re suffering from a condition known as Future Shock. Either that or you actually have a fetish, which is nothing to be ashamed of. Celebrate it, make your bed from books and wallow. But in that case, it’s the object and not what’s contained inside that you’re longing for.
Mind you, some people miss stone tablets, or so I’m told.
Ah, it is very distressing when a favourite paperback, read too many times, falls apart as the binding disintegrates. Kindles are also very useful for reading longer books - Game of Thrones isn’t a pain to try and read until you get to the middle, where both sides are nicely balanced out. Do you find paperbacks in general garish, or just certain styles/designs?
I may have to read Alvin Toffler’s book. It’s an interesting concept, although I don’t think suffering is the right word. I do have a Kindle, and I do read books in e-format as well as paperbacks.
It’s more that books, in the context of the wider world, provide an escape from being constantly bombarded by the information overload that comes with Future Shock. It’s something physical, something uncomplicated - compared to a Kindle, they are simple and crude in a way, and that’s quite refreshing. Reading is a form of escapism, afterall. I think the format of the stories we read can be just as much an escape as the words they contain.
Overall, I absolutely prefer print to digital. However, convenience is huge when it comes to digital. Many books I am interested in I can’t get at the library, so if I decide to buy it after all, then digital is cheaper. There is also the size and quantity thing for travel.
However, an e-reader doesn’t have those soft,silky pages that some books have. You know, the ones that you just have pure joy in smoothing your hands over as you turn the page.
An e-reader is hard to “page through” to find that one part or quote that you really liked. I suppose I could use the highlight feature, but that doesn’t help when it is only later that I want to flip back to a certain part that didn’t necessarily seem important at the time. I often remember what I’ve read based upon where in the book it was and on what side of the page it was. Can’t really do that with an e-reader. Do you think I’m going to notice that I was 32% into the book when I read that Character B shoved Character A into the pit full of poisonous frogs? Nope. Also, you can’t see the cover on a a digital book. Way fewer conversation starters that way. Harder to lend, too - although I believe one day the issue of lending will eventually become much less problematic.
Just as some writers are becoming hybrid authors, I am definitely a hybrid reader - but if pressed, I am still definitely old school in wanting the book firmly in my hands when I read it.
EBooks are certainly more convenient, aren’t they? That’s partly why I do wonder if people like us do count as eccentric. I completely overlooked the idea of flipping through a book, and I have to agree that eReaders are still quite sluggish when it comes to ‘flicking’ through pages.
I expect they will solve the problem of lending books, although that brings up a completely new set of problems in itself. After all, you can’t really ‘borrow’ digital content - Amazon does, but I expect it still leaves the door open for piracy. Lending someone a book was an everyday thing: how long before corporate lawyers start viewing loaning of digital content as illegal distribution, I wonder? Thanks for the great post idea, Janet
And to conclude, I’m the same as you. I’m quite happy to read on Kindle some of the time, but if the choice came down to it, I’d rather have print any day of the week. Or the weekend, for that matter.
Q1) Utterly distraught. I love physical books!
Q2) The fewer things I have to do that involve technology, the better. We don’t get along very well.
Q3) *blanches* Oh, only most of my life’s work… Why do I suddenly have to urge to print out every page I ever typed?
1) It’s OK, we can form a support group and cry upon each other’s shoulders! That should kill a few minutes.
2) I’m not a technophobe, and I do like technology, but I’m starting to take stock of how much of my life is electronic, and not liking the result, I’ll have to admit. He says, writing on a laptop.
3) I was about to say that I have everything of mine backed up on CDs, then I realised they are digital. D’oh! Can I use the printer after you, please?
Best results all around, I think, if I let you not only use the printer first, but also have you slip my printing projects in among yours. Maybe it will fool the printer into cooperating in a way it rarely does with me.
As long as you number your pages differently to mine so we can easily separate our work out again. Otherwise we might inadvertently create some kind of mutant novel…
If the printed book disappeared tomorrow, would you be sad?
———- Yes, because though I have an ereader I prefer to hold the actual book in my hand. It does not require charging or worry that its charge would run out. The actual weight of the book. Holding an ereader tends to hurt and cramp my hand after a while. Plus, too much drama evolved with ebooks. If I want to loan out a book to someone I want that privelege and right.
Is there anything in your life you don’t want to go digital?
——— Nothing comes to mind right now…
If the power went off forever tomorrow, what would you have lost?
————-All the notes I have for my WIPs.
I’ve only read off a Kindle, but their shape can be a bit irritating, I find. I think the problem is that it’s halfway between a one handed and a two handed device. It’s just a bit too big for holding in one hand, but too light to require two. And, as you rightly point out, a book can’t run out of power.
A lot of writers would lose a lot of material, I’ll bet. Do you handwrite any of your work?
If printed books disappeared, I think my house would collapse inward from the loss of mass. I do read digital books, and I don’t mind them, but just this morning I stumbled across an article that reminded me that I don’t really own my Kindle books, I just pay for the right to access them. That’s the primary reason I don’t like eBooks, followed closely by the fact that most readers (as opposed to apps on my computer) bother my eyes after a short while.
I don’t want love to go digital. It should be present, vibrant and ever changing. It should be concrete.
If the power went off, I’d lose all the stories I tried to write, and all the friends who live outside of walking distance. I mean, my car has a computer in it. I’d lose most of my money. I’d lose my air conditioning. But hey, I’ve got a gas stove, a large collection of candles and a lot of books.
Hmmm, maybe invest in some more structural support, just in case?! I haven’t really thought too much about the whole ownership issue of digital books, to be honest. But perhaps that is another reason I love printed books so much - you do actually own them.
Digital love? Now that’s an interesting concept. I’m just imagining a website with a subscribe box that says ‘Log in to feel love.’ Imagine losing your password…
The candles, stove and books part of your blackout scenario doesn’t sound that bad actually. But I too have a lot of friends who, due to distance, I can only keep in touch with digitally. I wouldn’t want to lose them either.
“Your only eccentric if you are rich- otherwise it is just crazy”
Not that this quote applies to you but it is one of my favorite cynical thoughts. Still I suppose there is some credence to it. If I actually had a hard copy of all the books on my Kindle I would need a much larger home than I can currently afford. Aside from convenience and the practical nature of digital content there is still something kind of incredible about what we can do we the technology. I have seem some digital editions of text books that I would have killed for in school. Plus, if the aliens that get here can master intergalactic travel- they can probably handle binary code. Which is essentially what it all is.
Longing for tradition is about comfort and we all gravitate towards what is comfortable- you just happen to be living in a time where technology is how we apply our ability to learn and our ability to learn far outpaces our ability to cope with change. I do agree phones out during social situations is terrible though, it is just bad manners.
If the printed book disappeared tomorrow, would you be sad?
-Of course- the advent of digital print has made me really evaluate the books I have. The ones I love- those are the ones I keep a hard copy of now. On the other side of that- digital printing has given many talented authors a platform to bring their work to a wider audience- something that may not have otherwise been possible for them. I would not say you are eccentric for
Is there anything in your life you don’t want to go digital?
-Hmmm, my close relationships with people.There is noting like human touch or those glances you give your best friends & they know exactly what you are thinking.
If the power went off forever tomorrow, what would you have lost?
- Certainly some books & pictures- but nothing I need to actually survive. I imagine if the power went off, what was on my computer would be the last thing I was worried about. Basic survival skills have a way of manifesting themselves pretty quickly and everything else becomes superfluous.
*I apologize for the start of sentence that goes nowhere there in the third paragraph. You’d think I could at least edit my own thoughts before hitting submit
It’s OK about that sentence - it leaves a sense of mystery to your comment. What were you going to say next? Perhaps I’ll never know
Well, my new aim in life is to earn enough money to not be called crazy. It’s always good to have a purpose. Space saving is a great use of technology; I too have a Kindle because I can’t fit any more books in my home. I like your idea of buying particularly treasured books in physical format in order to have them. Which ties into the point of my post - why do you feel the need to have physical copies of the books you particularly value? Why is it that their hard copy means more to you than their digital equivalent? It’s that question I’m really interested in exploring.
It’s comforting to know you’d be focusing on survival. Someone’s got to get busy making spears while the rest of us are trying to charge our phones with the static electricity generated by rubbing owls together
It can be a mystery for all of us! I really have no idea what I was doing there.
I think the books I choose to keep a hard copy of all have large sentimental value to me. The series a close family friend gave to me when I was a child (those have actually been replaced as I wore the originals out), some of my favorite childhood reads that I want to share with my own children eventually, my Anne Rice collection because frankly I just love them, some that were gifts from important people in my life, some that were very loved while in school…
There is definitely an emotional component for me.
I hear those owl batteries actually last a really long time
This is a great topic!
So you do value physical books more? It’s a lot harder to attach such sentimental value to a file on your Kindle, isn’t it?!
Thanks! Seems to have got people talking - I’m having trouble keeping up with the comments!
If the printed book disappeared tomorrow, would you be sad? Definitely. I do sometimes read ebooks, but still mostly read paper. Plus, no more libraries.
Is there anything in your life you don’t want to go digital? I still buy cookbooks and while I find a lot of recipes online I print them out to use them. I don’t like bringing a tablet/phone into the kitchen, risking getting it dirty. Also, you would drain the battery keeping it on while you keep looking at the recipe, or constantly have to wake it up to see the next step.
If the power went off forever tomorrow, what would you have lost? My first thought was: all the digital pictures of my daughter.
I agree with the tablet in the kitchen. I did that once and had to tap my screen every few minutes to turn it back on. And then I was worried about the battery!
The disappearance of libraries would be a very sad thing, I think. Technology in the kitchen certainly seems like a bad idea. Plus, I’d rather get batter/sauce/blood(?) on a page of a book than on my iPad.
That’s a really interesting point. An entire live worth of memories could be wiped out. That’s perhaps one of the most worrying side effects of a powercut I’ve heard, even including the whole humanity descending back into the Dark Ages thing.
I prefer print to digital. I love holding the book in my hand and, sometimes, reading it sneakily. You can’t do this on an iPad and it’s not the same anyways. I also love that if I forget something, or need to clarify something, I can easily flick through the pages, or skip a whole bunch of pages easily, with print books. They’re easy to flip through, which is what I like to do every now and again with a fav book and start reading a page randomly. There’s just something about print books that feels good. I really only use my Kindle app for books that I can’t get at the library.
Sneaky reading? I’m interested to know when this is necessary! What kind of books are you reading?!
Haha, not like that, but more when I’m supposed to be doing an assignment, studying, or sleeping and instead I’m reading.
Ah, ok then. I believe you. *Wink*
1) Absolutely. I love seeing books from one series with matching covers on my shelf, and for some books I simply must own a physical copy to be really sure that I own it.
2) Digital is very convenient, especially music and movies. I don’t mind things going digital, as long as there’s also a physical copy option left.
3) OMG, that’s my greatest nightmare! No internet, no email, no music, movies or TV shows, no way to play anything from my CDs, and no way to read my digital graphic novels now currently on my portable HDD. And no new print books either for me, as I get them mostly through the internet (from BookMooch and sometimes from TDB).
Collecting is certainly harder to do with digital, isn’t it? We have an entire shelf just of Discworld novels, and the first thing I’d probably do with a publisher’s advance would be to complete the set. You can’t exactly stand back and admire the collection on a Kindle screen.
Options, that’s a very important point. Perhaps that’s what I really want to avoid; being only able to get things in digital format. If it became compulsory, I think we’d lose a lot.
Sounds like you’d lose a lot. Don’t panic though, it was just hypothetical. Breath, think happy thoughts. Look - puppies and kittens!
If the printed book disappeared tomorrow, would you be sad? YES!
Is there anything in your life you don’t want to go digital? IDK
If the power went off forever tomorrow, what would you have lost? Hmmmm….photos, music, wiki;) , google/ fast accesses to information, GPS
Where would we all be without access to Google, eh? We’d have to admit that we don’t actually know stuff. And funny pictures of cats don’t just grow on trees, apparently.
Yeah. without kitties pics. we are all lost….
Who can say he know every thing….
Just for thought the internet was basically stated as academic communication… so research and scientific knowledge will be free and accessible to all…
Yep, and look what we’ve all done with it. I suppose academics were getting fed up of poking each other in real life.
LOL I think they invent it to keep pocking each other all the time not just on the sci- paperes and conferences….. they are so addict to this adrenaline.
Anyway try this it is so funny - http://www.buzzfeed.com/isaacfitzgerald/give-me-all-the-books-and-nobody-gets-hurt
Even though I read ebooks, I still prefer the printed book. I love the feel of a real book and I never have to worry about low battery life.
Digital and eBook both have one thing in common at least, in that you shouldn’t drop either in the bath. Why couldn’t they have put more effort into making waterproof paper (that feels no different to normal novel paper) instead of digital books?!
Even though ebooks have been really helpful when I read fiction and plain-text nonfiction (my house still looks like a library exploded), I definitely prefer print for photo books and cookbooks. (I hate cooking from a recipe on an e-reader-I’ve tried!)
Images certainly work better when printed out, no matter how big or high resolution a screen is. And being a rectangular flat thing, I’d think an e-reader would be a bad thing to have in the kitchen. 20 minutes of chopping tomatoes later and you realise you’ve been cutting them on your Kindle Fire and swiping your chopping board, wondering why it won’t wake up…
I direct you to this youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeA5xU2YjXk
I would be very sad. My kindle is a convenience. I like knowing I have 1500 stories in my pocket. All the important ones I had in print before digital and I still read them in print.
This is not my life, but I worry about digital classrooms. Will future generations know how to write? Here in Arizona some school districts have already removed cursive from the curriculum.
Not a lot as I said all my important books I have in print. The two things I would sad to lose are pictures saved on digital devices and easy means to contact my big spread wide family.
I have to agree that technology in the classroom causes something of a concern. I can’t see the justification for spending thousands on giving each pupil an iPad, for instance. Has the world really changed that much that they can’t function without them? And worse than that, aren’t we encouraging techno-dependence by making every aspect of their lives digital?
I can’t argue that technology is fantastic for keeping in touch. I went to uni 300 miles away from where I live, before moving back home, so I have a lot of friends I would be unable to speak to otherwise (people can move house, after all, and if they forget to tell you, then even the good old letter won’t help you).
I couldn’t agree more. There is just something about having a physical book in your hand. You just can’t beat it.
Thanks. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is, but there is just something about it, isn’t there? Maybe it’s just a form of love. You can’t describe it, but you feel it.
I d so much rather read a print book rather than an eBook but I do have a Kindle as I have a book blog and reviewing new books almost requires the ability to access them on a Kindle. I find that I don’t get as lost in a e-book as I do in the printed word but it is nice to be able to increase the font size and I love the ability to stop and switch to a different book if the one I’m reading is awful. With a print book, I can easily share it with someone and the eBook not so easily. While I have oodles of bookshelves and books, I don’t tend to hold onto books but pass them on once read as there is so much more out there I want to read. But no you aren’t eccentric!
If the power went off tomorrow, I’m sure there would be lots of things I’d miss but I imagine I’d get by better than most
As you’ve perfectly highlighted, each format has their ups and downs. I have printed books and a Kindle. Changing the format of the text is great, as is instantly being able to jump back in at the page you were at. How many times have you lost your bookmark, or read several pages before realising you’d already read that bit, and were actually another 10 pages ahead of where you had started again?!
I think I like collecting books - I didn’t like getting rid of some recently to make space. I like the look of shelves packed full of books. But still, if you’re replacing them with more books, I guess you’re still winning.
I used to be good at building fires as a kid. If the power goes out, I reckon I might be all right as well. As long as it’s possible to make waistcoats out of leaves and skinny jeans from moss, I think I’d get by
While I have become quite accustomed to reading on a Kindle now, I have a strong affiniity for those old paperbacks on my shelves. If those go bye-bye, yeah I’m gonna be sad. Not to mention it’ll mean the demise of the few bookstores that exist in my rural region.
Good point. The bookstore experience is a great one in of itself, and that’s before you’ve even started reading anything! It’s not the same on the internet, is it?
True, but at least the internet has afforded me the opportunity to connect with fellow readers and writers with shared affinity for certain genres. I’m a horror hound, and outside of the odd Stephen King novel, no one I know around these parts reads horror literature.
I love my paper book but I with limited space I now find myself buying more digital books. until there is an apocalypse I am probably safe doing that. I wish I could keep all my books as paper but with the amount of books we read our house would be taken over by books in a short period of time.
Exactly the same problem I was having. And I think we’re probably safe on the apocalypse front, although having a large collection of books would give us something to burn to keep warm. Kindle might work as a chopping board or something.