filed in Daily Life
Paperbacks are Making a Comeback
When traveling by air, I rarely check a suitcase, which means my packing needs to be efficient. With a penchant for long novels, I was forced to choose between a weighty tome and that extra pair of shoes, and well, fashion always wins out. So it’s in this scenario, that I started to download books, and have consistently found the experience wanting. I’m not alone. Sales of e-books are declining sharply, and here’s one writer’s eloquent explanation as to why.
Painting by Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber
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I go nowhere without a book … I did buy a Kindle … it is lightweight but … sigh … I would far rather read a tatty paperback … I can see how a Kindle would work for travelling but then one can buy a ‘real’ book at the airport.
For air travel and small luggage, e-books still do make sense to me. But it’s a sloppy second.
I really do appreciate my kindle for travel. Travelling quite a bit for work, which tend to be short trips that require only a carry-on, means I do have to be efficient with packing. And there are always those moments that you’re ALMOST done with one book and you’re faced with the horror of finishing it mid-trip! So the kindle solves those problems for me.
Oh, but I miss my paperbacks. One thing in particular is the conversation starters that seem to happen around books in airports, on planes, in trains, etc. The other day a woman next to me was reading a book I really liked, and I wanted to start up a conversation with her but didn’t as we were just about to board…but it made me think that my kindle will no longer allow that to happen.
That’s true. You never know what someone’s reading on their Kindle.