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Long Live Books
I walked a friend to his car and he showed me four plastic containers filled with books. An avid reader, he had run out of space in his apartment and was donating them to a library. In the past, he’d sold the overflow to a used book store, but there’s not much of a market anymore. I’ve read that sales of e-readers are plummeting, as more people are using phones and tablets. Have your habits changed?
Painting: Library with Grey Sea by Jeremy Miranda
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Your poll needs one more category folks that split their reading between books and e-readers or other electronic devices. I travel quite a bit for work and love having my e-reader with me. I still love and buy paper books, but read them at home.
Cheers!
You’re right. I’ll add it next survey.
I’ve gotten rid of most of my books, too. That’s what my excellent public library system is for. The only books remaining are gifts, specialty books that libraries don’t generally have (art and history), and books I keep re-reading. I have so much more space now.
Cannot imagine reading books on a phone, although I do use my tablet.
yeah, I’m a big library junkie too, for dvds and books. i’ll have 10-15 things checked out at a time. have a small bookshelf of my most favorite books that I don’t intend to part with. don’t read books electronically, I’m not really opposed to it or anything, just think that it would feel too unnatural for me to read on one of them.
I have about 30 books in my home/office, but most are in boxes, along with the CD’s.
My friend who got rid of his books kept a few that had sentimental value.
I am happiest with a good, old fashioned, bound book in my hands. I understand the convenience of e-book readers, and I own a kindle (gift from my dad), but I have never really clicked with it. Also I have found that used bound books are usually cheaper than kindle boos.
Books are among my oldest friends. I prefer to have a more phsyical relationship with my books. I love the way old books smell. I have a collection of beloved Time/Life art books which I inherited from my grandma that I used to pour over when I was a kid. Sometimes I will open them for no other reason than to stick my nose in them and let them carry me back in time. They still smell like my grandma’s house, and that particular smell exists nowhere else in creation anymore. Also (and I suppose being single helps in this regard) I think nothing furnishes a home quite so well as books. Over the years I have slowly built a collection of books that have had meaning for me which now fill several bookcases, and I look forward to filling a couple more yet before the end. I find their presence comforting. The titles on my bookshelves tell the story of my life – the things I have thought about and been enchanted by over the years. I love looking at people’s bookshelves when I enter a home – it tells so much about them. And it is fun when I discover that we have some mutual book friends!
I’m in a book club, and the majority of us still use paper books. But a few bring their kindles and tablets. It gets confusing because the page numbers aren’t the same.
I’m not certain that e-books are cutting into the traditional book-buying market as much as people think. I’m not saying there’s no effect but I’m just not sure people have tossed aside all their books in favor of the ones they can download. But I DO think more people are using the library more, either to check out books traditionally or electronically. I put myself on a moratorium on buying books. The only ones I allow myself to buy are cookbooks and writing books since they’re reference material for me and would be used more than once. Everything else I get from the library. I bought a tablet for the primary purpose of reading books on it and I haven’t used it for that reason yet.
E-books have been credited for the explosion in self-publishing but I think overall people are just on literature overload. There’s just a lot out there to the point of being overwhelming.
I’m going to have to research this more, Latarsha and get back to you.
I am (largely) in the “physical book” camp. I had a Kindle (it broke) and I do have a few titles I read on my computer or phone (because I got the ebook versions), but I am going back to reading more and more on physical paper. The blue light from tablets/phones/laptops disrupts sleep and I value sleep very much.
I do read occasional books on screens, mostly the sort of books that I can read a chapter (or even part of a chapter) without feeling the need to continue (i.e. no “can’t put it down” books); these titles are largely nonfiction. And anything read before bed MUST be in a physical book.
Cookbooks, of course, have to be on paper. And I read them like novels.
A few years ago, I read the new translation of War and Peace. That book was so heavy. I had to prop it on a pillow in bed at night.
I still have tons of books, but I stopped buying books several years ago. I patronize my local library now.
It’s great to hear that people are using the library. I mostly go there for research material.
I’ve moved 5 times in 4 years, and I still tell everyone- you will have to pry my paper books from my cold, dead hands.
The comfort and nostalgia from reading a paper book never gets old. The mere act of untethering myself from an electronic device puts me in a relaxed mode for reading.
I used to love libraries, but here in the DC area, they are a notorious vector for bed bugs(!)
Reading on a tablet offers far too many distractions. Bed bugs in the library? What a nightmare.