Book Fetishists At The New Republic
From The New Republic editors, a bitter attack on the ebook in general, the Kindle reader, and some poor Newsweek reporter. This is my favorite bit:
The breathless, Bezos-loving man from Newsweek says that he is reading Boswell’s Life of Johnson on his iPhone. No, he isn’t. All reading is not the same.
Sorry, but that’s just wrong. Just ask the blind person who enjoys literature through Braille and audio books. Books are simply containers used for distributing information. Whatever attachment fetishists and collectors have to the printed and bound pages is completely separate and secondary to the information contained in the book. That’s not to say such feelings aren’t legitimate, just that they have nothing to do with reading. Books already come in a variety of formats — hardbound, mass market paperback, trade paperback, large print, audio, etc. The ebook is just one more useful format — preferred by some and not by others.
There may be good reasons for not liking electronic books — ergonomic concerns based on current screen technology, or the cost of the reader hardware, for example. And even if you prefer the printed book for reasons based solely on fetish (how it feels, how it smells, whatever “magical” quality it adds to the reading experience), that’s fine. It just seems a bit extreme to attack or criticize those who want to read a book in a convenient new format, and who don’t happen to share the same unusual fetish.
My various hardbound Sherlock Holmes compilations look wonderful sitting on my shelf, but I also carry the same stories around on my Treo smartphone, along with (at the moment) 7 other fiction and non-fiction books. The Holmes stories get read and re-read, and I always have them with me when I want a break from whatever else I’m reading. That “always there” quality is what I like most about ebooks.
I purchased my first ebook in January 2000 from eReader (which was then called Peanut Press). I’ve also bought books from other sites, including MobiPocket and FictionWise. Not to mention using free sources such as the Baen Free Library and MemoWare. Throughout that period, I’ve also bought plenty of printed books. I don’t feel that the electronic reading experience was radically different from the ink and paper experience. Anyone who loves reading, as opposed to books, would probably agree.
By the way, the New Republic’s hit piece on electronic books could almost pass for parody, given that it’s offered up to readers electronically.
UPDATE: Here’s the Newsweek article by Steven Levy that got the TNR editors all worked up.
