eReaders vs Real Books

I had a friend show me her Kindle eBook reader today. Prior to this I'd just read about them, compared them by consumer reports and reviews on various websites, compared all the toots and whistles, and decided I like different aspects of each of the readers, including the recently announced yet still somewhat mysterious iPad.

All have in common certain shortcomings. Batteries die and need recharging and I wonder if these readers are courteous enough to wait until you're at a good stopping point. With a traditional book you can lend a favorite to a friend - try that with an electronic reader and you've lost access to your entire library until your friend gets around to returning it. People won't look so brainy sitting in their personal studies with empty mahogany bookshelves lining the walls. And then, there's the inescapable fact that these electronic readers don't smell.

That's right, they don't smell. Real books smell. Nothing smells like a brand new book, that mixture of freshly cut paper and glue bound in cloth or leather. Okay, no one actually knows what paper glue does to brain cells. Maybe people who seem to be deeply engrossed in a story are actually slightly intoxicated. But the fact remains that new books smell good. Old books smell good too - and those smells tell the history of previous owners. The smells tell of books stored in musty basements and dusty attics, of a previous owner's favorite brand of tobacco or what kind of pet they owned, and quite possibly, pathogens our ancestors had immunity to but which we do not.

I would miss those smells. That's not to say I won't someday embrace the technology and buy a reader. I do own an MP3 player. But just as I still own most of my old LP's and cassettes, I'll keep most my books.

On the other hand, this new, lightweight technology might make the next moving day easier on my back.