Those aren?t books. You can?t hold a computer in your hand like you can a book. A computer does not smell. There are two perfumes to a book. If a book is new, it smells great. If a book is old, it smells even better. It smells like ancient Egypt. A book has got to smell. You have to hold it in your hands and pray to it. You put it in your pocket and you walk with it. And it stays with you forever. But the computer doesn?t do that for you. I?m sorry.
Ray Bradbury
While I wasn’t always sure how I felt about e-reading, I’m the first to admit that I am a convert! I own both a Kindle and an iPad, as well as my iPhone, all which help me to read digitally.
My iPhone and iPad Mini! Can I just say how much I love that the Kindle App seamlessly updates my reading progress across all devices?!
But while I love what e-reading provides me with, instant access to new books, digital exclusives and and relatively inexpensive options, there’s something…missing when I choose to read on my iPad.
- The smell of a new (or an old!) book.
- The smooth feel of a hardcover in my hands.
- That satisfying crackling noise that says you are the first person to look upon these specific pages, in this specific book, as you open the cover for the first time.
- The sound of pages turning, the feel of the material beneath my fingertips.
- The satisfaction of both seeing and feeling my progression, as pages begin to pile up on the left.
- The ability to savour how much time you have left with a book, as you can tangibly track your reading progress.
- The feeling of the slightly weathered and worn pages of one of your favoured reads, one you return to again and again.
And it’s these reasons that will always bring me back to reading the printed word. While I love what e-reading has done for me, both as a reader and a blogger, it can never replace the feelings that seem to only come from picking up a physical book!
Will you always be a printed word reader? Or does e-reading give you similar happy feelings?
The post Why I’ll Always Read the Printed Word appeared first on Radiant Shadows.
