By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 14, 2012
I own a Kindle, and it’s awesome. I can carry more books with me at one time than I have space for on my bookshelf and it takes up about as much room in my bag as my wallet. Some may complain that with this move to e-readers in recent years, we’re losing something vital that comes with the tactile experience of a book. I politely tell those people to get a grip. This is the future. Join, or be left staggering around under stacks of textbooks.
(Oh – did I mention? Half of my textbooks are also available as eBooks. No more back strain walking to and from class toting stacks of over-priced premium paper. I have escaped the vicious cycle; so can you.)
Let me tell you a story. I spent the majority of reading break (somewhat ironically) in a library. My study group basically stayed from the moment opened in the morning until the second it closed at night. Put three English majors in a large room with a lot of books, and it’s like putting kids in a candy store. We wanted to touch everything.
But we couldn’t, because we weren’t allowed. It was a special collection, and therefore we had to file requests with librarians and then wait – and wait – and wait – while the items were brought to us. This was sometimes a painful process; the time between asking for these materials and actually getting them was often a molar-grinding period of several hours.
My point is that we live in a digital age; sharing files, documents, and images is an easier process than it’s ever been. Even in a special collection, like the one we spent reading break in, why should that process drag on and on?
It shouldn’t.
The fact is we had to go to Texas just to see these books – why even make that trip when images of these manuscripts could have been introduced to the Internet with the ease of putting up a new Facebook album? (Hint: it’s because everyone who took pictures of the collection has to sign a form saying they won’t ever under any circumstances put these images out into the digital world.) Copyright infringement? At this point, in this age of internet and digitalization, the rules are dicey at best. We were lucky enough to be able to afford flying to Texas, and I could say the trip and the collection changed my life. But how many starving, ramen-fed students can’t afford rent, let alone a week-long study trip?
Let me leave you with a little allegory of an incident. On the third day in the library, we were checking out at the circulation desk and the librarian caught sight of my Kindle.
“You have a Kindle?” she said, “Do you like it? I have one, but I just can’t figure it out.”
She sneered a little.
“I like real books better, anyway.”
I couldn’t believe it. A Kindle is easier to understand than a Fisher-Price kitchen. It’s so intuitive that it’s ridiculous. After a while, you don’t even notice what you’re reading on – and after all, isn’t that the point? Book-lovers, I still count myself among your ranks. But at the end of the day, it’s the words and content of a thing. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Live in the future.
