Why I Still Actually Read Books

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In classes, in conversations, and in other arenas too numerous to count, people have turned to e-readers in lieu of books. Sometimes I envy them the fact that they can carry around an entire library and have it fit in their pocket and weigh less than a pound. In fact, thanks to online archives and endeavors, I have downloaded and then printed books that are out of print or in the public domain for free for which I otherwise might have had to pay. Sure, I could keep the pdf files or just read them online. However, I have several reasons for which I prefer the actual books.

I mark my books with annotations and references to other things I have read. While I waited for Sears to align the wheels on my car, I broke out a copy of "Faiths of the Founding Fathers" to read. The man sitting next to me was using his Kindle. I periodically withdrew my pen from my ear and scribbled in the margins. No matter how good your stylus is, you may have noticed at the checkout stands just how much worse they make your handwriting appear.

Books require no artificial power: electricity/lighting/batteries. You don't have to stop reading when the power goes out or the battery dies or whatever. You can read anywhere, anytime as long as there's enough light, and you won't lose your night vision.

Resolution of the screen is better in a book. The print is much more clear, it doesn't have glare or feedback, there is no pixelation, and you frequently have a larger overall surface on which to view the material than all but the bulkiest of e-readers.

Library and other online access makes some of them free. It can cost you up to 80% of the price of a book to buy the e-version for your iPad, Kindle, or whatever other device for which you opt to download and read. If it's something you just want to access or it's short enough, that might be a good option, but if you don't want to keep it, why would you buy it? Plus, libraries frequently sell books at great discount if they have extra copies, and if it's a common enough book you can pick up a copy for a song almost anywhere.

Compared to e-readers, books are more resistant to weather. About a year ago, I literally picked up an original copy of the collected works of Benjamin Franklin one morning during my jog. It was raining, and there was a book lying in the road which I took home thinking, "cool, a free book". Had it been an iPhone or kindle, I doubt it would have weathered as well.

I am fascinated with original books, especially those with annotations in them. If you buy an electronic version, it RARELY comes annotated and marked by someone else. Among my prizest of possessions is the copy of the Bible used by my grandfather Hamilton. I like being able to read the thoughts and handwriting of a man I never knew but whom I am told I resemble in visage as well as values. Also, I have a photostat version of Thomas Jefferson's prayerbook, replete with his own notations in the Bible. You will be hard pressed to find these kinds of rarities in electronic versions, because most people don't want those.

People steal electronics, but they rarely steal books. I own a few rare books, but for the most part, books have a really low resale value and are bulky to take. If someone broke into my home, they are unlikely to steal notepads and spiral books or binders or even tomes from the shelf. They will probably take my old, but broken, cell phones, my laptop, my TV, my fridge, etc. If I had an ipod, ipad, iphone, kindle, ad infinitum, they would be much higher targets for theft than the books I own, particularly since I have dogeared the pages and written my own thoughts on the leaves and in the margins.

Books don't usually come with other distractions. Unlike the gadgetry now available, if I find myself distracted by a book, I don't end up using it to surf the internet or playing games, even 3-D games (See the brilliant Peter Serafinowicz spoof on the iPad). It helps me focus on where I am, what I am doing, and what I hope to accomplish. As a college professor, I have found that cell phones and other electronic devices in class often allow students to distract and displace themselves in or from class. I prefer people who are present, and with the book, I am always there because there's nothing else in the book itself to mislead my mind.

One of the things I most value is my personal library. While it's not worth a lot monetarily or as extensive or grandiose as those of other people I know, it represents my interests and a large investment of time and treasure to acquire not only the books but also the concepts contained therein.