I’m a murderer. Yup. I participated in killing off something that I love deeply by owning an e-reader. As Borders, the second largest book seller in the nation, prepares for the liquidation process of selling off its remaining assets this Friday, I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible. If it wasn’t for my need for convenience, my desire to carry not just one book in my handbag but at least three, and the ease with which I can read said book on the subway…Borders might not be going out of business. Yes, I’ve sold my book soul for reading with one hand. Oh, the humanity.
I’m not all bad. I swear. It’s true that I held out for much longer than many people I know who caught the first e-reader wave and raved about how wonderful their Kindles were, and like the true book nerd that I am, I pooh-poohed their exclamations of greatness, and I downplayed their efficiency, and teased their popularity. I exclaimed how lazy they made you. I shouted from the rooftops about how it’s not really saving time and money, and that it’s just a new fad like acid-wash jeans, or the success of Pauly Shore. I scoffed. I scorned. I laughed wholeheartedly from within the stacks of my beloved bookstore, haughtily, mockingly… until hubby presented me with a Nook for my birthday (Bwaaawhaa? Infidel!). He told me how the Nook wasn’t some Amazon Internet Supporting Fascist Machine, that it was connected to Barnes & Noble Booksellers and that it would make it easier for me to carry my books around since I’m always reading about three or four simultaneously.
Yes, his arguments sounded logical. Yes, he was trying to do a good thing. Still I shunned it. I wouldn’t touch it for months. I’d walk right on by while it sat on my bookshelf and surely watched with amusement as I packed my handbag with a hardback, and at least two trade paperbacks on some occasions. (The Nook…an overconfident bastard I’d say.)
One day hubby had enough of looking at his as-yet-unwrapped gift, and with watching me try to whittle my book selections down to just one in order to avoid impending spine curvature. He forced me to go through the setup and give the Nook a go…and sigh, I’ve never looked back, with the rare exception. So see, I’m a murderer. It was easy, the convenience of it all. Book blood is on my hands.
Despite its near sinful ease of use, there is a disconnect. E-readers are just pressing buttons…but for me it’s never fully served my complete literary needs. Yes, I’m a bit of a greedy book whore. I never gave up on bookstores. My tactile love of running my fingers along the books. The little game I often play by reading the first page and determining that if the writer hasn’t captured me by the end of that page, then I don’t buy the book; back on the shelf it goes. The way I try and discern what the book is about from its cover art. How some authors use the same theme in their covers. How the lettering can change from book to book. What it feels like to open a hardback for the first time and feel the spine of the book give a little creak or a soft snap, because it’s still so stiff until you smooth the center. And the growing anticipation of turning the first page, to the subtle misery of turning the last. This is a process I’ve held onto for years, which didn’t stop with getting an E-reader. I still go to the bookstore and peruse the stacks, going through my little book ritual even if I still order the book through my Nook. I figure I have the best of both worlds. I’ll read a few pages in the bookstore while copping a squat, drinking a cup of tea, before finishing it on my device. This seems to be a better, more natural order of things, and I don’t feel like such a heel. A terrible, terrible, book killer.
Now, though, with the closing of Borders, this could eventually mean the end to the bookstore. At Barnes & Noble alone I’ve noticed that the Nook selling station is getting larger and larger, and the New Releases section getting pushed farther and farther aside when it used to be front and center. On the second floor, you’ll still see parents and their kids shopping for books, stopping to read, giggling at the book covers…something I also did as a kid while reading Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, or Goodnight Moon. I can’t imagine that experience on an E-reader or an iPad…egad! How do you enjoy a pop-up book on an E-reader?! How do you enjoy a scratch and sniff book on an iPad?! These are very important questions.
Nonetheless, I’m still a traitor. I think it’s hugely important to preserve books, thereby preserving our written history. No civilization has survived without books. I think it’s a very scary thing to start reducing the numbers we retain. Sure, perhaps technology will continue to advance and perhaps the need will eventually become obsolete…but what if it doesn’t? What then? What if the unthinkable happens and civilization is in peril? What if we don’t have access to the Internet or all our seemingly endless electronic devices? What if the only thing we have is our ability to read the written word on a page? Do we want to make it so those words become the Holy Grail? Yes, yes, I know I’m talking about some apocalyptic future (Or am I?), but just think about how many things we’ve allowed to digitally command our world in such a short time, things that have excelled or petered out, things that we’ve embraced, or have just gone out of business, regardless…more and more the machines are running our lives (SKYNET!)…but there have always been books.
I kid, mostly. Well, maybe not. Have you seen the Terminator or The Matrix? In the end, though, let’s enjoy our e-readers for their convenience, but not forget the source of their existence, and try when we can to support reading, literacy, libraries, and the bookseller. There are just some things that still need the human touch.
* Holding the Kindle
** Holding the Machete is CEO of Badass, Denzel Washington
