Book People Archive

Re: response to Jeff



In a message dated 3/22/01 10:44:50 AM Central Standard Time, 
Kellscraft@[redacted] writes:

> And, let's face it, I have a personal issue involved here.  The smell of an 
> old book, dusty and musty and warm in the hands, can never compete with the 
> cold, impersonal, mechanistic thing of an e-book reader.  The best gift 
> anyone can give is a book, perhaps inscribed inside with personal 
> sentiment.  
> What would be lost if the only thing we have left is a bunch of electronic 
> bits floating in the ether, that has little to do with the joy of reading a 
> real book.  I'll keep my collection of books, thanks.  And I'll struggle to 
> keep printed works always going.  It's too important to lose that touch of 
> our humanity.
> 
> What do others think?  I'd like to hear some other views on this issue.
>              
> Thanks!
> 
> Jeff Kelley
> www.kellscraft.com
> 

Amen, Jeff!  My pc is indeed a wonderful tool, but I still buy books, real 
books, lots of books, for myself and as gifts.  One of the things I did when 
I got my pc about 3 years ago, was to immediately ferret out sites where I 
could buy "real" books! 
My "real" books never "crash", I don't have to wait for the pc to "boot up", 
and I don't have to download them.
Now about these ebooks, they are great too!  I think it is absolutely 
wonderful that books I have never had the opportunity to read for one reason 
or another, ie: not at the library, can't purchase because it is out of 
print, or print too small to read in paper edition, are now becoming 
available to me by electronic means.
But give up "real" books?  When pigs fly!

Arlene Hampton
AHamptonResearch@[redacted]