B&E Sinking

[PennLady]

I have spent a lot of hours browsing through bookstores, trying to decided what books to get, mentally juggling my budget and the back cover blurbs.

And just as much time in Libraries. But recently in several towns I've lived in the libraries are getting their budgets cut.

I have also browsed in book stores, and I take my kids to the library at least once a week, and in the summer sometimes it's twice. I love the programs they offer, and have taken my daughter to story time for probably three years. I'm lucky to live in an area that is generally affluent and can allot money to the libraries. I think libraries serve a great public good and I wish that budget money would be protected.

I love books but mostly read with the Kindle and B&N programs on my laptop. And yes, most of my 'naughty' books are from B&N. I miss the ability to easily flip back to check what happened in a previous chapter in a real book, or look a map. I just isn't as easy in an ereader.

This is true. but there are pros and cons to books and e-readers, and don't forget, books are one technology that have been adapted to another, and all the kinks are not yet worked out. People will find other ways to mark passages and flip back, even if it's awkward now.

I hope I never see the end of the printed book. I have been asked why I keep so many books. Electronics fail. Batteries die. You pay hundreds for a reader and then you have to buy the material. I prefer to buy a book, and read it. I'll never have to worry if my book is charged.

Again these are all advantages to print books, and I don't disagree. My husband and I have tons of books in the house, in the basement, in the hallway, and my daughter currently has about 30+ out of the library. My son has probably a dozen.

On the other hand, ebooks take up less space. They require less material to make paper. I can carry hundreds around in an e-reader that weighs no more than a trade paperback. The batteries have long life. Yes, you have to buy a reader to read the ebooks if you want one, but you can also read via the free apps on your computer, which you already pay for.

Buying an e-reader so that you can then buy book is not so awful. You need a place to put your books, right? So you have a house, and probably bought shelves. My e-reader cost probably no more than a set of shelves, and I have more books on it.

I'm not saying you should buy an e-reader. I also think that print books are hardly on the way out. Everything is readjusting and readjustment periods are tough, and it's also easy to look at that period and think that's the way it will stay for a long while, if not forever, even though that's not necessarily true.

Things change. Change is not always easy and sometimes you can get away with avoiding it, or not adapting, and that's fine. But we can't expect change to not happen.