“I never feel lonely if I’ve got a book – they’re like old friends. Even if you’re not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they’re part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life.” ~ Emilia Fox
A couple years ago, I ended up caving and getting an iPad for the soul purpose of reading books off of it. Starting to take college courses, it was cheaper to rent textbooks online, then it was to rent them from the school bookstore or Amazon.
While I have expanded my E-Library to “for my enjoyment” reading, primarily for when I travel, because let’s face it, books can get pretty heavy, espexially if you read as fast as I do.
That said nothing, NOTHING beats the physical existence of a book in your hand.
The smell of a new book wafting through the air hitting your nose in giddy anticipation. The crisp pages, with their slight crinkling noise as they turn. The fervor as you begin a new story to suck you down the imagination whirlpool. It is an abundance of delight to the senses.
The counting of the well pressed pages, not a crease or indent to be seen. The feel of it in your hand as you are taken on a journey, whether it be suspenseful, fanciful, a love story, whatever is genre of choice, it is yours for a few hours, as you sweep your eyes over the Times New Roman font.
That is the magic of a book. An actual book, not a computer screen. It is the anticipation, the waiting for it to come out in paperback. The exhilaration of walking into a bookstore, perusing, exploring, being lost. Searching for the one that is saying pick me.
It is the discovery of a new author or series. Staring at the glossy covers that seem so glamorous. The furtive glances, because your mother’s words of “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” comes back to you, yet you can’t resist the pretty illustration or the story that pulls you in.
Buying a book is a smorgasbord of events and adventures. One that is sadly dying out with modern technology. Until Apple can package the smell and experience, a physical book will always win my heart pages turned.
Which do you prefer? An eBook or a physical book?
