The Golden Era of Books: An E-reader Debate

So I was playing around on my twitter earlier today and come across this link --> The Golden Era of Books really it's a short article and I think it's totally worth the read if you like books and are worried about their future.

I have a confession to make. I have an e-reader.

Does this mean I'm anti-bookstores and totally against hard copies of books? No! It just means that I like to be able to feed my addiction in another way. I mean, yes, I was on the fence about e-readers since they came out. I'm a hardcore reader, and I'd like to think of myself as a pretty intense writer (maybe not as intense as I should or could be but that's for another post...) and I love adore books. I like the feel, the font, the binding. Everything. Yes, one of my biggest goals in life is getting one of my books on a bookshelf in bookstores across the nation (and if I'm feeling really confidant -- across the globe). BOOK being the keyword there. Shooting for the goal of my book being on some e-reader bookshelf doesn't really have the same glory to me.

So, yes, for a long time I felt like the ereader was a possibly evil invention. It's hard enough to be a writer and get published... now with self publishing on the Kindle and whatever it makes the waters even more mucky. You could score big like Amanda Hocking (blog and amazon page) and self publish and then get picked up for a book deal... OR it could be like a fanfiction site where you get lost in the crowd.

But the article above makes some really good points. E-readers do something pretty damn amazing that I didn't even think of. They get people who might not really read (and I mean really read -- like for fun) exposed to an avenue where they might be more comfortable picking up a book and reading. I mean hey, a ton of the classics are FREE in many of these e-reader stores.

Do I think the printed word will die? I sure as hell hope not. And really, in the big picture does it matter what I think? No. Not really. Because as much as I love the feel of a hard book in my hand, I think there are enough people out there that feel the same way (and people who don't trust electronics not to crash and loose all their data) so that the written word will always exist in some way shape or form.

I think we should embrace the e-reader. I mean, it gives us a library at our finger tips (both our own personal one and many public libraries have apps where you can "check out" books to your ereader as well), cheeper books (which really, there are some books you just don't want to pay full price for, and others that you do), and a way to get people excited about reading who weren't before. And this excitement may lead them to actually buying hardcopies of books.

Well, one can only dream.