Monday, April 25, 2011

Random Musing: Oh Where Oh Where have eBooks Come From?

Hello again my literary comrades! Felt like posting another musing. This time it's about eBooks and eReaders. Now I'll admit, I was originally very anti-eReader. I thought they were the death of the written word and that books as we know them would no longer exist, forever replaced by electronic words and pages. But then one day last May, I was in a Barnes and Noble with my parents and a good friend. As we entered, we saw their Nook booth. Intrigued, We went and looked at the booth. I fell in love instantaneously. It shocked me how much I wanted this device and yet I abhorred it simultaneously. I ended up getting it as a graduation gift a month later, and have been hooked ever since. I love having the portability of carrying more than 100 books with me but they are stored in a device. A literary iPod if you will. I used to be that person who carried multiple 300 page plus books with them, and they took up most of the space in my purses/bag. Now I can carry them in my Nook. The bonus of reading anything up to an hour for free in a physical Barnes and Noble store helps. :) Plus I get to find pictures of sexy celebrities as my Nook wallpapers. ;) 

Despite using my Nook as my main reading source, I still read DTB's (physical books). Just because I'm a hardcore "Nookster" doesn't mean I've totally abandoned reading a real book, such as The Spoon River Anthology. Plus I'm a hardcore Manga fan and love reading them. While eBooks and eReaders are not the death of the written word, they are taking a more prominent part of our society. It is definitely worth every penny to own an eReader. Especially in a generation that is increasingly disliking reading. I have a very close friend who's loves to write, and yet she hates to read. We joke around that whenever she's reading something that it's "the apocalypse." While it is a joke, it still saddens me that most kinds these days don't like reading of any kind. That's why I feel like eReaders help bolster a love of reading. Most kids today are hooked on technology, so things like the Nook, Kindle, etc help them want to read by showing them a cool device. 

Until next time my comrades

Viva la literature!

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