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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Never Say Never


I have a secret, a dirty little secret and I can't live a lie any longer. I have a tablet and recently I downloaded a Nook app so I could read the galley proofs of my book on it instead of the laptop. Well the Nook app comes with a sample magazine (Cosmopolitan) and I downloaded it just because but never went back to look at it. I didn't know that the magazine download was part of a trial period and because I didn't cancel at a certain time they charged me $1.99 for the subscription. So now I have two issues of Cosmos sitting on the tab. Well, I got bored today and I read through one and I liked it. I have been infected with the eReader insanity. I only paid $1.99 for a subscription to a magazine that would usually cost maybe $10-12? And you don't end up with the clutter of 12 magazines a year in your house. Especially bulky ones like In Style. Okay so I guess magazines are probably more convenient on an eReader or Tablet. But I still refuse to read books on it, yes I know that ironically all this began when I was reading my own book on the tab but that was out of the sheer necessity. It is easier to keep the tab away from my Bella than the laptop. That's beside the point the magazines maybe but the books no.

I actually didn't mind the eReaders when they first began to be introduced that is until the bookstores started closing. To me there is nothing more relaxing than wasting a day in the book store; I look forward to hanging out with my Bella in the children's section at the little tables and picking out books. I know that the closing bookstores are not all the fault of eReaders but they do bear some responsibility. I do think eReaders are convenient and I imagine that they may have gotten people to read more but I am biased I love books. I love the smell of the pages, the sound and the feel. I love how satisfying it is to close a really good book at the end. I like adding to my personal library and seeing my bookshelves full. I love books and eReaders scare me because I don't want them to make books obsolete the way digital music made CDs, tapes, etc. obsolete.

If we keep moving towards digitizing everything what of us will exist besides bits and bytes in a computer. What would we leave behind? If the computers crash do we just start from scratch? Digital pictures instead of prints, word files instead of pages I don't know about you but I am beginning to have a phobia of disappearing.

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