In Defense of the Book: A mission statement of sorts

Since I was a child I was fascinated by reading. I remember so distinctly tucking a paperback into the waistband of my jeans before climbing up to my special reading spot: a perfectly formed branch high in a tree in my parent's backyard. I would settle back into the boughs with the latest Judy Bloom and spend hours reading and eating snacks that my very indulgent mom would send up on a bucket tied to a pole. Every so often I would lose my grasp on the book while otherwise focused on unwrapping a Starburst or something and the book would fall to the ground, forcing me to roust myself and begin the arduous climb down to retrieve it.

With the advent of e-reading devices  such as the Kindle, Nook and CyBook, the modern reading experience has changed forever. Hundreds of books, an entire library, can exist in a razor thin tablet weighing only a few ounces. The technology is actually quite impressive; the "e-ink" used allows the text to appear on the screen glare free, and there is no more damaged book spine from efforts to contort a paperback into a more wield-able read.




Perhaps it's self-indulgent nostalgia, or a stubborn resistance to technology in general, but I hate e-readers. I think they have a viable use for purposes such as text books, cookbooks and other reference material that is most practically accessed through the organization that an e-reader offers. However if a seven year old me tried to haul an expensive piece of electronic equipment 20 feet up into a tree, my parents would flip out! I can't imagine what would happen if I dropped it from such a height. Where a paperback lands softly among the grasses, an e-reader shatters and leaks onto the lawn.

There is just something about having a physical book in hand that can't be beat by convenience. The smell. The creak of the binding as you open a hardback for the first time. Even the little ribbon sewn to the spine that marks your place makes the reading of a book an experience. An e-reader can't fill up a room with knowledge the way a library can. One can't loan out their favorite read to a friend through an e-reader (they'll have to download it themselves). E-readers don't have decades old first editions signed by authors long since dead.

Call it nostalgia, call it sentimentality, but nothing will ever replace a book in my hand at the end of a long day. The aesthetics are amazing too, which is why I like to give a second life to an old abused book that would otherwise spend its life in a box at a storage facility. Try making crafts out of an old e-reader and let me know how that goes.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we will get started on our very first craft: the ever practical Book Safe.