If anyone has one of these atrocities, please enlighten me. How awesome is your world now that you can carry around a libraries worth of books anywhere your go? That is, of course, if you remember to charge it.
What if you forget to charge your precious electronic? Are people really okay with letting an electronic determine when they are allowed to read? It brought me so much joy when I saw a young, hip, business woman on the train realize her e-reader wasn't charged. She went to turn it on...*annoyed huff*. She flicked the switch again...*more annoyed huff* "Seriously?" She tried again..."Seriously? Seriously!? Seriously." She gave a final huff and gave up (life is so hard and unfair, right?).
The great thing about books is you can access them at anytime. Books don't determine when it's time to read...the reader does! This is the Achilles heel of e-readers. What do you do when you're on an airplane and you need to turn off all electronic devices? Strike up a conversation with the person next to you? Hmm...that could be fun. Maybe your little air buddy will warn you about the dangers of gypsies in Europe ("You know a trick gypsies have is they throw their baby at you so you'll drop your stuff in order to save the baby, but it's a trick. While you're focusing on saving the baby, they actually rob you...and there's no baby! Just a bundle of clothes"). Or maybe it's your little air buddy's first time flying and, since you're not busy, he can ask you what every little noise and button is. Maybe you two can even quiz each other on the information in the safety pamphlet. That would be fun, huh?
With the popularity of e-readers on the rise, is society saying reading is only a hobby for the elite? Bookstores are already struggling to compete with e-readers. If this continues, books could become obsolete. Think about it, how often do you see someone using a Walkman? And when was the last time someone made you a mix tape? Just as mp3 players dominate the music landscape, e-readers could become the preferred way of reading. Books are useful to everyone. E-readers are only useful to people who have a power source and a computer. How will people in less developed parts of the world access knowledge and earn an education without books? Education is for everyone, not just those who can afford the latest technological craze.
(Besides, what will society do with all the books that are left behind after e-readers rise to power? Burn them? We all know we else use to burn books...just putting it out there.)
E-readers remove the reader from the whole reading experience. You're holding an electronic. A book lets you feel the actual work. The weight of every word is in your hands and you have a true sense of how much work the author put into that piece. Let's cherish books for what they are: a physical representation of another human's literary passion and hard work.
In closing, please enjoy the following:
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