a comment on E-books: The key to a sustainable literature future?
The author at sustainerd brought up a topic that I’ve always felt was a big issue in terms of e-books and their claims to sustainability. I myself enjoy reading books rather than off a computer screen. In fact, I had rented e-textbooks for two courses at UBC to try and see if I could make this “sustainable” change and save some money. Three pages in I couldn’t stand it anymore — my eyes getting tired from looking at a screen for so long, the distractions of using a computer, the lack of that physical attributes a book actually brings that I never noticed before; so I went to return both e-books and rented out the hardcopy books instead. I think the idea of using e-readers is nice, but I doubt many people successfully make an easy switch in using digital readers. For those who can, and love using their kindles/iPads to read, I think shared ownership of e-readers sounds great and innovative, what a great way to save money! As for me, the most I can do in terms of reading these expensive university textbooks is to rent from the bookstore.
To read more about this author’s view on e-books and a sustainable literature future, check out: http://sustainanerd.wordpress.com/
I am personally a huge supporter of e-books. I bought a Kindle a few years ago and it has honestly been one of the best buys I’ve made in a while. I sometimes need to travel a lot, and being a heavy reader I always had half a suitcase of books to bring along. The Kindle and the library it holds within have saved me a lot of hassle (and added travel weight), as well as more than paying for itself from the deals online. I love that thing!
That said, this term I used 2 e-book textbooks…I cannot say that I am a fan. I find it much harder to ‘learn’ when reading a computer screen as opposed to a tangible paper page. I don’t know why, but that’s how it seems to be.
I think e-books really are going to help replace paper-based literature, but there is also a concern with that. If the majority of publishers switch solely to electronic formats, a bad crash or virus could wipe out all traces of some works of literature. While paper and stone can survive, how long will a digital file be able to be kept? What if technology goes through a significant change and in the future they cannot access our digital files? All weird questions, but worth thinking about!