Going Digital

I've never understood the newfound obsession with digital books.  How can a screen compare to tangible print in your hands?  There's something more personal about holding the weight of a book and pulling its corners to turn the pages.  I like imagining the millions of others perusing its pages even as I do.

 Even more precious is a book's aging: a computer doesn't yellow with time, its cover doesn't lose its color and tear at the edges, and so you can't know the book's full story.  I love old books for the knowledge that dozens, perhaps hundreds, have read it before me and felt the same things I am feeling: friends of mine separated from me by numerous years and dusty bookshelves.  And the smell, how can you experience a book without flipping its pages in front of your nose?  The scent of ink on worn paper is one of my favorite smells on earth.  You can't smell a computer (well, you can, but it doesn't smell like much).  Above all else, though, is the feel: running your fingers across the smooth cover, feeling the ridges of the title's letters, the fine grain of the paper and the prick of the corner as you hold it on the tip of your finger, itching to turn to the next page (as I read, I like to run my forefinger along the corners of all the pages I haven't read and fan them out repeatedly--just habit).  I love to bend the spine (I know that will kill some of you): it has to be far along enough in the book that it looks like I didn't stop reading on page 20, as proof that yes, I did read this book--my way of saying "MARGARET HAS BEEN HERE," if you will.

There are advantages to having an e-reader: easy access to new books without having to remove your butt from your couch or change out of your fuzzy pink pajama pants; the ability to carry dozens of books in one hand, and to search for particular phrases; the potential to change the font and size of the words, highlight them, or even define them (that's my favorite: I have dictionary.com on my iPhone, but always find I'm too lazy to type my four-digit passcode in every time I don't recognize a word) just by jabbing them with your finger.  But for me, the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages: many have said they are more easily distracted while reading from a screen than a hard copy; occasionally you have to stop to charge your book when its battery gets low; some research even suggests it's harder to remember what you've read on an e-reader than what you have in a physical copy (http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/); but really what gets to me is that you can't set a kindle all over your shelves in delicate heaps to impress passerby, or to admire when you're bored.  Honestly, digital books will just never have the same effect on me as a nicely bound hardback book.