During the Great Clean Up after our Chile sojourn, I rid the house and garage of tons of books. I was heartless. I've experienced just a bit of heartburn since over some volumes that went to Deseret Industries, but generally the switch to digital has been painless and freeing. I've downloaded books while listening to the radio in the car, at church and during casual conversations when a book is recommended. When I travel I can have books in progress and back-up books handy in my purse without any extra weight. The advantages of e-books are many, but there are still reasons that keep me adding books to the shelves.
One is the ability to share an actual hardbound book. Passing around a favorite book gives such pleasure; the prelude to a delayed conversation we will have when the book is returned.
Some books just cry out to be in paper: books with maps, books with photographs, books of poetry. Graphic novels, though it isn't a genre that particularly appeals to me. Picture books--can you imagine a Caldecott Book on the Kindle? Inscribed books, autographed books. Handsome books of family history that need a special shelf of their own. Scriptures.
Yes, scriptures. I'm trying to use the digital scriptures, and see good reason to do so. The highlights, notes and tags that I enter can follow me from device to device to infinity and beyond, once I figure out how it all works. But it's not the same to see a little box in the margin that I must click to find out what I said the last time through. With my "real" scriptures, I can draw and write in the margins and read those insights right along with the printed text--and in color! I downloaded and had a wide-margin Book of Mormon printed and bound that I am having a good time with as I study because there's plenty of space for notes, drawings and ideas.
Journals. I have the Day One app, and enjoy how easy it is to add a photo to the day's entry, and the way it can include the weather and location along with whatever I decide to write. I do, though, also keep a "real" journal, hard-bound and hand-written. As sporadic as I am about writing, it's one way of being accountable for my life, and I like being able to glue and tape or create a rubbing, or smear a purple flower on the page as I see fit. These books will remain when digital is lost in the ether.
So, what's the answer? Like almost everything, I can see both sides and I want it both ways. Digital? Paper? Yes, please.
No comments:
Post a Comment