A page from the eBook Story

I consider myself to be not only technically capable, but technically preoccupied. I love the gadgets. I love the way that devices like the iPhone take all kinds of 'Needs', bundle them with 'Wants', throw in some 'Unnecessaries' to create 'Simplicity' that just makes so much sense. I am no longer willing to carry a phone, laptop, MP3 player, daytimer, note book and finger drumset, when I know that it can all be packaged together in a sleek, cool, James Bond style gadget (I'm sure it was Q that came up with the iPhone, except when Mi6 handed it over to Apple, Steve Jobs had to remove the laser and the grappling hook).

But when it comes to Books and their transformation from pulp to pixel, it's the collector inside that seems to take over. I am less concerned with needing to teach my page-turning finger the new 'drag across the screen' move, and more concerned with the loss of my teetering stack of novels. I like the idea of letting a pristine collection of pages gather character as I move through the chapters. I like that my copy of Treasure Island has held on to a few grains of Mayan Riviera sand from my first trip to Mexico; that I have folds and scars on the cover of Jack Kerouac's On the Road from hostile floors and train station benches, dating my 2007 Euro Adventure; that it looks like each page of my Confederacy of Dunces book has been pawed three or four times, because it has; and that my copy of the Catcher in the Rye is broken-down and beaten-up because it was held hostage for several months by a book-murderer (my brother). The story behind the story about the story.

At this point the electronic book is a forced move for me. And sounding like an old soul who scoffs at change, the e-book lacks the warmth and imperfections of my travelled print copies. It's against my gadget-guru nature to side step the Kindles of the world, but if a scrolling screen can't capture the tears of laughter that now stain the pages of my Catch-22 book, then this word revolution has lost more than it's ability to gift paper cuts.