All of a sudden, Sony is advertising the hell out of their Reader Digital Book, something that’s been in their product catalog for a while. In some Metro stations here in DC, they’ve bought up all the poster ad space coming into and out of the platforms.
It definitely looks slicker than Amazon’s Kindle, but I wonder why the sudden push? I think the concept is a good one, but I can’t imagine replacing my books with this device. It’s not because of some innate need for tactile interaction with paper, though I’ll admit a certain nostalgia for that. It’s for an entirely more pragmatic reason - because books are cheaper and less breakable.
The book I’m currently reading, for example, set me back about five bucks including shipping because I bought it used. The e-books for the Sony reader have a wide range in price, but most of them aren’t nearly as inexpensive as my used books or a good trip to the library.
If I switched to digital, I would also lose the cachet of having bookshelves lined with books of every shape and size. There’s something beautiful about a library full of bound paper, colorful spines and dog-eared corners protruding like the motley band of ideas I have swirling around in my noggin. Perhaps I’m too much of a romantic, but even as a technophile I can’t see making this switch.
Can you?
