Yesterday Amazon released its list of the "Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in America", which was based on sales of books, ebooks, and other word-based media since January 1*. On it are some cities you would expect: Cambridge, Berkeley, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Much to my pleasant surprise, sitting one spot ahead of our soon to be streetcar sister city Portland, is our beloved Queen City.
Reflecting on it, my surprise was really ill-founded. It was based on stereotypes and misconceptions about cities in the Midwest, in general, and Cincinnati, in particular. Despite what the naysayers might claim, Cincinnati is not a cultural wasteland. Like any other city, this one can not exist (or at least thrive) based solely on business and sports. Creative people are drawn to creative outlets and without either, you can't have a successful city.
I haven't lived here long enough to make any time-based comparison, but I can say that our library system is phenomenal. Not only is the Cincinnati/Hamilton County Public library one of the largest, most accessible large library networks I've ever had the fortune of visiting, but we are also graced with its older sister, the Mercantile Library. It is one of the most relaxing, peaceful places in an urban area that I've ever visited and it even manages to host a great collection. If you're not a member there, you need to be. At least give it a visit. You'll probably never see anything like it anywhere else.
In addition to literature, the rest of Cincinnati's art scene continues to thrive. I dare you to go to an OTR Final Friday (TONIGHT!)and walk the galleries then catch a show (and have a drink) at MOTR and then tell me Cincinnati is a cultural wasteland. You just can't do it. The people who denigrate this fine city have either never spent time here or haven't done so in the recent past.
As is indicated by this study, Cincinnati, the Queen City of the U.S., and its population will not conform to the negative stereotypes of misconceptions of people who have no stake in its/their success. Since moving here I have met more smart, cultured, positive people than I ever expected. These people are the present and the future of this city and they are the reason, in addition to the institutions listed above, that this city will continue to thrive and be a place people want to work and live.
If you ask me, I'll take Cincinnati over Cambridge, Berkeley, or Washington D.C. any day of the week and I doubt I'm the only one that feels that way.
Via: Good.is Education
*I have some qualms about the methodology used to create this list, but that's neither here nor there.
Showing posts with label editorializing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editorializing. Show all posts
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Guest Post: Barry Horstman Only A Slightly Better Journalist Than Most Third-Graders
One of my buddies (who will remain unnamed) sent me this earlier today. I decided its brilliance needed a platform and, after receiving his approval, I now present it to you. P.S. It's a lot funnier if you read the article below first.
-Josh
If Barry Horstman continues to write articles for the Cincinnati Enquirer at his current, consistent level of low quality, it will continue to be only slightly a higher level of writing than that characteristic of an elementary school child.
A Cincinnati-area remedial school teacher last week compared several of Horstman's recent articles to a handful of cursive handwriting lessons completed by her second and third-grade students. She stated that "Barry's writing skills were better than her barely literate students', but only slightly."
This comparison likely will open another chapter in the quest to determine how Horstman talked a "major" newspaper into giving him a job.
The reporter did, in fact, score higher not only on writing skills than his seven year old competitors, but in penmanship as well. The teacher, who requested to remain anonymous, noted that he was "giddy as a schoolboy" when she gave him a gold star for his superb effort. Many of his colleagues recalled that the last time he was this excited, Ohio Governor John Kasich had just stripped state funds from the highest rated transportation project in the state, the Cincinnati Streetcar.
His competitors jealously complained about the unfairness of the contest, especially considering that they had only learned the alphabet a few years earlier and had not yet received lessons in esoteric material such as sentences or the difference between fact and fiction. Horstman retorted that also had not yet received instruction on the latter topic.
Letters from City Council members Leslie Ghiz and Charlie Winburn contested the findings, requesting documentation on every piece of minutia related to the report. The two determined that to avoid the wasting of taxpayers' money, they would instead waste taxpayers' time by hosting a meaningless special session concerning the veracity of the report. Vice Mayor Qualls, joined by Council members Thomas, Quinlivan and Young collectively face-palmed after receiving the news.
A joint press conference between leadership at COAST and Chris Smitherman consisted of nothing but the word "boondoggle" being shouted repeatedly for forty-five minutes.
Related articles: Streetcar only slightly faster than walking
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Pulling back from the brink (for now): Congress Edition
I'm going to apologize for this rant ahead of time, but here we go...
This week has been an extremely stressful, confusing week for federal employees. For those who are not aware, Congress still has not passed a budget for the 2011 fiscal year. This would be embarrassing, but perhaps not overly so, if the fiscal year started on January 1 for the government. Unfortunately this isn't the case. The 2011 fiscal year for the federal government started on October 1. This means that more than six months into the fiscal year, Congress still has not determined how things should be paid for. Add in the fact that the President just presented his 2012 fiscal year budget and workers deep in the catacombs of Executive agencies are already toiling away at the 2013 budget, what we have here is a whole lot of stupid.
In no other respectable organization could what we have seen these last six months happen. Could you imagine being in the finance or budget department of your workplace and the CFO deciding that, "Hell, budgets are overrated. Let's wing it this year." This obviously would be unacceptable. The absolute black hole of leadership from the officials WE elected to represent us in Washington D.C. would make Nero blush. While the Hill was busy bickering about policy riders, Planned Parenthood, and whether $37B or $39B would be cut from the budget, real people were worrying about real things.
The biggest concern on almost 800,000 people's minds is whether they would report to work on Monday morning. This whole week, almost a million federal employees were waiting until the clock struck midnight and Friday turned to Saturday. If there was no deal struck for either a budget for the rest of the fiscal year or a short term extension of the temporary funding, almost all of them would be furloughed come Monday. This list actually includes me. I didn't didn't work for the federal government and don't remember the shutdown in 1995, but I work with many people who do. Then, just as now, there were an alarming lack of grown ups running our government. The government actually shut down twice that year (briefly in November than then for more than two weeks from mid-December to January).
This, of course, means that those employees were not paid during those periods. Luckily, they were paid afterward, but these games that are being played with real people's lives is sickening. I get it: federal employees are not the most sympathy-gathering group of employees in our country. There is a reason that most of the media and politicians focused on the fact that soldiers would not be paid during the shutdown. Without question this is a more compelling story than Ms. Suzie Bureaucrat in the Department of Redundancy and Inefficiency being furloughed. In the end, though, federal employees are real people and deserve to not just be collateral damage in stupid fights over things the fighting parties don't even believe in.
And luckily it never came to that. After arguing over next to nothing for a week, our best and brightest struck a deal at the 11th hour last night in which the Republicans gave up policy riders concerning Planned Parenthood and the EPA and the Democrats gave up more cuts. And I, as a federal employee, should be grateful, right? Are you grateful when you order a cheeseburger at a restaurant and what you ordered actually is brought to your table? Are you grateful the auto mechanic you paid to put a new tire on your car actually did so (and even installed the right size tire, to boot)? Of course not.When you pay someone money, it comes with an expectation that they will do their job. Unlike members of Congress, most restaurant employees and auto mechanics don't make upwards of $200,000 a year. Yet every day these people do their job. Congress: all I, and 800,000 other federal employees, ask is that you DO YOUR JOB. You were elected to do it and you were paid to do it. Get it done.
P.S. Don't look now, but the temporary funding only lasts until this coming up Friday. So, federal employees out there, get ready for a repeat of this week!
This week has been an extremely stressful, confusing week for federal employees. For those who are not aware, Congress still has not passed a budget for the 2011 fiscal year. This would be embarrassing, but perhaps not overly so, if the fiscal year started on January 1 for the government. Unfortunately this isn't the case. The 2011 fiscal year for the federal government started on October 1. This means that more than six months into the fiscal year, Congress still has not determined how things should be paid for. Add in the fact that the President just presented his 2012 fiscal year budget and workers deep in the catacombs of Executive agencies are already toiling away at the 2013 budget, what we have here is a whole lot of stupid.
In no other respectable organization could what we have seen these last six months happen. Could you imagine being in the finance or budget department of your workplace and the CFO deciding that, "Hell, budgets are overrated. Let's wing it this year." This obviously would be unacceptable. The absolute black hole of leadership from the officials WE elected to represent us in Washington D.C. would make Nero blush. While the Hill was busy bickering about policy riders, Planned Parenthood, and whether $37B or $39B would be cut from the budget, real people were worrying about real things.
The biggest concern on almost 800,000 people's minds is whether they would report to work on Monday morning. This whole week, almost a million federal employees were waiting until the clock struck midnight and Friday turned to Saturday. If there was no deal struck for either a budget for the rest of the fiscal year or a short term extension of the temporary funding, almost all of them would be furloughed come Monday. This list actually includes me. I didn't didn't work for the federal government and don't remember the shutdown in 1995, but I work with many people who do. Then, just as now, there were an alarming lack of grown ups running our government. The government actually shut down twice that year (briefly in November than then for more than two weeks from mid-December to January).
This, of course, means that those employees were not paid during those periods. Luckily, they were paid afterward, but these games that are being played with real people's lives is sickening. I get it: federal employees are not the most sympathy-gathering group of employees in our country. There is a reason that most of the media and politicians focused on the fact that soldiers would not be paid during the shutdown. Without question this is a more compelling story than Ms. Suzie Bureaucrat in the Department of Redundancy and Inefficiency being furloughed. In the end, though, federal employees are real people and deserve to not just be collateral damage in stupid fights over things the fighting parties don't even believe in.
And luckily it never came to that. After arguing over next to nothing for a week, our best and brightest struck a deal at the 11th hour last night in which the Republicans gave up policy riders concerning Planned Parenthood and the EPA and the Democrats gave up more cuts. And I, as a federal employee, should be grateful, right? Are you grateful when you order a cheeseburger at a restaurant and what you ordered actually is brought to your table? Are you grateful the auto mechanic you paid to put a new tire on your car actually did so (and even installed the right size tire, to boot)? Of course not.When you pay someone money, it comes with an expectation that they will do their job. Unlike members of Congress, most restaurant employees and auto mechanics don't make upwards of $200,000 a year. Yet every day these people do their job. Congress: all I, and 800,000 other federal employees, ask is that you DO YOUR JOB. You were elected to do it and you were paid to do it. Get it done.
P.S. Don't look now, but the temporary funding only lasts until this coming up Friday. So, federal employees out there, get ready for a repeat of this week!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Publishers and Libraries Battle over Ebook Expiration Terms
It looks like publishing companies continue the historical practice of alienating their customers, both retail and wholesale. With the rise of the ebook, publishers are now realizing that they aren't extracting nearly as much profit from readers and libraries as is possible. The New York Times yesterday had an article highlighting the current issues with the system. In particular, it seems that HarperCollins isn't satisfied with the current model of how ebook lending works between libraries and their patrons.
At the same time, it is not a tenable model for libraries to have to repay for copies of the exact same book roughly every year for popular titles. For very popular books, this could mean repurchasing multiple copies of the same title numerous times over the years. I have a feeling that even heavily circulated physical copies of books have a useful life of over one year.
Obviously (and in my opinion, rightfully) the publishers are going to look like the bad guys in this fight. Almost every time you have profit-driven organization versus a service-driven organization in a PR fight, the latter is going to come out the victor. Libraries and their patrons are going to be the victims of the short-sighted sales model that publishers adopted with the quiet entry of ebooks into the readership market. With the growth of portable electronic devices that can display ebooks (Ipad, Kindle, etc.) this quiet entry has become a booming industry. It reminds me a lot of the newspaper industry today. They entered the field of online journalism back in the day with no sales model and now they are all struggling to determine how to make some revenue from their websites.
The lack of planning from both industries is rather galling. I don't see things getting any better, either. With the sales growth of e-readers and ubiquitousness of smart phones, ebooks are here to stay. Publishers and libraries need to agree on a sustainable model for ebook sales that in some ways reflects circulation and purchasing patterns of physical books, yet at the same time capitalizes on the low-cost creation and delivery methods of the electronic format. I'll just say this: good luck libraries. You're up against a ruthless industry who is big, bad, and wants all of your money.
What do all you readers and library patrons out there think is a reasonable compromise between the current situation and the new restrictions put forth by HarperCollins?
"For years, public libraries building their e-book collections have typically done so with the agreement from publishers that once a library buys an e-book, it can lend it out, one reader at a time, an unlimited number of times.
Last week, that agreement was upended by HarperCollins Publishers when it began enforcing new restrictions on its e-books, requiring that books be checked out only 26 times before they expire. Assuming a two-week checkout period, that is long enough for a book to last at least one year."I can see the problems from both points of view. The publishers are obviously going to have a great deal of concern over a sales model where a library can purchase a book that will literally last forever. When a publisher sells a library a physical copy of a book, they know there is a good chance of repeat sales of the same book as it circulates and wears out physically. Obviously this will never happen to an electronic copy of the book.
At the same time, it is not a tenable model for libraries to have to repay for copies of the exact same book roughly every year for popular titles. For very popular books, this could mean repurchasing multiple copies of the same title numerous times over the years. I have a feeling that even heavily circulated physical copies of books have a useful life of over one year.
Obviously (and in my opinion, rightfully) the publishers are going to look like the bad guys in this fight. Almost every time you have profit-driven organization versus a service-driven organization in a PR fight, the latter is going to come out the victor. Libraries and their patrons are going to be the victims of the short-sighted sales model that publishers adopted with the quiet entry of ebooks into the readership market. With the growth of portable electronic devices that can display ebooks (Ipad, Kindle, etc.) this quiet entry has become a booming industry. It reminds me a lot of the newspaper industry today. They entered the field of online journalism back in the day with no sales model and now they are all struggling to determine how to make some revenue from their websites.
The lack of planning from both industries is rather galling. I don't see things getting any better, either. With the sales growth of e-readers and ubiquitousness of smart phones, ebooks are here to stay. Publishers and libraries need to agree on a sustainable model for ebook sales that in some ways reflects circulation and purchasing patterns of physical books, yet at the same time capitalizes on the low-cost creation and delivery methods of the electronic format. I'll just say this: good luck libraries. You're up against a ruthless industry who is big, bad, and wants all of your money.
What do all you readers and library patrons out there think is a reasonable compromise between the current situation and the new restrictions put forth by HarperCollins?
Friday, March 4, 2011
Cutting the Cord: Time Warner Cable be damned!
When I moved to Cincinnati last summer, I was scouting the internet/cable provider scene. Not particularly surprisingly, the providers were no less weaselly than those I have dealt with in the past with other cities. Also not surprisingly, a behemoth of a company (Time Warner Cable) held a monopoly over the cable market over much of the city (including where I would be moving). As we've all learned in Econ 101, monopolies do not make for good service, price, or quality of goods in most cases. This is certainly the case with cable/internet providers. They are going to give you a little content you like, a lot you couldn't possibly care about, and they're going to bend you over the barrel monetarily for it.
I got one of those new customer deals with an introductory offer of $80.00 or so for the highest level internet, the basic HD cable package, and a DVR. Not terrible, but also not the best deal in the world. There certainly are other things I'd rather spend my money on. All was good in the world until six months later, when the introductory offer expired and the normal price commenced. $130.00! This was clearly unacceptable. Rather than call and threaten to cancel my service to get my prices lowered (monopolies will call your bluff), I decided on a different, more "extreme" option. I would cancel cable, chopping my bill in more than half.
Not only would I save money, but hopefully time, too. In retrospect, the amount of time I spend in front of a television watching some terrible show that I wouldn't possibly miss if it wasn't put in front of my lazy face is galling. Just terrible. Of course, there are movies and television shows I love. How would I get to watch these? Enter Netflix and Hulu Plus. I've had Netflix for ages and with the slow growth of their streaming collection, they present a reasonable alternative to cable. Ditto with Hulu. While the basic Hulu collection is a bit more limited, Hulu Plus contains back episodes and entire seasons for show. They have a mix of new and older shows (randomly: Alf).
To watch these, I have a slimline desktop PC hooked up to my television in the living room via HDMI and in the bedroom I have a neat, little Roku Player. The Roku Player is really cool. The size of a small paperback book, this little guy allows you to stream Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon VOD, and various other sources on content wirelessly. You can also hook it up with a wired connection if your wireless connection is too week for streaming HD video.
The question that must be asked: how is it going so far? Actually, not that bad. I miss some cable channels like the Food Network, but it's only a minor inconvenience. The other thing, which is much larger of an inconvenience, is the lack of live sport options. For this, I'll probably drop some money for an over the air cable antenna since most of the sports I watch will be on the local major networks. I'm certainly still early in and it still feels a little weird to not be able to flip on the boob tube and decompress, but I think it's going to take. It's not terrible and things will only get better as current streaming service improve and new ones emerge. Obviously I'll never be able to cut my bill completely as I need internet for most of these services, it is a decent start
If anyone else is interested in getting rid of their cable service and need pointers or tips, just let me know. I'd be happy to share my experiences with all the services I've dealt with so far.
I got one of those new customer deals with an introductory offer of $80.00 or so for the highest level internet, the basic HD cable package, and a DVR. Not terrible, but also not the best deal in the world. There certainly are other things I'd rather spend my money on. All was good in the world until six months later, when the introductory offer expired and the normal price commenced. $130.00! This was clearly unacceptable. Rather than call and threaten to cancel my service to get my prices lowered (monopolies will call your bluff), I decided on a different, more "extreme" option. I would cancel cable, chopping my bill in more than half.
Not only would I save money, but hopefully time, too. In retrospect, the amount of time I spend in front of a television watching some terrible show that I wouldn't possibly miss if it wasn't put in front of my lazy face is galling. Just terrible. Of course, there are movies and television shows I love. How would I get to watch these? Enter Netflix and Hulu Plus. I've had Netflix for ages and with the slow growth of their streaming collection, they present a reasonable alternative to cable. Ditto with Hulu. While the basic Hulu collection is a bit more limited, Hulu Plus contains back episodes and entire seasons for show. They have a mix of new and older shows (randomly: Alf).
To watch these, I have a slimline desktop PC hooked up to my television in the living room via HDMI and in the bedroom I have a neat, little Roku Player. The Roku Player is really cool. The size of a small paperback book, this little guy allows you to stream Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon VOD, and various other sources on content wirelessly. You can also hook it up with a wired connection if your wireless connection is too week for streaming HD video.
The question that must be asked: how is it going so far? Actually, not that bad. I miss some cable channels like the Food Network, but it's only a minor inconvenience. The other thing, which is much larger of an inconvenience, is the lack of live sport options. For this, I'll probably drop some money for an over the air cable antenna since most of the sports I watch will be on the local major networks. I'm certainly still early in and it still feels a little weird to not be able to flip on the boob tube and decompress, but I think it's going to take. It's not terrible and things will only get better as current streaming service improve and new ones emerge. Obviously I'll never be able to cut my bill completely as I need internet for most of these services, it is a decent start
If anyone else is interested in getting rid of their cable service and need pointers or tips, just let me know. I'd be happy to share my experiences with all the services I've dealt with so far.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
CPS: Tutors Needed!
I tweeted about this last week, but I think it needs a little more emphasis. This blog focuses on reading and literature because I was lucky enough to have great parents and teachers who stressed the importance of both. Unfortunately, not every child has the support system available to him or her which fosters reading as an enjoyable, valuable experience. I believe that this has a great deal to do with why almost half of the fourth-grade students in the Cincinnati Public Schools are not considered proficient in reading.
To combat this, CPS and the Strive Partnership has put out the call for 2,000 new tutors to help with reading and math at ten targeted elementary schools. Prospective tutors must complete a two-hour training for reading and/or math. More information, included the list of targeted schools and contact information, can be found below.
The kids really need your help. Think about all the good times you have had reading your favorite books and then think about all of the kids who are and will be deprived of those feelings. The time commitment is negligible (at least 45 minutes a week) compared to the benefits the child you tutor will receive.
Original Enquirer Article
Strive Together website
To combat this, CPS and the Strive Partnership has put out the call for 2,000 new tutors to help with reading and math at ten targeted elementary schools. Prospective tutors must complete a two-hour training for reading and/or math. More information, included the list of targeted schools and contact information, can be found below.
The kids really need your help. Think about all the good times you have had reading your favorite books and then think about all of the kids who are and will be deprived of those feelings. The time commitment is negligible (at least 45 minutes a week) compared to the benefits the child you tutor will receive.
Original Enquirer Article
Strive Together website
Friday, January 28, 2011
Reading as an experience: Books vs. "E-Readers"
So, I finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (review coming this weekend) and left it up to the handy random number generator to pick what I would be reading next. I'll leave the next title a surprise until I review Invisible Man, but this book happened to be out of stock at the Cincinnati Public Library. Because of this, I had a choice: I could purchase the book and wait a couple days until it arrived or I could grab it off the internet and throw it on my Sony E-Reader. I settled for the latter and, after a few hours of reading, realized something.
To me, the experience of reading a physical copy of a book is entirely different than that of reading an electronic copy on a device. I realize this isn't a ground breaking realization, and I know that many, many people have discussed the merits (and drawbacks) of electronic readers before me, but I'm going to talk about it anyways. I know the world has been waiting for my late entry to the party.
I have had a Sony E-Reader for a little over a year. I probably never would have purchased it, but I received it for free, so I wasn't going to turn it down. It is a neat little device. While its functions are far inferior to more newly produced devices (including the Ipad), it does what I want, which is to reproduce a reasonable similar copy of a book's page on a screen. Same words, same graphics, etc. The thing is, I have read a total of four books on the device. Four. In that same time period, I have read probably about fifty or so physical copies of books. I will read a book on the E-Reader and then not pick it up until months later.
Why is this? Obviously, the ability to have hundreds of books on a device the size and weight of a slim hardcover novel is amazingly convenient. You can take notes on the pages, bookmark the pages, and best of all: you don't have to drive to the store or the library to get ahold of what you want to read. It is essentially books on demand. It's not that I'm a Luddite. I like to think and am on the upper half of the "early adopter" technology process. By all objective measures, I really should prefer this neat little piece of technology to the reading of actual books.
The thing is, I don't. In fact, other than the convenience factor, I overwhelmingly prefer everything about the process of obtaining and reading a physical copy of a book over that of an electronic copy. I love finding a book at the library (or more rarely, the book store). In fact, I love it so much that I prefer to find the books I need on the shelves than to put a hold on them and have them delivered to me. Perhaps it is my inner child responding to the pseudo-scavenger hunt aspect of it.
What I enjoy even more than this, though, is the experiencing of reading a physical book. I love the weight of a lengthy hardcover in my bag, I love the feeling of a book on my lap, and I particularly love when I manage to get ahold of a very well-produced printing of a book with high quality paper stock. Pushing a button or tracing your finger across a screen just doesn't equal the tactile affair of turning a page. To me, the experience of reading a book is much, much greater than the content within the covers. Just as you pay a premium for more than just the product consumed when you watch a movie at the theatre or enjoy a drink at your favorite bar, a book is more than just a product to me (and I assume many others). To me, one of the greatest experiences I can imagine is sitting outdoors on a sunny, late spring day, reading a great book that you truly enjoy.
That is not to say that e-readers do not have their place. Many types of media, including newspapers and magazines (in my opinion), are already in a format conducive to being read in an electronic format. The sentimentality I hold for books do not extend to newspapers or magazines for the most part. This may have a lot to do with the generation I'm part of and perhaps the next generation will overwhelmingly feel this way about books. Who knows? All I know is that unlike newspapers, books are not going anywhere. Sure, physical book sales may go down as e-reader technology improves and e-book sales rise. In fact, I think that will be probably, especially with the focus on ebooks projects at many libraries.
In all likelihood, there are many people just like me who in fifty (or perhaps even sixty) years from now will be sitting on their rockers on their front porch during a beautiful sunny day marvelling at how wonderful the paper feels under their fingers as one page turns to the next.
P.S. After reading the electronic copy for a bit, I went online and bought a copy of the book. It should arrive today. I suppose I can meet technology half way.
To me, the experience of reading a physical copy of a book is entirely different than that of reading an electronic copy on a device. I realize this isn't a ground breaking realization, and I know that many, many people have discussed the merits (and drawbacks) of electronic readers before me, but I'm going to talk about it anyways. I know the world has been waiting for my late entry to the party.
I have had a Sony E-Reader for a little over a year. I probably never would have purchased it, but I received it for free, so I wasn't going to turn it down. It is a neat little device. While its functions are far inferior to more newly produced devices (including the Ipad), it does what I want, which is to reproduce a reasonable similar copy of a book's page on a screen. Same words, same graphics, etc. The thing is, I have read a total of four books on the device. Four. In that same time period, I have read probably about fifty or so physical copies of books. I will read a book on the E-Reader and then not pick it up until months later.
Why is this? Obviously, the ability to have hundreds of books on a device the size and weight of a slim hardcover novel is amazingly convenient. You can take notes on the pages, bookmark the pages, and best of all: you don't have to drive to the store or the library to get ahold of what you want to read. It is essentially books on demand. It's not that I'm a Luddite. I like to think and am on the upper half of the "early adopter" technology process. By all objective measures, I really should prefer this neat little piece of technology to the reading of actual books.
The thing is, I don't. In fact, other than the convenience factor, I overwhelmingly prefer everything about the process of obtaining and reading a physical copy of a book over that of an electronic copy. I love finding a book at the library (or more rarely, the book store). In fact, I love it so much that I prefer to find the books I need on the shelves than to put a hold on them and have them delivered to me. Perhaps it is my inner child responding to the pseudo-scavenger hunt aspect of it.
What I enjoy even more than this, though, is the experiencing of reading a physical book. I love the weight of a lengthy hardcover in my bag, I love the feeling of a book on my lap, and I particularly love when I manage to get ahold of a very well-produced printing of a book with high quality paper stock. Pushing a button or tracing your finger across a screen just doesn't equal the tactile affair of turning a page. To me, the experience of reading a book is much, much greater than the content within the covers. Just as you pay a premium for more than just the product consumed when you watch a movie at the theatre or enjoy a drink at your favorite bar, a book is more than just a product to me (and I assume many others). To me, one of the greatest experiences I can imagine is sitting outdoors on a sunny, late spring day, reading a great book that you truly enjoy.
That is not to say that e-readers do not have their place. Many types of media, including newspapers and magazines (in my opinion), are already in a format conducive to being read in an electronic format. The sentimentality I hold for books do not extend to newspapers or magazines for the most part. This may have a lot to do with the generation I'm part of and perhaps the next generation will overwhelmingly feel this way about books. Who knows? All I know is that unlike newspapers, books are not going anywhere. Sure, physical book sales may go down as e-reader technology improves and e-book sales rise. In fact, I think that will be probably, especially with the focus on ebooks projects at many libraries.
In all likelihood, there are many people just like me who in fifty (or perhaps even sixty) years from now will be sitting on their rockers on their front porch during a beautiful sunny day marvelling at how wonderful the paper feels under their fingers as one page turns to the next.
P.S. After reading the electronic copy for a bit, I went online and bought a copy of the book. It should arrive today. I suppose I can meet technology half way.
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