Sticking to Paper and Ink

The results of the poll I ran a few weeks ago were definite- the majority of my readers have Print 4 Life tattooed over their hearts. And, I would assume, inked in that curlicue script so beloved of hip hop artists everywhere.

I'll be skipping the tattoo, but I agree with my friends. There will be no ereader for me in the near future. First of all, there's the matter of cost. I just can't justify spending over $100 on a piece of equipment when I'm still paying off student loans, trying to keep my credit card bill reasonable, and tipping a firm 20% on all my drinks.

But it's more than just finances. Since I polled my readers, I have poked at a Kobo while avoiding overeager Chapters employees, and tooled around on somebody's Kindle 2. And I've realized that one thing really bothers me. Most ereaders are about the size of a trade paperback, but the screen is only a part of that. The Kindle 2 felt particularly miserly, maybe equalling half of an average printed page. I can only imagine Kindle users with poor eyesight getting carpal tunnel syndrome of the thumb working their way through Freedom. Just. 6,000. More. Clicks. Of the Next Page. Button.

It's completely irrational, but I'm so used to the average presentation of a page that only seeing half that would feel as if I was getting half of the information. Clearly, there are many people out there who don't share my issues- Kindle downloads outsell paperbacks on Amazon.

And, should anyone find it in their hearts and wallets to gift me an iPad, I'm sure I would change my mind as well. They would have to pry that bit of shininess out of my cramped, desperately tapping, hands.

The Great eBook Question

Confession: I spend all working day making, testing and swearing at ebooks. And then I promptly go home and open up a print book.

I don't even own a dedicated eReader. My iPod Touch can, when needed, be pressed into service as such a thing, although only for short periods of time. The screen's so small it just feels like I'm reading a regular book out of the wrong end of a telescope.

But that (almost) changed today. After a very frustrating afternoon spent undoing my acceptably-designed ePub so it would look passable on the Kobo iPad app, I nearly walked myself and my credit card over to Chapters. I was angry, hungry, and adamant that I would just buy a frikkin' Kobo, and see if my books looked better or (heaven forfend!) worse on the actual device.

However, more fiscally conservative heads prevailed. Also, Chapters closes at 7 here.

Now I'm trying to rationally decide whether it makes sense to get an ereader or not. I'm not one of those people who has a fetishistic attachment to print books. Or a conviction that ebooks are humanity's first step on its quick two-step into ignorance, starting with the Kindle and ending with a Road Warrior-like future, where reality TV has supplanted the opera as the intelligentsia's entertainment of choice and the rest of us just listlessly poke the ground with sticks. And those sticks? They aren't even pointy.

Ereaders have their benefits, from accessibility to price. But I also live within walking distance from a library, where I can get most of the books I want, for free. And those books that I would rather buy, I can't imagine reading on a device. Squinting at some poor graphic novel in PDF form on an e-ink screen? I would rather page through a thousand mildewed pages of a hundred old Archie comics. So, I will put the question to the masses: Do I go bravely into the digital future, or cling the past of wood pulp and glue? Please vote in the poll to the right.