This amazing stop-motion animated film, created for the New Zealand Book Council, reminds me of all the reasons I love books — the old-fashioned ones, that call for turning actual paper pages. This clip, produced by the creative team of Line and Martin Andersen for the ad firm Colenso BBDO, features a passage from Maurice Gee’s 1992 book Going West. Trust me, it’s worth two minutes of your time:
Try doing that with a Kindle! Electronic readers may be popular, and they may even shrink my cumbersome wallful of literary treasures into a single portable hand-held device. But the book remains a pretty efficient content-delivery system that’s served us well for centuries.
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Thank you for this–I was just having a discussion about books vs. electronic readers, and I will always choose the old-fashioned way of reading books. There’s something much more comforting and personal about holding an actual book in your hand and turning the pages. My life is clutter-free, but I adore my overflowing bookcases, and one of my favorite things in the world is walking into a bookstore.
Ditto.
Absolutely! I love going into B&N, picking a book off the shelf and smelling that new book smell. Call me strange……
I could spend hours in B&N just reading book jackets. Not to mention curling up w/ a good book and flipping the pages. I just don’t think I could give that up for the convenience of having all my books in one place.
Everything you said. I want to feel the weight of a book in my hand, to experience turning the pages, to watch the collection of pages at the front of the book get bigger as I delve deeper into the story. I want different fonts and different sizes and hard- and soft-cover. My prized possession is my large, ever-growing collection of books for a reason.
So true and well said!
Word.
I will never buy into the e-book craze. Nothing beats holding a real book in your hands. And I’m 18! Technology cannot replace books, for me.
I agree that old fashioned books are nice, but the new electronic ones are great too. I have a Kindle, and I love the fact that I can carry hundreds of books around at once on my Kindle. Also, it makes me feel good that I’m saving some trees!
I have an electronic reader, which is convenient for when I travel or to have in my purse, but nothing beats the experience of reading an actual book. I don’t know why, but it engages the brain in a different way, probably because it utlizies the senses more – the smell of the paper, binding, and glue; the feel of fine paper; the sound of the pages physically turning. And I still do find it easier on the eyes.
There’s absolutely nothing I like better than a book in my hands, and I have a huge collection of books and bookshelves and can’t imagine life without reading and turning the pages. But living abroad with a very limited amount of space would be made much easier with an e-reader of some sort. I won’t get buried in books and I can still read all the tales I love. Nothing beats a book, but there are some practical reasons for the e-reader right now. (Similar to the idea of an mp3 player as opposed to piles and piles of cds.)
Great comparison to the mp3 player.
I see no reason whatsoever to get one of those electronic book readers. I don’t even do books on tape. The feeling you get from turning the pages to see what happens next…you can’t get that from some e-reader. What I love is when I’m getting through a book and I see the progress my bookmark is making through the book as I’m reading it. Love that. E-readers have no place in my house, give me regular paper and ink any day.
I find these e-reader things so depressing. Must everything be turned into a gadget? I don’t care how popular they get, I will not give in to these awful, character-less “devices”. Nothing can beat the feel and smell(c’mon books smell good!) of a book. Nothin.
Hands up, how many book lovers consider themselves “green” or environmentally conscious? While I’m sure there is some environmental impact with a Kindle (batteries, etc.), I imagine it’s greatly outweighed by the trees it will save over its lifetime. I love books, too. But it’s time to go on to the next step.
It’s something to consider, but trees are a farm-able, renewable resource. They aren’t razing the rainforest to print our best-sellers. Your batteries and LCDs, however, will be with us for a long, long time.
Fair enough. But now factor in production, transportation and storage of books. How much electricity does a Barnes and Noble use? How many gallons of fuel were needed to transport Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? All the sudden, the calculus isn’t so simple.
Bull. I am going with Rich, Kindles are environmentally responsible compared to Harry Potter
Plus, my Kindle is hydro powered, and if you want to argue that trees are renewable resources, come visit my home where the pulp mill was. Go down to costa rica and try to understand the difference between old growth forest and new growth, old growth jungle and new growth. Nothing can replace that. A forest is more than a tree farm. Prairie is more than flat land waiting to be farmed. I love the weight of my kindle in my hand, the smell and feel of the purple leather, the comfort of it carrying me through the heartbreaking stories and the funny ones and – man, I’m sure this will save the backs of every college student! I’ll actually read my text books this way! And the biggest draw when I researched Kindles initially, was hearing how they impact the lives of the handicap. For me, being read to while I follow along is a blessing that allows me to pass my classes and keep up with the reading requirements. For others I read about, the lightness of kindles and the ease of turning pages makes a world of difference – you don’t think of books being hard to hold or turn the pages of but for some it’s a mountain. And for my parents, having the adjustable larger print allows them to read, instead of blindly squinting at the page. Additionally, seeing as we live in Alaska, there is no Barns and Nobel here and shipping is more than the cost of the book, and you don’t get to flip through it first. Kindle offers us that bookstore. On a boat in the ocean fishing, it’s not the same three books over and over, but whatever you want – just stick the kindle in a zip-lock gallon bag first. There was a low-income school I heard about that had no room for a library and just a few books; they closed the library and bought kindles instead – now they have all the books they need for their students. I think Kindles are a wonderful thing. And man oh man, it will break my heart to have to give up so many of my paper-books when I move this summer, but my kindle will be in my lap the whole time.
I think there’s an assumption there that old-fashioned book readers are hypocritical tree huggers. I’m environmentally conscious, but I’m also practical–it’s six of one, half dozen of the other. Trees are a renewable source, and maybe it’s not the most sustainable way to go (although, FYI, you can pick up just as many books that are made from recycled material), but you also have people tossing out their batteries, which are highly toxic. And unless someone consciously makes an effort to recycle their electronics, they will be a pollutant forever. And I haven’t seen, well, any e-readers that purport to be made from recycled material. Any at any rate, it’s still a choice: you can take your electronic gadgetry, but I’ll take my paper books. You can think your way is better, and I’ll continue to think my way is better. End of story.
Two of the great polluters in the world are wine and books.
Shipping heavy items like wine and books adds so much to the pollution of the earth.
The production/manufacture of books is where most of the pollution comes from. Tress are renewable, but the chemicals, power and construction used to create books is where the pollution come from.
And books can be reused over and over and over. Not everyone can afford technology, or have access to it, but everyone can get a book.
you should see some of the “public schools” in washington DC. the heart of our country and those kids – k through 5th, don’t have a book to read in the classroom and no library. How on earth are they supposed to learn to read?!
Yeah, I only use e-books when it’s more convenient, like commuting to work
I’ll consider getting one when my local library offers e-books. I read about 10 books a month easily and could never afford all those downloads!
Does your library belong to a larger network? I live in MA, and the majority of our libraries are in networks and offer e-books and mp3 files of books on CD’s. Ask your librarian. I work in a library and I love books, but I also like to download audiobooks for the car and exercise. No e-books for me.
that was awesome!!!
I have actually ordered the Nook myself after going back and forth. I do love the feel of a book in my hands and even though getting the gadget, will not give up on books either. They are a bit cheaper actually, so saving money, plus I have ran out of space in my bookcases for many more books. Add in that I read about 30 books a year, if not more some years, then it was time to look at something else to do. Plus, I do love a good gadget! Am excited to get one as well.
Reading “Goodnight Moon” to my children from a Kindle would never be right, never!
I love my books, and will probably always go for a real book before I’ll go with an E-book, but there is definitely something nice about reading about a book online and being able to instantly download it and read, without having to search stores, libraries, or wait to have it shipped. I don’t have an e-reader yet, but I’ll be getting one eventually, just for that reason.