Books will never die

   At our library staff meeting the other day we got a quickie course in e-readers and actually got to play around with a Kindle, Nook, and a Samsung tablet.  It was perfect timing for me, because I didn't know jack squat about looking at e-books and as soon as the paper version of my memoir is a done deal, I want to put it into e-book format.  But besides the blessing of learning something new I can put to use, handling those e-readers affirmed my belief that real books will never die.  No way!  Those little gizmos are fun to play with, but there are just too many things you can do with books that you can't with e-readers, like:

• smell the tang of the ink on paper;
• hear the creak of the spine when you open it for the very first time;
• lay it over your eyes and feel the comforting weight of the pages when you want to rest or ponder a bit;
• dog ear the pages to remember a special passage;
• run your fingers across the slick, brightly colored spines standing in the bookcase when you're looking for something new to read;
• be surrounded by a whole world of possible escapes when you wander through a book store;
• pick it up and read a paragraph or two during those annoying political ads;
• and even utilitarian uses like a door stop, makeshift end table, or a weight to hold down something you just glued.

   Can you tell I love books?  Yup, I'm hooked for life.  If I traveled a bunch, then sure an e-reader would be handy so I wouldn't have to tote around the five or six books I'm usually reading.  And I think e-readers are an excellent tool for students to use instead of having to buy thick textbooks that have to be updated every year or so anyway and waste so many trees in the making.  But there's just no feeling like holding a book in my hands for me.
   I'd love to hear your thoughts on books, so jump in with a comment if you're a book lover of any kind.
   Have a crrr-azy weekend, Yall, and hope you have time to escape into a good book!