Author Appleton

Writing. Fantasy. Sci-fi. Mystery

ebooks

eBooks and increased literacy

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Buying a new iPhone that actually has a decent screen-size and far better memory reminded me of why I love ebooks. Kindle and iBooks are now more readily available to me (because I can’t have my iPad at work) and for a working father of four the ability to snatch bits of reading time when and where I can is invaluable.

Now I imagine you are a little surprised to hear me say that because I so often celebrate print books and decry the negative aspects of reading in the digital age. But though I am an ardent fan of collecting books in print I do recognize that ebooks are a wonderful opportunity for both writers and readers.

The benefits, I believe, are best summarized in one word: Accessibility. Accessibility is the key to literacy.

For writers: it is now incredibly simple to take your finished book and upload it to Amazon’s Kindle platform. It is an unprecedented means of delivering more content with more consistency, in a short span of time.

For readers: eBooks are instantly downloadable, most often cheaper to purchase, and offer out-of-print works that are often difficult to find in paperback. My wife has acquired many books free through Kindle and I have found some great bargains as well.

I have a collection of tiny books, most of them around a hundred years old. They are titled The Workman’s Library. No more than a few inches in width and height these books were designed to fit in the lunchbox or pocket of an average working citizen so that, in the previous few moments he had to spare, he could read Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare, or Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Digital books today are the equivalent of those tiny paperbacks. They can be brought anywhere, read in sweet snippets… But eBooks are superior. Within the palm of my hand I hold hundreds of books all accessible in an instant.

While I still prefer print books, eBooks are a wonderful asset to me both as a writer and as a reader.

Q: What are your thoughts on the advantages of eBooks?

Why print books are here to stay

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Several years ago the success of digital books, mostly related to the wide reception of the Kindle reading device, spawned a big debate amongst readers, editors, authors, and publishers. The question: would digital books kill the sales of print books? At the time most experts agreed the print book had seen its day and the vast majority of readers would shift over to digital. Back then I was one of the few, at least on the web, who took the other position. Print books are here to stay.

Print books are here to stay. It is interesting to note that most of my peers in the publishing industry postulated that the death of print books would be, in large part, a generational thing. It was postulated that younger readers prefer their devices. They prefer their technology.

Truth is, I have traveled through many states and spoken with thousands of students. In public schools a decent portion of the readers did later purchase my books on their iPads and their Kindle readers. Yet still the vast majority purchased the print copy. Some readers bought both. In the homeschool crowd I found many readers like myself, and for the most part they preferred print copies. Print copies can be signed by the author and lifted to your face for that comforting book smell. Ah! Ink on paper.

My personal library contains books dating back to the mid-1800’s. Those books have been handled by people long dead. The scent of the people and of the world they lived in contributes to the book experience in a way digital books never can. Physical books have memory in their pages and in their cover.

I have nothing against digital books. They have been a marvelous medium through which to expand my readership and my own reading material. Also, I have read a fair number of books on my own iPad and have greatly enjoyed it. But they are not an artifact. Nor can they be. A print book can stand on a shelf as a discussion piece. A print book retains an element of each person that touched it.

The publishing industry should not have been so swift to judge print books as artifacts. They are here to stay. Most readers of my books are middle graders, high schoolers, and college students… and they prefer paperbacks.

Question: What advantage do you see with paperback books?