No more paper books? No way!

I had a really nice time last Saturday shopping at one of Roanoke's book superstores. I went in to exchange a book and buy two others, and I came out with 11 books in all. Fortunately, I had a gift card left over from Christmas, so I didn't really spend a lot. I also had a nice bagel and a beverage and ran into a Ferrum student and an alumna I hadn't seen for a while.

So when I got home and saw a magazine ad promising me that one day soon, I'll be able to download whatever I want to read right onto my computer, I was not as excited as you might expect.

"This is a story about the future of reading," began the advertisement. The "eBook" is "a quality reading experience that begins to rival paper." Because of rapid developments in typeface technology, brags the company, "the first paper-like reading experience on a PC" should be available within the decade. By 2010, developers predict, eBooks will outsell paper in many categories. As technology is refined, a single device could store a million titles and run for 24 hours before a recharge, despite weighing only half a pound, less than most hardbacks today.

By the time the second decade of the century ends, I read, the entire Library of Congress will be available electronically and newspapers will exist only in electronic format. Ninety percent of books will be available in both print and electronic texts, but paper will be chosen primarily by collectors.. And here is the software mavens' coup de grâce: by the year 2020, Webster's will give the print definition of "book" SECONDARY to the electronic.

Well -- I can certainly see the advantages of eBook technology.

For starters, I'd much rather my child carry five or six CDs than the same number of heavy textbooks to school in a backpack. Anyone who has ever helped me move will gladly tell you how much easier that task would be if every book I own were a storage disk instead. Better yet, if I can put a million titles on one eReader, a toddler could carry my entire library to the moving van in one trip. And no more indecision about what books to pack for vacation. I'll just take them all and decide there!

With the audio capabilities of laptops, it would be a simple matter to set an eBook to READ ITSELF TO YOU, when you're driving in the car, for example, or while you're walking for exercise. This would be a great advantage for students with visual learning disabilities. Readers with weak eyesight could change the type size to whatever is easier for them to read -- every book is potentially a large-print book!

And for those of us who read books for work, not just for fun, this technology presents several tempting advantages. For starters, we can easily highlight text in any color available to the computer. Hyperlinks could instantly take a reader to a built-in dictionary or thesaurus or, for non-native speakers, a translation dictionary. With a click, you could read "Scarlett O'Hara n'était-ce pas belle" rather than "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful."

This technology would eventually change documentation methods. Teachers could simply instruct students to create a hyperlink to a reference.

Writing a paper about the use of cat symbolism in "The Postman Always Rings Twice?" In less than a minute, you could search the text for all appearances of the word "cat." Reading a book could become as interactive as the best CD-ROM encyclopedias are now. If a character sings, an audio link could allow a reader to hear her. One click, and we could SEE that portrait of Dorian Gray.

And perhaps this technology could level the playing field in the publishing business, so that anyone with a good story could put it in electronic format and upload it to the web for any interested reader to buy. Book editors would become an endangered species.

Yes, it's easy to see how people could get really carried away by this new e-gadget.

But if you read the advertisements closely, something else is relatively apparent.

The software company promises "a book-like reading experience," one which will "rival paper." Rather than replacing the traditional book, the company promises, its designers will use it "as a blueprint."

Does it seem silly to you to try to create a "book-like reading experience" to replace reading a book? Isn't that like creating a "pool-like swimming experience" as a replacement for swimming in a pool? I'm reminded of the librarian who, when his PowerPoint presentation crashed, couldn't show students a slide of the magazines and journals he was standing only five feet from.

I bought my nephews two Harry Potter books for Christmas, and I soon found myself buying my own copies. I liked the story, though I would probably have liked it equally well on a computer screen.

But I also like the BOOKS. They're heavy, at over 300 pages each, and the paper is good quality, with a smooth finish. At the beginning of each chapter, there's a black-and-white illustration. The jacket has texture, and I found myself closing the book to look at it periodically, running my fingers over the gilt lettering. Best of all, with the book superstore's discount on new titles, I got them -- hard-back books -- for under $10. That, in my mind, is a real bargain.

And I don't need any device -- unless you count my glasses -- to read them. I'm not a rustic who will forego my word processor in favor of a pencil and paper. I recognize technology's advantages. For example, I live in a rural area, so I watch a lot of movies on pay-per-view. I've become a kind of movie recluse, but despite the convenience (and lower cost), I honestly miss the smells, sounds and textures of the movie theater experience.

So when I get my ERD (electronic reading device), I'm taking it to the bookstore to get it loaded, whenever possible. While I'm there, I'm going to have a cup of coffee and talk to the other customers and the clerks. I am definitely, certainly, absolutely going to buy some books I can TOUCH. And I believe with all my heart that they will still be there.