More Than a Feeling

In the age of e-readers and tablets, the use and sales of actual books and newspapers continues to decrease. E-readers advertise that they make reading a much more simple and enjoyable experience. While many agree and are switching over to these e-readers, many people still love the "feeling" they get from holding a real book or newspaper. Even though so many people claim that this "feeling" is important and is keeping them from using e-readers, it is very difficult to find just one person that can specifically explain what this "feeling" is. 

Even though I do own an e-reader, I can definitely understand the special feeling that comes from real books. People like how it feels to flip through a book, physically turn the page, fold over the pages, and smell the pages. They like how they can "get lost" in a real book, where it is difficult to do that with an e-reader. This experience is described by one blogger who forgot how good it felt to read a real book until she bought a bunch from a bookstore that was going out of business. http://www.digitizd.com/2011/02/22/the-feeling-of-reading-a-book/ 

Although these features of reading a real book may seem little and insignificant, I think the meaning of reading a real book goes much further. As many of us were children, we saw our parents and grandparents reading books and newspapers, not e-readers and articles on the computer. I think that for many young people today, reading a real book gives us a feeling of nostalgia and reverts us back to our childhoods. When we learned to read, we read real books. When we saw our parents reading, we wanted to be like them by being able to read "big books" or whole newspapers. I think that as children, we would strive to finally be able to read those big heavy books and understand everything that was in the newspapers, so we naturally want to continue with that trend into adulthood.

I also feel that a lot of people are hesitant about switching over to e-readers because they love to get lost in a book. Although this may be possible with an e-reader, it would definitely be difficult to do. With an e-reader or a tablet, it is so easy to get distracted with other things. Since these devices have WiFi capabilities, many people constantly feel the need to check their emails, look something up online, or click on articles or look at other books that may be related to what they are currently reading. I know that when I am reading something on my computer, it is very difficult for me to get through the reading without looking at something else on my computer. With real books, this is not an issue. When reading a real book, you can read for hours-on-end with no distractions, which can better engulf you in the story than an e-reader can.

The feeling that people get from reading a real book has been able to keep books alive, but I don't know how long it will last. As e-readers continue to become more and more popular, children will eventually learn to read with them and see their parents using them. E-readers will soon become the norm, and both real books and the feelings associated with them will soon disappear.