When it comes to gadgets, I am no early adopter. I wait for the new technology to shake off the initial problems and get stabilized first. Even then, I may decide to hold out - case in point, I still use a flip phone. Naturally, when eReaders first came out, I was in no rush to get one. This was not some newer, better way, but a fundamentally different way of reading books. Surfing the internet and reading articles is one thing, but the idea of reading an entire book on a screen takes some getting used to. And there is much more to books than just reading.
When you buy a book, it is primarily for reading, but like with many things we enjoy, the other senses too play a part. The feel of the book, the rustle of the pages when you turn them, the glossy cover and the new book smell - all these add to the whole reading experience. You can also discretely broadcast to others what you are reading, in the process, perhaps impressing them, without having to say a word. Your collection of books can be displayed neatly on shelves with pride of ownership. A wall of books is so inviting, is it not?
My father had a fairly large library housed in several shelves. This collection was quite impressive with books in English, Sanskrit and Tamil on many different subjects from Silappathikaram to Shakespeare. You would find literary classics as well as some contemporary authors. Those books are an important memory from my boyhood. When I picked up one of them and opened it, I would see my father's name, sometimes along with the date when it was purchased. Many of them had been published and purchased well before I was born. Every time we moved, which was once every three years or so, the books would be packed carefully in wooden crates. The shelves themselves were disassembled and packed for the move as well.
When you look through an old book, you get a sense of shared history. Many hands must have browsed the same pages. There may be some notes in the margin by readers past. There may be an old photograph or letter tucked between the pages. You may also find a feather, a leaf, or a bookmark there. The book may have passed from one generation to another. Some may be collector's items, being the first edition of the book or bearing the author's signature; some with old dust jackets intact, others with a calico or leather binding, and so on. Each book seems unique in some way.
I used to acquire books pretty regularly at one time. Every time I went on a business trip, I would buy a book from the little bookshop at the old Bangalore airport just before boarding the plane. It was a little hole in the wall, but the collection in that shop was considerable and amazingly varied. Almost all the PG Wodehouse novels I have, were acquired there as also a few Edward de Bono's and such. Even when travelling by trains, we had the old Higginbothams (the oldest booksellers in India) stalls at many stations ready to provide reading material for the journey. The Higginbothams building in Chennai, which is a historical landmark, was a favourite haunt of mine.
Over the years, I seem to have lost the reading habit. Instead, television and the internet have taken over my spare time. Keen to revive my reading, I recently decided to give eReaders a try with the idea that the novelty would act as a catalyst. I knew that I had to forego the whole gamut of experience that I have had with printed books. Plus, the eReader has come with its own idiosyncrasies. For instance, when I pick it up to read a book, I cannot tell you how many pages the book has. But I can see that I have completed 23% and the estimated time to finish is 7 hours and 34 minutes. If I wish to thumb back to a page I have already read, it is a complex task involving several buttons and a search engine. Reading a book from cover to cover has become more of a figurative thing. While I have several books stored in the Kindle, only one person can read at a time. It is ridiculously simple to purchase an eBook (spending money is always easy), but if you want it signed by the author, tough luck. You are limited in the choice of languages. And so on.
I have managed to read a few books in the last three months and seem to have sort of got used to the device and its quirks. The ability to carry a large collection of books in my hands is certainly an advantage as I am able to switch among several books that I am reading now. I am also able to download free of charge many old classics (including some newer ones that are more than 70 years old) for which copyright has run out. Most importantly, I am once again reading books. I think that is a good thing, whether I read them the old fashioned way, or under a nook using my Kindle. And if I really like a book, perhaps I will go out and buy a hard copy for my collection!
(Image Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Higginbothams.jpg)
When you buy a book, it is primarily for reading, but like with many things we enjoy, the other senses too play a part. The feel of the book, the rustle of the pages when you turn them, the glossy cover and the new book smell - all these add to the whole reading experience. You can also discretely broadcast to others what you are reading, in the process, perhaps impressing them, without having to say a word. Your collection of books can be displayed neatly on shelves with pride of ownership. A wall of books is so inviting, is it not?
My father had a fairly large library housed in several shelves. This collection was quite impressive with books in English, Sanskrit and Tamil on many different subjects from Silappathikaram to Shakespeare. You would find literary classics as well as some contemporary authors. Those books are an important memory from my boyhood. When I picked up one of them and opened it, I would see my father's name, sometimes along with the date when it was purchased. Many of them had been published and purchased well before I was born. Every time we moved, which was once every three years or so, the books would be packed carefully in wooden crates. The shelves themselves were disassembled and packed for the move as well.
When you look through an old book, you get a sense of shared history. Many hands must have browsed the same pages. There may be some notes in the margin by readers past. There may be an old photograph or letter tucked between the pages. You may also find a feather, a leaf, or a bookmark there. The book may have passed from one generation to another. Some may be collector's items, being the first edition of the book or bearing the author's signature; some with old dust jackets intact, others with a calico or leather binding, and so on. Each book seems unique in some way.
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| Higginbothams, Chennai |
Over the years, I seem to have lost the reading habit. Instead, television and the internet have taken over my spare time. Keen to revive my reading, I recently decided to give eReaders a try with the idea that the novelty would act as a catalyst. I knew that I had to forego the whole gamut of experience that I have had with printed books. Plus, the eReader has come with its own idiosyncrasies. For instance, when I pick it up to read a book, I cannot tell you how many pages the book has. But I can see that I have completed 23% and the estimated time to finish is 7 hours and 34 minutes. If I wish to thumb back to a page I have already read, it is a complex task involving several buttons and a search engine. Reading a book from cover to cover has become more of a figurative thing. While I have several books stored in the Kindle, only one person can read at a time. It is ridiculously simple to purchase an eBook (spending money is always easy), but if you want it signed by the author, tough luck. You are limited in the choice of languages. And so on.
I have managed to read a few books in the last three months and seem to have sort of got used to the device and its quirks. The ability to carry a large collection of books in my hands is certainly an advantage as I am able to switch among several books that I am reading now. I am also able to download free of charge many old classics (including some newer ones that are more than 70 years old) for which copyright has run out. Most importantly, I am once again reading books. I think that is a good thing, whether I read them the old fashioned way, or under a nook using my Kindle. And if I really like a book, perhaps I will go out and buy a hard copy for my collection!
(Image Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Higginbothams.jpg)
9 comments:
I am in the same boat. I have been wondering whether I should stop the Washington Post and use eReaders. The paper is becoming more and more expensive; and I read less and less of it.
Interesting. Personally I find the old (-first-) Kindle very easy on the eye. Unfortunately, now that I have 150-odd books on it I am discovering that it needs to be charged at shorter intervals. Maybe the battery is coming to the end of its life. I believe the battery cannot be replaced. The very though of switching to a newer (-and harder on the eye-) version is stressful. Of course there are many things that I cannot do with an ebook, which are so easy with a physical book e.g. making notes with one hand in the margins, flipping ahead to see the number of pages ahead for a chapter to end...)
nice blog post Neelu sir - kindled nostalgic memories about long-forgotten reading habits... :-) - thanks for posting and sharing
I share your sentiments! I am also a book-a-holic - and have been buying at a steady clip of one to two books each month for the past 35 years! Don't read most of them - at least not cover to cover :) I have run out of space on my shelves and had since a significant number are useless technical books that become obsolete the moment you buy I have been trying to dump them out in hallways to hauled into trash! That stopped about four years ago - when I got my first Kindle reader & then the first iPad and now iPad Air. Certainly, a different reading experience.
I have the eReaders from Kindle, Google & Apple on my iPad - and a collection in each - the challenge is to find the time read anything. I am now reading Ambi's book: "for God's sake" - certainly seems to be a fascinating book!
Hopefully, one of these days, someone will come up with an app, that creates your very own virtual bookshelf organized with all your books that you have downloaded - and whether you have read it or not :)
Great post! Definitely nostalgic. Took me back to my 'browsing' days in the same Higginbothams in Chennai (Madras) and the hole-in-the-wall bookstore in my home town where the owner will spend time with me suggesting books when I went there during my annual visits with my parents. I am still fighting the urge to own one of them eReaders - my kids observe: when I buy a new technology it is usually on the way out! :-) I just graduated from a flip phone to a smart phone (the phone is smarter than me, for now) and with my kids providing technical support, they hate why they even talked me into buying one. But all in our home are readers - e or otherwise - long live the reading habit. btw, I still do not have FB a/c - until 2017 when someone predicted that FB will be gone!
I am also struggling to switch to an e-reader. I have started by reading magazines on my screen and this seems to work quiet well. Now I read both professional and news magazines using my touch screen enabled ultra notebook.
- Jayaraman
Thanks everyone for the comments.
Ashok's point about browsing is very important. I have often discovered books quite by accident while browsing. There is also an intrinsic joy in browsing. And the small neighbourhood bookshop that Jay mentions is a great resource, sadly a disappearing breed.
Another engaging post. I would like to catch up with your P G Wodehouse collection. I had devoured all his books which were then available on the shelves of the British Council library while at Madras.
Enjoyed this one like all other previous blogs.
I had one thought about digital books and digital music. The capacity to acquire (and occasionally purchase) large amounts of information in an instant, sometimes trivializes value substantially. A lifetime of inspired work is now reduced to a few gigabytes of memory that can be downloaded in a matter of minutes.
We now tend to acquire many books or at a time and many concerts can be rapidly downloaded. I remember the time when I used to have only a few books that would force me to read again and again and I would discover a lot more during the second reading. A Wodehouse was often equally enjoyable the second time. Similarly, good classical music needed to be listened to several times over.
I suspect, with digitization, the vertical dimension tends to get sacrificed for the horizontal. We can own a lot and yet not feel deeply enriched by the reading or listening experience.
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