Books! Gotta Love 'em

Tonight somebody in my computer user group posted some thoughts on why e-books don't satisfy the way real ones (in print) do. It got me started musing on why I do like e-books, considering I am a printer and bookbinder and LOVE old books.

I realized that my use of e-books is probably atypical.  I use the e-book format for books I either a) can't find in print (and are totally unaffordable) b) take up too much room on a shelf, c) provide reference to specialized topics I am passionate about, or d) are too heavy for me to carry around.

Personal collection on my iPad:

- Complete works of Shakespeare with a little commentary
- complete Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- 2 versions of the Bible (modern & K. James)
- A few no-longer available bad Victorian novels, for fun
- at least 10 type catalogs & specimens (originally tomes over 300 pages in print)
- Numbers of knitting and tatting patterns, even entire books from Project Gutenburg
- complete printing press diagrams to go out to the press on the iPad
- Incunabula (which none of us can either find OR afford (see below)
- a few specialty costuming/sewing catalogs in digital form

These have all been free (yep, free!). Since most are what librarians call "reference" works, they would not circulate anyway, so having a nice, leisurely, personal relationship with most of them is not even an option. The e-book format allows me to enjoy them, use them again and again, and not waste valuable space in my house to keep them at hand.

So here's to books! Whether E or otherwise, I'm a voracious reader and I'll read what comes to hand. And I love my extensive e-library on the iPad, which weighs much less than one of the above-mentioned.

(example: page in Turnierbuch/Tournament Book - copy of original by Hans Burgkmair the Elder; 1540: Augsburg, Germany, in German and Latin. Held by the Bavarian State Library, www.bsb-muenchen.de)