The battle of the books!

Many a childhood would have remained incomplete had Peter Pan and Wendy, Akbar and Birbal, Tom Sawyer and the Four Musicians of Bremen had not paid a visit. Kids would have grown up, for one, unaware of a Neverland; and wit and values would have remained lessons they had to learn the hard way, through life. Thank god for books, most of us lived vicariously - laughed, cried, suffered and rejoiced with many a feisty character - and our lives have been richer for the same. With a growing trend of e-book readers replacing physical books, one wonders if it is wiser to gift a Kindle e-reader for a 2 year old’s birthday or go for a trusted paperback edition of Grandmother’s Tales!

The battle of the sexes has taken a temporary backseat, all thanks to the battle between physical books and e-books. While each have their own pack of soldiers fighting the cause, one needs to take an objective look to understand the whole picture. 

Let’s first look at physical books – old world charm, musty odors that tug at memories and all the romanticism associated with it! Agreed that there is nothing more wonderful than the tangibility of a book – the whole sensation of flipping pages and literally moving forward in the story is beautiful. However, the same physical space books occupy, making us giddy with joy, also proves to be a burden when shifting houses! Thousands need to be spent packing these heavy tomes into boxes and parcelling them. But then, you don’t need to use up electricity to hold a book now, do you?! 

When a work associate, a know-it-all relative or a date you want to impress comes home, these very imposing hardbacks and paperbacks and their cracked spine give you leverage. They turn you from a nobody into a wise bibliophile who can quote Kafka, flirt with the transcendental verses of Rumi and discuss over wine, the Fibonacci numbers and the plumbing of Harappan times. That is, if you actually spend on rare books, fight crowds to make a beeline for signed copies of new releases and let many a tree get pulped to hold your physical copy. 

If you are still reading, let’s take a look at how e-book readers, like the Kindle and the Nook, can save you a guilt trip. You may have to shell out a lot of money as an investment. Please dig it out of that fund you had saved up for that gargantuan library you once wanted to build – this will still turn out cheaper! Without wasting wood or paper, you now have your own e-reader that can store within its circuits, thousands of books! Agreed you don’t get the tingling sensation in your finger when holding this gadget like you do while flipping a page. Technology, however, has mirrored reality as much as is possible – from textured screens to flip style navigation! 

Download your must-reads in a matter of seconds at cheaper prices, get extra information, character biographies, and share and discuss plots with fellow book lovers using your e-readers. If you are getting nostalgic about your neighbourhood library’s subscription, fret no more! Many e-readers are now coming out with lending facilities which let you share your library with friends. There is even a paperless library in the US where the entire facility supports e-reading! 

While reading under the sun is a delight that e books can’t completely offer, reading a paperback through the night is sure to burn midnight oil and some lamps! In the endless battle of physical books Vs e-books, people are losing out on the concept of reading! Ultimately, it is a story that needs to be read. Be it a biography of someone fabulous, or the crushes and sexcapades of a 20-something – the tale seems to be hanging between choosing which of these two methods one uses to read! 

Gift yourself a Kindle e-reader or go ahead and bury your head behind the piles of paper – never forget that what you are in search of are words that spell out intimate tales. And no matter how, the joy of reading, my friends, is still intact!