I’m on the road this week, traveling to a Baker & Taylor event and I am trying to travel light, so I brought my eBook reader. It always amazes me how much interest it generates–I am constantly tapped on the shoulder with questions. What is that? How does that work? Do you like your eBook reader? Do you think eBook readers will replace the book? What is the meaning of life? OK, I can’t answer the last two questions, but I can say that I am a convert and I actually DO like my eBook reader. When our department head passed them out to us, my first instinct was to recoil in horror. What is this gizmo masquerading as a book? Why would I want to read something that doesn’t feel like a book, smell like a book, or even really look like a book? Human beings are nothing if not adaptive though, and I’m glad to say that I gave my eBook reader the benefit of the doubt and am now a fan. Have I given up REAL books? No way. I still prefer to read a real book, but the reader is great for traveling (With 15 books installed, I’m never in danger of being without something to read!) and for reading manuscripts before they are printed. Here at the Baker & Taylor event I heard an interesting prediction…that by 2018 more eBooks would be sold than print books. I’m not sure I’m convinced about that, but hey, I’ve been wrong before–I thought I wouldn’t like my eBook reader. What do you think?
-Jen
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