In defence of books

A few days back, I went to the National Library and came back with four books. Four books to read in six weeks without paying a fine – quite a tall order given the demands of the workplace and other sources of entertainment that have left reading behind for most people. I, however, have always been an avid reader. And at times, voracious. It started at a young age, and I was fortunate to grow up among people and in an environment who considered reading one of the more desirable leisure activities. Be it fiction or non-fiction, I have had a soft corner for reading.

These are interesting times for books. With Apple launching its iPad – which can be a e-reader among other things – and Amazon already in the market with its e-reader Kindle, many feel books may lose their allure. But will they? Without getting into a discussion on technological features of online reading devices, let us examine if books will continue to be as important as they have been.

All of us are exposed to books at a very young age. As the world becomes more competitive – and more so in the developing world with Darwinian logic egging parents to make their children geniuses at a young age – I see several young minds continue to be initiated into the world of books. Access to technology has become more widespread, easier and cheaper over the last three decades, but to a vast majority of people the old-fashioned “hard copies” still matter more than electronic “soft copies”. It will take a couple of generations, if not longer, for people to become completely comfortable with reading, editing and storing masses of information entirely in electronic form. If you consider that impossible, think about the number of times you have taken print-outs of documents to read and mark up (either to revise or to remember) at work. Or for that matter, tried to print a view-only online piece, and be disappointed. In short, we are simply not comfortable reading anything longer than tens of pages online in a single sitting.

Then you have the issue of reach and the associated cost factor. It will require high broadband speeds in large parts of the world - which currently do not have electricity for 24 hours - for books to go out of fashion. And for each e-book to be priced competitively, publishers and hardware providers would require significant economies of scale. We are quite a long way off from those days. In all likelihood, we will be for many decades in a state where e-books and other “for sale” copyrighted online content will carve out a niche only for the most popular and timeless literary works, while for the vast majority of readers, the paper versions will rule.

Finally, you got the “soft” factor that may tilt the scales in favour of the “hard copy”. The level of comfort that people have with books in their current form is difficult to quantify, and easy to underestimate. If a book were a companion, the sense of touch associated with turning and feeling each page lends a personal flavour to every copy. The fresh smell of a new book, or the old but familiar smell of a dog-eared version of years left behind can evoke and nurture memories of familiar things, events and people. The warm feeling of being surrounded by books in a library, or the very act of curling up with a book on a rainy day is difficult to imagine being replicated soon with an e-reader. Books are here to stay for a long, long time.