Dematerialization on progress: Ebook or not?

Some people prophesy the death of traditional books and newspaper facing the new development of e-reading technologies. The growing importance of technological devices in our everyday life is indisputable. You are probably not reluctant to cellphones, mp3 players and so on. But from the moment that it deals with ebooks, the debate becomes highly controversial. As red-hot as the Battle of Hernani at the time. A modern rebellion against classical ideals and Bourgeois hypocrisy. Nevertheless, I am not sure that the Romantics would have defended the ebook. Until proved otherwise, the Romantics were strongly attached to the nostalgia of the past. The charm of the ruins, you know. Yet, books are not ruins yet. Not by a long chalk. But let's get back to the point: to ebook or not to ebook. Let's weigh up the pros and cons.



There are (obviously) advantages with an ebook: there are over two millions of free books available for download, they can use hyperlinks, multimedia clips and animated images, they can allow non-permanent highlighting and annotation, and they are supposedly eco-friendly (but as far as I am concerned, I am not totally convinced by this argument).
There are also many disadvantages. First of all, the price. Reading ebooks requires a quite expensive device (from 250€ in France for instance). Moreover, it's easier to carry a small book than a ebook-reader, and you will never be interrupted in your reading because the battery of your book got exhausted. And let's be honnest, one will never read thousands of books really well or over a short period of time, so the high amount held on an ebook reader becomes irrelevant.

In my opinion, ebooks will necessarily be a success, but a qualified one. Contrary to mp3 players or iphones, I think they will coexist with paper because needs and customs are very different. And what's more, passionate readers are strongly attached to books' materiality. The feeling of the papergrain, the smell of the pages, the smoothness of the cover... the act of reading is very sensual. I will definitely try ebooks someday, but to me, they will never be as glamorous as my paper books.

Do not hesitate to leave a comment.
Bye.

MM