I come from a farming family, though I am very far removed from the land now. I make my living with my imagination, not my hands. But there is still a strong connection to those roots: like a farmer, I consume what I produce. Not many jobs like that.
I write books, and I read books written by others. Continuously. That’s what writers do. Farmers produce food and consume food, mostly produced by others.
But like many other readers, my consumption pattern has changed over the years. Our home library has a couple thousand books double-rowed in floor-to ceiling shelves. On many of those shelves, more books have found residence horizontally on top of the upright books. No Dewey decimal system, but I have a vague sense of where books belong: foreign-language titles, far left; then British and American fiction spanning the mid sections; nonfiction in the final rows to the right. And another smaller bookcase on the opposite wall is filled with paperback mysteries and thrillers.
I also carry in my left front pocket a library of equal breadth in my digital library. And now we finally get to the nut graph:
I read more from that electronic library than I do from the physical one. Oh, I will pick up the odd Steinbeck or Dickens or Robertson Davies for a re-read, but for new titles and convenience I must admit the e-reader gets a lot of use.
In part this has to do with my peripatetic life-style as a younger man, traveling in countries where English-language books could be scarce and/or expensive. Much time and energy was spent tracking down other likely looking travelers for a book swap. So having a library of books in my pocket is a security blanket.
But it is more than that. There is the ease of it, especially reading in bed, standing on a crowded subway train, waiting for a delayed dentist appointment. The smart phone accompanies us on our daily activities—you always have your books with you. And I am an avid library user: digital libraries make my selections available wherever I have wifi, worldwide.
Yet, there is that niggle of guilt of leaving print books mostly behind. A mini betrayal. I mean, when one of my books is published, it is of course the hardback or softcover copy I hold lovingly, new baby-like in my hands with a feeling of pride.
And there is a rich and lengthy tradition for physical books. Book production of some sort has been around since the 1st century B.C.; printed books started in China in 868 A.D. with hand-carved wood blocks cut in reverse for the printing of The Diamond Sutra. And let us not forget Herr Gutenberg and his bible from mid-15th century.
While our e-book stepchild has only been around since 1971.
Let me know in the comments section about your own battle of print vs digital. Where do you stand? Is it a divide for you or a happy combination? And let me also know if I can publish your comments in a further post (with your name or anonymously).
I look forward to hearing from you all. And keep on reading!
Writers and their libraries. Everything works well until it come time to move. The horror, the horror.
From the sea to Kent–I guess good old Conrad gathered his library after fame. No horrors for him. But yes, quite dreadful if we had to move now. You as well, I assume, old friend.
I’ve been a Kindle reader since the beginning, roughly 2009. I share your guilt and description of the mini-betrayal. I have a huge selection of print books with many series, etc, while simultaneously having some of them in ebook form as well. 90%+ of my reading is ebooks now and I seem to only read print books when they’re not available as an ebook. Convenient accessibility seems to triumph most. I think Lawrence Block addressed the debate best when he asked: do you love reading books or do you love to read? He argued that the reading lovers are the ones who embrace both because they just love to read and so will have no trouble with choosing ebooks. That’s probably me.
Hey Patrick,
That would be about our timeline, too, about 2009. Good to hear others have a bit of mini-guilt re ebooks, But you are absolutely right–accessibility makes the decision. And once again Block is spot on.