There are a lot of people who hate ebooks. I am not one of them. I do, however, hold a pretty decent grudge against people who hate ebooks. There seems to be this fear that ereaders—the Kindle, the Nook—are eroding the worth of physical books, and debasing the concept of reading in general. I think this is nonsense, and part of our tendency to condemn any and all cultural and technological changes as spelling certain doom for the human race (as we all know, the real problem is bath salts). The fact is, ereaders are contributing to our nation’s literacy — last year, ebook sales doubled, far outstripping the decline in print sales over the same period, and the fact that people are reading more in general, regardless of format, is pretty fantastic.
I personally use a Kindle often, partially because I love technology and partially because I hate the sun. And after using a Kindle for the better part of a year now, I do have to say that the experience — while not necessarily better or worse — is different in some interesting ways.
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