To E or not to E, that is the Question

    Reading is my escape from reality; a wondrous world created just for me at a moments notice. From the second my eyes scan the words, a new world transforms into the one beholden by the writer. Imagery and character’s blur the lines and I become one with the novel: giggling at sarcasm, crying in empathy and agonizing through conflicts. Call me old school, but I still prefer walking into a store and smelling the ink on paper. Not that I don’t  love  my Kindle for traveling convenience or to snag a read occasionally, but the feel of pages whispering through my fingers has a satisfaction unfilled by an e-reader.

     However, the benefits to e-books are tremendous and I'm not disregarding them. The ease of having so many titles readily available without driving to a store still amazes me. People are reading more because of this and with far greater variety than ever before. E-readers also place authors on an even playing field, allowing readers to choose what interests them, instead of which books have the biggest advertising budgets. There are so many beautifully written stories overlooked because they are indie published with a limited advertising budget. Without e-readers, many would go completely unnoticed.

     I guess my biggest complaints with e-readers are I prefer knowing how many pages there are to read a book from cover to cover, instead of wondering how long it will take to finish the remaining thirty percent; and most importantly, books don’t have batteries. The pleasure of staying in the story until The End and knowing those characters are usually in a better place, makes my reality a little easier in which to return. When the story hits the home stretch, the last thing I want to see is “low battery.” I couldn’t imagine waiting for my plane to land and having to recharge before finding out how Katniss chose to end the contest in “The Hunger Games.”