“How do you press a wildflower into the pages of an E-book?"

Ever since the written word was invented, reading has been one of the most favorite hobbies among human beings. So naturally, as the human race has evolved, so has the art of reading. The latest and possibly the most dramatic ‘upgrade’ in this field is the advent of electronic books, or E-Books.

For a majority of book lovers, the sound of turning the yellowed and dog- eared pages, the whiff of old bindings, the inviting warmth of the printed word is a huge part of the whole reading experience. Granted, an E-reader provides its users with various personalisation options such as changing the brightness and size of the text, but it still doesn’t seem to live up to the charm of fading words on crumbling paper.

You can shelf a book and forget about it, but even if you come rummaging back many years later, rest assured, the book will be waiting for you, as patiently as ever. But can we say the same for an E-Book? The life of an E-Reader, like any other gadget, is limited. E- Readers need to be charged, and are certainly not the most sturdy companions on a mountain hike. Granted, you can have hundreds of E-books in one nimble gadget while you can only carry a couple of books with you at a time. But, a room full of books has an aura of brilliance- of mystery and of wisdom that a hard disk full of E-Books will never have.

E-Books may be dispassionate, transient, fragile and often expensive, but they are still garnering massive attention and support from readers all over the world. Ask any dedicated Kindle or Nook user, and they will harp about its convenience and ease of use. Belonging to a generation that is considered to be heavily reliant on modern gadgetry, I cannot deny that the idea having all my beloved authors’ at hand in one thin tablet seems tempting.

For some of us, the digitisation of the book destroys its very essence; for others, this new format lends to the longevity of literature and promotes the transition of the way we read into the next generation. Like any new technology, the E-Book is facing its fair share of apprehension and skepticism; and like any unfaltering loyalist, I plan to perpetually propagate the superiority of printed books over their digital counterparts.

Image Credits: www.teleread.com