With the launch of Chiki Sarkar’s Jaggernaut Books that aims to become a space that allows you to read, write and keep books online recently, the debate over online and print books has again emerged on online discussions and social media. With more and more of us turning to our smart phones, tablets and kindles to read news and the occasional book, does this mean that e-books and printed books are locked in a fight to the finish, with the winner grabbing the top honours in the publishing sweepstakes? Does being a fan of e-books and readers mean that you are not a serious reader?
On a personal level, I was a fan of the printed text for many years and raged against the early adopters of the Amazon Kindle and smartphones. When I was gifted a kindle, I refused to put it to much use, thinking that reading was one area where I could do with a break from staring at a screen blankly. It was only when I was in the midst of shifting houses that I comprehended the relative ease with which I could just move my entire library in a small bag; thanks to all books being stored on the Amazon cloud. It also meant that I no longer needed to worry about books decaying over time, being droopy-eared and the pages turning a light shade of yellow. The best feature of the kindle was that you could read books on long journeys, without carrying a load of physical books and use the backlight function for lighting up the page.
Software engineer Manoj Pandey says, “I was never a fan of physical books and would not read beyond the first couple of chapters of any book I picked up. It was the Kindle app on my phone that got me hooked to reading books on the screen. I got a slew of classics for free on the app and read Mark Twain books such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It is best to pick up books online instead of heading to a library and getting a physical book. I am not very attached to the concept of smelling the book and collecting books. As far as recommendations go, my reading device does a better job at collating the books and list of books I may want to read. It is much better than relying on libraries and book store clerks. I don’t think the format in which you read books matters. I do feel that e-books and physical books will continue to co-exist and see no reason why they should not.”
Geo Joseph, an ad executive is on the other side of the camp. “Physical books are better to hold, touch, feel. And there is something about the way a new book smells that a Kindle would never be able to match. The smell of the book is a vital part of the reading experience. The digital version is very impersonal. Collecting a trunk of books is an adventure. If you own a kindle and read regularly, you will hardly visit bookstores. I feel that the best books are discovered by accident in bookstores. I picked up an old tattered copy of Imperium , part of the Cicero trilogy from a small second hand bookstore in Bangalore in 2009. That book made me fall in love with reading. I doubt a similar experience will happen to me with an ebook.”
Meenakshi Surendran used to be against the concept of e-books till she was gifted a kindle some years ago. “I was hooked on to free books I got. Storing books was always a problem and having cloud storage was a godsend. I quite enjoyed reading books on the Kindle in a badly-lit rickety bus. However, I am quite disappointed that some of the classics have pages and chapters missing and books such as Catch 22 do not have multiple editions online. I think that is not ideal.”
Krishna V. who manages the successful second hand bookstore, Bookworm in Bengaluru is pragmatic about the future of physical books and book stores. “All these reading apps and devices have books that are made popular because their physical copies are available in bookstores. Despite the recommendations column, we have people come here everyday and ask us for the books they think we will enjoy. I see no reason both ebooks and their physical versions cannot coexist.”
I would say that there is no reason why using one specific format would mean that another way of reading books should become obsolete? If technology gets more people hooked to books, it would help the physical books industry as well.
