I have always been a reader.
By the time I was twelve, I had been reading massive novels by John
Jakes, James Michener, and James Clavell.
I grew up on a farm in a time when we had no video games, no internet,
and only three of four television channels. My nearest friend lived three miles away and
if I had the time to play, I had to walk or drive a tractor. I did both of those things many times. More often than not though, reading was how I
spent my spare time.
I love books and I love the feel of books. I never lay my books open and flat because
that damages the spines. I never dog ear
my books. I hate getting rid of my
books; I like to reread many books. I
respect and care for my books.
As happens through time, I am running out of space for books. In my man cave, all available wall space is
covered by book shelves and all those shelves are full. I am just flat out of space. On top of all of else, the cost of books
continues to rise. Plus, bookmakers,
intent on squeezing every last dime out of us loyal and avid readers, have
decided to change the size of paperbacks.
Now there regular paperbacks and hardbacks, extra tall paperbacks and heavy
duty, oversized paperbacks. Many of
these new varieties don’t even fit on my book shelves. A few months ago, I decided that in effort to
conserve space, clutter, and money, I would buy an ereader. It goes against just about everything I
believe in but sometimes practicality must rule. So, I went to the dark side.
With fear and loathing, I set up my ereader and I prepared
to start down loading some books.
Imagine my chagrin and astonishment when I discovered it cost more to
down load a book from the infinite space that is internet costs more than
purchasing a physical book, made of paper, from a store. At least a physical book has a cost to it in
that it has to manufactured, shipped, and stocked to a shelf. Not only does the author, the publisher, the
distributor, and the store need to extract their pound of flesh and profit, but
the materials to produce a book, such as paper and ink, cost money as
well. An ebook eliminates many of those
items. An ebook has no ink or paper, and
there is no distributor. Yes, the author
needs to be paid for his work, but it doesn’t cost much to publish a book to
the internet. There is no one who has to
physical distribute crates of books to stores.
I understand that the publisher does have employees and such and the
companies who run the estores have employees and they all need to make
money. I understand how the system
works.
It blows my mind that the same book that costs $7.99 at the
store costs $9.99 or more online. What
sense does that make? What is the
justification for that? There is no
answer but flat out greed. This industry
is going to bury the workers who manufacture the books, the warehouse folks to
distribute books, and those who work in retail stores who stock shelves and
sell books. This industry is looking to
destroy another bit of our economy and they are going to make us pay for the
privilege. People wonder why our economy
teeters on the brink of collapse with unemployment and the cost of living not
improving, well, this is just another reason.
Technology, while more often than not, eases our lives, it also is
destroying good parts of our lives. This
is just another example. The book
industry is slowing dying and instead of helping the economy by charging a fair
price for a less product, the owners of these estores are charging more than a
real, solid, paper and ink book. As
annoyed as I am at the rising costs of real books, not to mention the even more
annoying various sizes now, the fact the estores charge even more for a
paperless file that contains a book is just unfathomable.
I’m sure someone will argue that these estores offer plenty
of free or $.99 books. This is
true. Books written before copyright
laws, some ancient texts that have been translations, are offered for little or
no money. Great. Thanks.
But if I want to read on my ereader anything from the last few decades,
it is going to cost more than going to a book store and purchasing it. Why do people pay? I’m not going to. If I can’t get it online cheaper than in the
store, I am not going to feed the beast.
I will just have to donate or resell some of my books to make room for
new ones. I am going to do what I have
to do. Sometimes, convenience does not
out weigh sense. We will be in a fine
pickle if physical books disappear from our culture. You may not think it will ever happen but
don’t be too sure.
Read my sports blog at jawssportsandstuff.blogspot.com and
get twitter updates @jawsrecliner
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