My
husband loves to joke around with my son about “those old-fashioned
paper whatchamacallits.” We’re all avid readers, but my husband and I
converted to e-readers a long time ago. We’ve actually discussed whether
or not we should bother getting large bookshelves when we redo our
son’s room since a lot of what he reads is now available on the Kindle.
But the reality is that nothing can replace a shelf filled with colorful
spines, the tactile experience of turning a page and knowing that each
book can be enjoyed over and over. And then left for your mother to
clean up.
Now there’s one that is worth buying for your kids in real live printed form, even for you e-book fans.
It’s a Book,
by Lane Smith is the perfect picture book–and social commentary–for
the analog/digital household.
A jackass (yeah, I wish they used a different animal) keeps asking his
friend the monkey about the thing he’s holding, to which the monkey
simply replies, “It’s a book.”
“How do you scroll down?”
“I don’t, I turn the page. It’s a book.”
“Do you blog with it?”
“No, it’s a book.”
Well, you get the idea. Although it’s a picture book I think
the concept is somewhat sophisticated for a five-year-old. My ten-year
old, however, loved it. With books like this we’re definitely going to
need to order the large bookcase.-Betsy
Check out your local bookstore or order It’s A Book at our affiliate, Amazon.
For what it’s worth Summer, my sigOth never met a book he could get rid of. Our bookshelves are ridiculous. Since discovering the Kindle a year ago, he’s a convert. Favorite thing in the entire world.
I love real books myself; but his love of the eReader did give me pause… -Liz
I am an avid reader and a huge opponent of eReaders. I love the smell of a book, the feel of it between my fingers when it shrinks on the right side as I delve farther into each tale. A personal life goal is to have a library in my house by the time I’m 40, and I’m creepin’. I don’t check books out at the library, I buy them. Sure I spend a lot of money each year on books, but I get butterflies when I look at my bookshelves. My hubby accidentally leaked that he was going to get me an eReader for Christmas and I plead with him to please get me an equivalent gift card for B&N.
Can I be convinced otherwise? Not sure…wanna try? 🙂
I’m an avid reader and like many other readers, was very attached the physical presence of my real live books on my bookshelves. But in the spirit of downsizing and budgeting, I started putting some mileage on my library card and just recently bought a Kindle and I’m a total convert. I buy some books (some are ones I borrowed from the library and loved them so much I knew I wanted to keep them in the house), borrow some, download others. I love the mix. Especially when traveling … I’m a fast reader and with my Kindle, I know I’ll never be out of luck because I finished my book on the arrival flight.
I’ve also started using Goodreads … I jot a little note about each book I’ve finished reading and it’s been great to have a visible record of my reading list.
haven’t yet delved into eReader territory, but I do see the appeal – I’m all about less physical stuff!!! But for children, having it be colorful, artistic and tactile is part of the experience, I do believe. Funny though, when we first got an iPod, i very quickly saw how I could easily NEVER buy a hard copy CD again (not that I had that many hard copy cd’s in the first place…just couldn’t justify plunking down ~$15 for each and everything I wanted musically). But my husband’s music collection is HUGE. Its soooo annoying to store. And its all on the iPod, but he refuses to purge (the sound quality! the liner notes! the art!). It just shows that one person’s physical *stuff* is another’s prized collections. Just happy we have options now, I guess!!
Books are timeless, children’s books doubly so. I love the idea behind this book but it ends using the word “jackass”. You might want to read some negative reviews of children’s books before recommending them to others.
We read books ourselves before recommending them, K. We don’t rely on other people’s reviews.
As Betsy wrote, she wishes the author had chosen another animal besides a jackass. Also, she deems it a little sophisticated for a 5 year old (despite the age reco by the publisher of 4-8), while her 10 year-old loved it.
So funny that you posted this. My husband and I were just talking about books tonight. I asked him if he thought they would be obsolete in the future. His guess? Maybe in 300 years.
I love technology but I sure would miss the turning of the pages, the smell, and the idea of holding a book in my hands.
I find it really difficult to read anything on a electronic device. I don’t know why but, I don’t seem to be able to concentrate on them as I would a book.
I am an avid and very fast reader with a penchant for 700+ page monsters. My nook makes reading them so much easier, especially laying down.
What a succint way of saying that even though e-readers are great–and are here to stay–that’s no reason to assume that real books should be consigned to museums just yet…. I love this blog and appreciate the frank, helpful insight.
–LT
For kids books, I’m 100% paper.
But for me, the Nook is a space and lifesaver. And it’s a lot better than the time I dropped my leather-bound Jane Austen compendium on my nursing baby’s head. That nap was so over, and I had to switch to paperbacks while nursing him to sleep.