I could not agree more wholeheartedly with the writer when he pointed out that the proliferation of e-books by Google will result in the demise of paper-based books. The intrinsic and sentimental value of reading will be gone forever, and so too will the joy of reading. I myself hope that the day where books cease to exist will never come, for that to me is as good as Armageddon. I do not mind if Google goes bankrupt and thousands go jobless, or that World War III erupts between people who want googlaries and people who libraries, or care if all the trees on Earth are stripped to make more books. All I care is that the book, with its rich intrinsic stays, whether we should be grateful to it or appreciate its beauty, for the Internet can never replace everything.
There is not even one way that books are inferior to the “googlooks” that Google plans to release. Take the value for instance. Books can be used as gifts between friends, presents from teachers to students, or tokens of appreciation from people to superiors, and just as e-cards are never appreciated as much as handwritten cards, the value of e-books is never the same as a proper book made with good paper. I am not the only person with these sentiments, as can be seen from the example of Straits Times readership. Though the Straits Times launched its e-newspaper at a much lower price, its readership for the printed copy still remains strong, and readership has not declined over the years. Maybe it is just me, or part of the joy one derives from reading is feeling the sound the crisp pages make when they turn, the sight of printed words and not pixels, and the smell new books and old books both give.
It is not just these reasons, but even the concept of convenience here. A common misconception is that e-books are convenient. True, they are more convenient regarding storage, but then again, that is not exactly an asset either. Many people like book collections, for showing off their refined tastes, or just for simple admiration. Nobody would be proud of their e-book or “googlook” collection, unless he has perhaps a million books or so. In addition, it is nearly impossible to bring an e-book out of the house at the moment, unless one has a phone with a wide enough screen so that his eyes are not strained terribly while trying to read a book from the 3 inch by 3 inch screen. Most people do not have phones with such capabilities, so it would be quite stupid if they do not own any books, because it would be impractical to lug their laptop along with them just to read the book, which is counter-productive as e-books are meant to safe space and give convenience to our lives. Or grief, desolation and despair coming in fact.
However, it would be unfair to say that the environmental benefits are not far-reaching. Imagine if these trees that will used to make books were used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere! However, I do not see how using the computer for hours a day to read a book would help the environment either, by sucking up so much power. Furthermore, even if the environmental benefits are far-reaching and impactful somehow, I can just imagine the number of children who would take up reading. Taking up reading as an excuse to sneak into computer games in fact. Of greater concern to me are the eyesight of these little ones. When I was young, I read voraciously as I had an insatiable appetite for books, but imagine if I was reading “googlooks” instead. I would probably be half-blind by now as I would have been reading 5 or 6 hours a day during my formative years.
My view which probably everybody but Google echoes, is that pixels will never give us the experience reading as a real book. Google should abort their overly ambitious plans as it will come to naught—there is no conceivable advantage of reading online books, and there never will be.
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