P-books and steam engines: Oh, the smell of it all!
P-book defenders are extolling the “vices” of dead-tree books as if they were “virtues”–just like old railroad lovers romanticizing the filthy smoke of coalfired steam engines. That’s one viewpoint in a newly revisited debate betweeen ibiblio archivist Paul Jones and a poet named Betty Adcock.
Himself a poet, Jones says p-books, like e-books, “have many not so great sides to them. The smell that Betty talks about of an old library is the smell of the books rotting.”
June 2nd, 2005 at 3:17 am
Books rot and bits rot. Which rots faster?
I like to think that my p-books will still be accessible (even if they have started to rot) a lot longer than most eBooks.
Plus it’s a lot easier (and safer) to sit in a bathtub with a good p-book than and eBook…