Turning over a new page

Dear Mum,

Do you remember when Biff and Chip were my Jane Eyre and Rochester? When Brambly Hedge posters lined my walls? And the Mrs Large stories were piled beside my bed?

You’ve always said I was destined to do English as a degree because, even from a young age, I was an avid reader. I loved story time as a child; curled up on your lap, the ladybird pram loaded with precious literary cargo beside us.

My children’s future, however, is bleak. It seems I will read to them from a miniature computer screen.

I’d be the first to admit I can’t bear to be without the insurance of my mobile and I’m restless if the internet is down when I want to check my emails.

But it seems we’ve become obsessed with replacing parts of our lives with technology. Such as the Kindle...

Man has read from paper for hundreds, nay thousands, of years. It seems perverse that a natural and, until this decade, successful way of reading has been put on the backburner for another bit of technology to put on our gadget wish-lists.

Sales pitches for the Kindle include it’s lighter weight than a paperback. Let’s be honest, things are pretty bleak when you’re too lazy to lift a paperback.

The kindle screen is, apparently, easy to read because, unlike a computer screen, it is non-reflective. But hey, here’s news, so is a book page!

It’s not like checking a website on an iPod where you scroll down the screen – you can turn the pages on a Kindle. Alternatively, you can turn the pages of the actual book.

When finishing for the day, the kindle saves the part of the novel you stopped at. Alternatively, you can use a bookmark in a book.

You can also make notes on a Kindle. Alternatively, you can use a pencil on a book.

An e-book is cheaper than a paperback. Fair do’s, here I can see the appeal. But, e-books don’t come with contents pages, introductions or even page numbers. They also don’t include any pictures, not even a book cover. To me, a book cover and a book’s written contents go hand-in-hand. I like to see novel spines lined up beside one another, advertising their contents - a list on a screen simply doesn’t tickle my fictional fancy.

The Kindle means you can have all of your books with you. So what? Unlike an iPod, this doesn’t mean you can make your way through all the works of one artist in one sitting. And surely having so many texts with you means one would be tempted to change the novel one is reading rather than sticking it out?

No, I like my thumbed material novels, with forgotten photographs tucked in their front covers and corners folded to mark a phrase or character that struck a chord with me.

If none of these arguments in the book vs. Kindle debate convince you, Mum, I turn to Alfred Hitchcock, who once said “The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop”. If Hitchcock was alive today he would be horrified by the Kindle...