One of the main problems of books is the restrictions they come with; the space they require to store, the time needed to actually get the books and the ever rising costs to the customer and the environment. E-books hold none of these drawing cards, so why is there still opposition to the e-book revolution?
Books traditionally come in two formats, large and small print. Not much in the way of variety and choice. The range of features of an e-book allows those who have difficulties reading books a whole new experience. With a variety of font types and sizes, and the ability to turn your book into an audio file with a swipe of your finger, those who are vision impaired have the opportunity to enjoy reading in a way that they never accessible to every person, ever hour of the day. Readers can now access new material in their coffee break, and be enjoying literature sooner rather than later, no longer restricted by closing hours of bookstores. In an age where seconds are a commodity, why waste precious time you could be spending with friends and family on the drive to the local library?
Amazon.com, the largest provider of books online, can ship you the latest paperback novel in six-to-ten weeks if you live in Australia, but if the book is ordered in E-book format, they can deliver it straight to your tablet. In just five minutes, you could be enjoying the up-to-the-second novella from your favourite author, instead of staring lustfully at the book that takes so long to ship that when it arrives, you’ve probably already moved on, wasting time and money.
Obviously those who oppose the e-book revolution cannot remember what life is like when you actually attempt to travel with books. Weighing less than the cup of coffee you pick up on the way to work, and taking up a fraction of the space in your bag, e-books really are the future today. Give any student the option of lugging around heavy course books or a Kindle, and bookstores would go out of business, it’s a known fact. Then why is there such opposition to and item which can benefit so many?
Costs are another issue for those who have an aversion to e-books. They argue that the authors are at risk, not being able to make the same profit they did when selling a hardcover, and that e-books are more expensive than their paperback associates. Their argument is cut short, however, due to the fact that the books don’t have to go to a publisher or a printing press.
Prices on e-books are considerably lower than their printed counterparts, and authors are actually receiving a larger cut from each copy sold in comparison. However critics still maintain that cheaper prices for the consumer and increased profit for authors are no compensation for the loss of books.
The free market that e-books creates allows small publishes to compete with bigger businesses, providing more books, more often, and promotes readers to take a risk and experiment with new authors and genres that the costs of books in the past had prevented.
Even more important than the cost to the readers, however, is the cost to the environment. E-books are the end to the need for 300 million tons of paper to be consumed yearly; they go straight from the author’s laptop to the audiences. The quilt of throwing away a book you hated disappears off your shoulders; instead of your purchase taking up landfill, tap of the finger and you can almost pretend you didn’t read the latest book-club novel. Almost. Without the need for transportation of books, and the pollution of landfill, the e-books seem almost green compared to the traditional books.
The e-book promotes reading in the disabled community, provides profits for the authors while allowing them to compete for sales, lowers costs for readers, allows literature to be enjoyed anywhere, anytime and contributes to saving the environment, and yet there is still opposition. Why? They only people who have a right to be angry at the popularity of the e-book are those who cling to their Oxford Dictionaries and Encyclopaedia Britannica’s in a vain hope that one day they will be worth something again, but even they are dropping in number, as those that could not understand the prospects of technology realize the benefits and significance of the e-book.
