Kindles and eBooks: The Way of the Future?

Yesterday I talked about my love for Shelfari. Today I'm talking about eBooks and e-readers.

I have a Kindle Touch. It has over 3000 books on it. Yup. 3000.

I am one of those crazy people who downloads all of the free Kindle bestsellers and then goes through them to figure out if I like them or not. I carry my Kindle around with me everywhere in my purse. I pull it out when stuck in traffic for hours. I use it in the waiting room at the doctor's office and when I'm lying in bed at night. I turn on the text-to-speech feature when I'm putting on my makeup in the mornings. I can read 10 books in one device without getting up from my chair. It's great!

Any book I want is at my fingertips and is only a Wi-Fi signal away.

But is it the same as opening up a new book, spine unmarred, pages crisp and tangy with ink-scent?

Yes and no.

The words are the same. The story is the same. It is just the packaging that is different.

I've been carrying the Complete Sherlock Holmes around in my purse for months while I read it. If I tried to do that with my brother's hardcover edition from Barnes & Noble I would have serious back problems.

This is a topic that matters. Kindle or Paperback/ Hardback? Books have been around for hundreds of years. They take little squiggles and create individualized works of art that change people's lives. Books have changed the world.

So what about e-books? Are they going to make hard copies of books obsolete? Would it be a bad or a good thing if they did?

I have hundreds of books. I have two bookcases that are double stacked, a bedside table that is stuffed, boxes of books in my closet, and a stack of them on the floor. I don't have enough room for them all, but I will never say that I have too many. Books are fantastic. I read as many of them a year as I can. I read fiction, history, biographies, historical documents, anything!

But I also read a bunch of e-books. They save space. They can be accessed on my Kindle, my computer, and my phone. I can carry as many books with me as I want when I travel without taking up much room.

I will still always have hard copies of books. I love the way they smell, the texture of the pages, the weight in my hands. But, I will buy more e-books in the future as well. There are pros and cons for both and I can imagine a time for each in my future.

What are your thoughts?