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I understand the pragmatic appeal of electronic books but I have slowly, over the past 15 years or so, I have come to prefer physical books. Primarily because trying use an ereader has become too much like being on my phone or tablet and my attention span shrivels up like it just got out the hot tub in February. But also because I enjoy the material interaction with the books themselves. The paper, the fabric texture of old hardback covers, the uneven page edges that some first-run books have that looks like it was cut by hand, the occasional booger stuck in the middle of a thrift find or really old library book. Plus all the tiresome cliches like smell and having a shelf full books to show off (Why yes, Barbera, I DID enjoy reading Infinite Jest 20 years ago. And no, I haven't touched it since).
I know some people will tell me that the "important" part is the information inside but it feels incomplete. A glove without a thumb. The central part of a person is their mind but their physical body is just a central to what makes them "them" as their personality, to my thinking.
A romantic relationship is difficult without physical attraction, even if it becomes less important after many years. My favorite books from my early life all drew me in with their physical allure before I got to know them more intimately.
I believe that the growing immmateriallity of our lives has had a negative influence on the ways we socialize and how we see other people.
It becomes more and more difficult for someone who spends most of their time interacting with profile pictures on Intsatokbook to internalize the idea that there is another person on the other end of their digital correspondence. That there are "other minds" out there and not just a universe of objects.
From Nowhere With Love,
sourdog