E-mazing

I want an e-reader. Bad. And, so, ok, fine. I am not going to lie to you. I probably only want one because they are cool and new and shiny and fun. I don’t know if I would even like reading books on an e-reader. I love to read and I love reading actual books. I love buying books too. I have too many, but I like having them in my house. I blame my mother. You should see her office. But this, I have discovered, makes me a bad consumer. I should just go to the library. But I want to HAVE them. I’m such a capitalist. I will say, however, that the books I keep I read over and over. And over.  I'm looking at you, Harry Potter.

Since they are expensive, I probably won’t be getting an e-reader anytime soon. But here is an interesting article on Slate asking this important question: which is better for the environment, books/newspapers/ magazines or a Kindle? It’s a valid question. But, you have to decide which you are more interested in, saving carbon in the form of emissions from electricity (powering the e-reader) or saving carbon in the form of trees (books and newspapers) or saving pollution from the electronics manufacturing process (heavy metals and e-waste) or saving pollution from the books transportation process (petroleum and tailpipe emissions) and etc. (Also? Ninety-five percent of US magazines are printed on virgin paper. That’s fewer than 200 out of 17,000. FAIL)

If I win the lottery and buy a Kindle or a Nook or an iPad or a whatever, I might read books on them. I certainly can’t deny that they are handy. It’s much easier to stick one of them in my purse than that giant An Echo in the Bone I am about to read (again). Barnes and Noble started giving away their electronic classics books for free a few weeks ago and I’m downloading them all to their desktop application. What? I like to plan ahead, ok?  But I also like to read a book in my bed before I fall asleep, so I am not sure I will ever give up a real book.  And Penguin (a division of Pearson!) will probably be really happy to hear that.