Pondering book format, a post with actual content

My book a week adventures this year have taken me through different formats and set me to wondering if I have a preference. Though most of the books I read are print copies, I’ve listened to a couple of audio books, and with the arrival of Sonar X8’s new iPod, I’ve sampled some ebooks.

I am not new to audio books. I am staunchly opposed to most car media. There are no screens, DVD players or gaming systems in our car. With the exception of personal listening devices and the good old AM/FM radio, there’s no electronic entertainment in our van. On our annual road trip though, we often listen to an audio book or two with the Sonars. I love to read out loud, but I can only do it for so long before my voice gives out. An audio book is great for whiling away hundreds of Texas highway miles. But, I’d never listened to an audio book at home, and I’d never listened to an audio book read by the author rather than a professional voice actor or reader. I did both recently.

Hearing Anderson Cooper and Michael Chabon read their work was fun, and especially in the case of Chabon, illuminating. Anderson Cooper read his Dispatches From the Edge with the journalistic style familiar from his news anchoring. Chabon read his Summerland with emotion, and with distinct voice and inflection for each character. When I read out loud to the Sonars, I often make up different voices and accents for the characters, so it has been fun to copy the author’s style of reading as I now read the book to the Sonars. Hearing the author read adds a richness and emphasis to the story that I really enjoy. I listened to both stories while working on a big sewing project, and sometimes while walking to school to retrieve the Sonars. The drawback of the audio format for me is that I don’t have a lot of times like those when listening is convenient. I can’t check email or read anything while I’m listening. I can’t do any tasks that require careful concentration either, otherwise I find myself distracted from both the story and the task.

My experience with ebooks has been a good one so far. I know the iPod Touch has a smaller screen than the dedicated e-readers, but I like the interface of both the Kindle app and the iBooks app. I enjoy the portability of the format, and the ability to take along several books, especially in situations where print would otherwise be too bulky. I also like reading in bed with the e-reader, especially with a lengthy book, simply for the practicality of not having to hold up a heavy book. The drawbacks for me (besides having to borrow the reader from my middle child) is that I already have paper copies of many books I want to read, and my budget limits the number of books I can buy. Regular readers surely notice that most of my book reviews are based on library copies. Rumblings of lending practices for ebooks might ease some of those contraints. Time will tell. 

I am a lover of the printed book. I am a jotter of notes in margins (at least with books I own). I am a leaver of scraps of paper in between pages. I am a joyful discoverer of the treasures left by others. Ebooks don’t allow those etchings and relics in quite the same way, so I don’t think I’ll ever give up the printed book completely. I also think there are some instances where the printed book is a far superior medium. 

Take Jay-Z’s Decoded for example. This beautiful book was a pleasure to hold in my hands, to experience the artfulness of the words as well as the artfulness of the composition of each page. While an ebook that could play me samples of every song might have added to the value, I’m not sure the smaller format would do justice to the detail and flow of those printed pages. 

So which format do I prefer? It depends. I appreciate the utilitarian nature of the ebook, the potential it holds for multimedia interconnectivity. I appreciate the theatrical experience of the audio book. I appreciate the mass of a non-electric paper book in my hand, the way a book becomes an object with a meta-narrative of the lives of its readers in connection with the text.