I had just been to a conference in Calgary, Canada, a conference set up by and for librarians. I met authors and illustrators I’d not known before. Great talk (in English and French) about books, writing, and most of all reading. I had a terrific time. But as I was flying home, and just about to land, I heard a flight attendant say to the person seated behind me, “Please turn off your book.”
I was startled, though I had no reason to be. If there is any justification for having an e-book reader, it’s on airplanes with their ghastly cramped seats. Hauling around a Harry Potter volume, or War and Peace justifies a light, slim e-reader. Indeed, I had one with me and was using it for just that reason.
But after being at a conference and seeing the beautiful picture books by Marie-Louise Gay, and enjoying the work of Richard Scrimger, I felt bad for young people who might only have e-books. It’s useful to recall that after Gutenberg brought the printing press to Europe, printed books were called “imitation books,” because they were not hand-crafted. So it goes: Stone, clay, papyrus, wax tablets, scrolls, codex, and the printed book. Over time texts have changed their form.
Still, the e-book is (for me) only about the ease of reading in odd places. The e (electricity) lies not the delivery system, but in the writing.
I think the best way to view e-books and e-readers is that it’s an expansion of access for publishing. Publish an e-book now and you have the potential of a global reach almost instantaneously. There will always be “best media” for particular kinds of books and certainly the relatively small size of many e-readers can diminish the impact of the art in picture books. That being said, we’ll have to wait and see what new technologies are waiting to change the book experience.
It’s true, most ebooks don’t include quality art, and in some books they have some pretty gross looking pixelly illustrations. However it’s better than nothing. I don’t read for the pictures, but for the story, so it doesn’t impact me to much.