I keep hearing that the book is dead, dying at best, but I can't wrap my head around it. I love reading books on my phone as much as the next person, in fact, there are some books I prefer to read electronically. There is something about the small screen that makes you feel like you are whipping through those Russian Classics. While convenient, here are 10 reasons why electronic readers cannot replace the home library:
1. Social Discourse: Our home library serves as a conversation starter. Guests are not likely to flip through your e-reader, but they will peruse your shelves. Few topics are more enjoyable than mutual interest in literature.
2. Books are Beautiful: Many people use books as decoration. Real books (as opposed to faux-book blocks) bring personality and character to a room. Truly beautiful books make excellent collectors items or solo display pieces.
3. Personal Identity: A home library conveys the personality of the owner. In a library you collect the books that have been meaningful to you and the ideas that have shaped your personality. A library can be an excellent reminder to ourselves of what we value most.
4. Literacy Development: Before children reach the first grade, they need to have spent well over 1,000 hours engaged in reading activities. (Adams, Beginning to Read. MIT Press).While some of these activities will include games, Sesame Street, and bedtime stores, hours spent just looking through books are hugely beneficial as well.
5. Communicates Priority: Owning books communicates that you put a priority on reading. Whether your library contains literature, philosophy, self-help, or any other genre, the ownership of books is a statement on the importance of the pursuit of knowledge and the power of the written word.
6. Tangible Assets: This is one place where the physical book outreaches the e-book 100 to 1. While you own both a physical book and an e-book, you can only loan out or give away a physical book. E-books are confined to one device for one owner. If you choose to collect rare or valuable books, these can retain real value that can be leveraged, gifted, or handed down in a family.
7. Visual Reminder: We all have goals to read books, but often our busy lives get in the way. A home library is an ever present reminder of that goal. In some regards, building a personal library can be a labor in gaining knowledge, stretching ability, and cultivating a meaningful and well-rounded collection for the ages.
8. Reference: A home library can be an excellent reference point for business ventures, academic learning, hobbies, and any number of topics.
9. Remembrance: Family histories, journals, and important documents are an important part of a personal library. Loose documents can be difficult to store, but gorgeous, book-like boxes are an excellent solution.
10. Preservation: Perhaps the most relevant to this digital age is the issue of preservation. Now, more than ever, we can keep detailed records of every correspondence, picture, chat, or online interaction. While these interactions are easy to store, they are less accessible. Email is a trove of important and meaningful correspondence, but is only accessible to someone with the username and password. Binding these memories into a custom book makes an invaluable addition to your home library.
