Hardback, Paperback, e-Book: They're All Letter-perfect

Point of disclosure: I'm a bibliophile. I read books; I collect books; I love reading a good book.

I like reading while seated in a comfortable chair or on the couch or curled in bed. I like reading while seated on a bus or a train. I like reading while listening — in other words, hearing and absorbing an audiobook. I like reading because, in the case of fiction, it takes me away from current events, and, in the case of nonfiction, it keeps me abreast of current events or reminds me of past events or warns me of possible future events.

What I'm trying to say is that, no matter what the contents, a book is a means of entertainment, of some variety, a way to absorb the thoughts of another person on all manner of subjects, topics, ideas, and/or flights of fancy. It is satisfying, as well, to debate the merits of what I've read, with people who have read the same thing or who have read reviews of the same thing. Fancy a good argument? Savage the one book "everyone loves." Also, you never know how much your recommendation is going to affect someone's decision on what to read next.

Much like a magazine, a book is indeed something that you hold in your hands. However, for me, the thing that you hold in your hands doesn't have to contain pieces of paper.

The connection between writer and reader is made manifest in the transmission of the ideas and emotions, not necessarily in the tactile experience of hardbound or paperbound book; thus, I have no objection to the iPad, the Kindle, or any other kind of e-reader. We've gone from handwritten to typewritten to typeset to computer-printed to screen-only in a relatively short period of time (as cosmic timelines go), without shearing the planet off its axis. Books will always be with us, as will the ideas and stories that fill them — no matter what form the "book" comes in. It's not so much the medium that's important but rather, for me, the method in which those ideas and stories are shared.