Fiction
In reply to the discussion: E-reading isn’t reading....... [View all]SheilaT
(23,156 posts)As I look back over this thread, I realize that my personal problem with ereaders is twofold. One, that I am very concerned that real books will disappear because of things like Amazon, who push their ereader on their front page in a way that makes a person feel as though that's the only possible way to read books. The other is a deeper concern that the format will change, and we'll all have to buy new ereaders to continue reading. It's like how we first bought vinyl records (I know, some of you have no clue what they are) and then we bought 8-tracks or cassette tapes, and then we bought CD's. Now, a lot of music is only available in a computer download. What a shame for some of us.
If books only exist in an electronic format, how in credibly easy will it be to erase a book? For years now we've had movies that portray the paranoid fantasy that someone's very existence can be erased. I always scoff at those, but if we move to a completely digital world, those fantasies could well become reality.
Here's another issue I have not seen discussed here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/e-reader-privacy-law-enforcement-fbi