"Te pega un eBook"

"Te pega un eBook," said Dimix. 

"Hmmm'," I thought to myself.  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that statement as I am still not sure how to feel about the new era of electronic devices to read books and I certainly don’t think that it suits me.

"No creo," I reply. 

"No?" Te imagino con el eBook en tu bolso y sacarlo con mucha sofisticación," added Dimix.

"Hay ciertas cosas que no quiero que modernicen."  I reply.  Although it may look sophisticated to pull one out of your purse, call me old fashioned but I prefer a book with pages and a cover and an edition and a particular smell.

I had to go on to explain that a book for me is like a newspaper for some.  I left out the fact that I can not stand newspapers as I find them dirty and really do not like getting that black ink on my fingertips; they make me feel like I just changed the toner of the photocopy machine or the oil of my invisible car.  Many people just need something tangible. 

I love going to read with my book at the Café Cerveceria Santa Bárbara in the Glorieta de Alonso Martínez where they have a long bench covered by a velvet fabric in deep red where I occasionally lift my head to people watch as there are mirrors above the benches.  I admittedly spill on my books constantly, but it is back to the idea of possession, it is mine and I don't think that I would be able to savor the time I spend at Spanish cafés without the books I savor.

I lug books with me almost everywhere.  I love to dog-ear the pages, underline words that I will eventually look up in a dictionary, underline phrases that I like or find insightful.  I even have to admit that I have torn out the last page that has nothing on it to write down some notes.  I remember in the movie Finding Forrester, a personal fav, when William Forrestor (played by Sean Connery) comments that it is disrespectful to do all of what I do to a book - well, I paid my rights by buying the book and I do all the damage in pencil so it can be erased at some point or another.

In Spain, I have observed that the majority of the people cover their books with some sort of book cover.  Every time I hop on the metro, I count at least 5 women with a book cover that is either made of newspaper or white paper.  According to the Barómetro of the Editorial Federation of Spain (Informe de la Federación Gremios de Editores), 58.4% of the readers in Spain are women while an article states that Spanish men do the majority of their reading in the bathroom.  

The book cover reminds me of elementary and public school when you had to cover the public school books that they loaned you for the year with the brown paper bags my mom saved from the supermarket so that you didn’t accidentally destroy them.  I remember how some class mates got really fancy and covered their books with book-cover paper that reminded me of holiday wrapping paper.

I have various theories as to why Spaniards cover their books, i) it has been loaned to them, ii) it is something that has continued on from the time of Franco during a time in which there was huge censorship iii) they like to keep their books looking like it wasn't read iv) my preferred theory is that they are reading total trash and don't want anybody to know!

Per usual, I decided to do a survey around my office.

I asked the Canarian workmate how she feels about the eBook and she said:

"El otro día vi uno en el metro y no me hace gracia a mí."  Well stated, she said it wasn't for her, I couldn't agree more.

The Ibiza Boss said that he prefers paper as he glanced around his office looking at the number of books and old maps he had in frames and collects, the Brainy boss who happened to be there, said the same and added that it is all about tact.

Mr. GQ in my office said that he "lee poco y menos en el ebook" - he barely reads and would read even less if it were an eBook.

Now for the opinion of a true gadget lover, the Boss who is the ultimate Hacker, I enter his office to find him engrossed by the computer and I interrupt his intense concentration,

"Qué opinas del eBook?" I ask him with a smirk.  He finds my surveys quite strange but I had to remind him once again that I studied letras and not econmia.

"De hecho, voy a comprarme el iPad." As his eyes widen like a child with the simple idea that they are going to have a new toy and meanwhile he takes his iPhone out of his pocket and shows me how many books he has in there already and how you can change the view of how it is read by tilting it one way or another.

"Es mucho más cómodo leer en la cama con el iPhone y con el iPad va a ser genial.  Bueno, te digo, también me gustan los libros de papel pero por comodidad, los libros electrónicos son mejores."

Like I said before, there are certain things that I just don't think should modernize.  Paper books are a classic and they can ideally deal with the five senses (I have never seen anybody eat a book but surely there are people who have or do).  And how is the eBook going to serve for blind people?  What if they don't feel like being read to by some computerized voice but rather feel the brail?

So, for some, the eBook may look sophisticated, may be more comfortable to read in bed, may give you the option of reading about 100 books at the same time, but I just am not for it.  How would men stand up to their image of reading the paper in the bathroom? How would I feel about reading in the cafés with an electronic device?  What would happen to the device if I spilled my coffee or tea on it?  And, what if the battery dies in a tense moment of the book?  You are totally left hanging, can't turn the page.  Ultimately, I feel that there are certain things in modern-day culture where the old just does not mix with the new and a part of history would be lost without being able to turn the page.

So, no eBook for me, just call me traditional and unsophisticated.