Paper or plastic had been the erstwhile slogan of credit card companies. Little did we know that an avid reader would have to fend the same question that a shopaholic had so far been dealing with. What does an average book-lover look like? Not having paid much attention to the latest trends in fashion, he engrosses himself in a book in any which place, without a care in the world. Would you like that image to change drastically? Well, whether you want it or not, it’s happening, believe you me.
Walking into a Barnes and Noble or a Borders with a substantial amount of time to spare has always been my way of unwinding. Being in the company of tomes of every color, shape and size still holds me in awe. If at least one wall of a living room is lined with books, the whole scene goes up a couple of notches in my rating.
You think only curios and the shot glasses that you collected from all the places you visited can ever substitute the presence of books? I have to disagree. Can plastic and micro-chips double up as books? You can keep on changing the designer cover of your e-book reader according to your mood or the season, but you surely are missing something, and that something is the crux of being a bibliophile.
Why just put the blame on e-book readers? Every time you are online in your now run-of-the-mill PC, you are given a dose of the latest goings-on from every corner of the world. The morning cuppa that went so well with the rustle of the daily is now being relegated to a tray beside your netbook.
Yet they say that if you want to go green, which you should, you should opt for e-books and break the mould of having to hold a book made of paper, every time you wanted to read. Your backpack will no longer need to have extra padded straps for those bulky hardbound bestsellers. E-books do attempt at reducing the strain on the environment and has significant environmental advantages. At the rate trees are being chopped, is recycling catching up at the same speed? Using e-readers is actually like using reusable bottles and bags, so what’s wrong with it? All said and done, they still need to be charged from the grid and problems of power consumption persist.
Paper manufacturing adds too many pollutants to the air, which may be avoided to a certain extent. Yet again, the raw material required to make e-readers and e-books, as well as disposing of old devices still pose problems.
The question as to which process is greener still remains unanswered, and will perhaps remain that way for some time to come.
From the Good E-Reader Blog
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
