I’ve been trying hard to embrace ebooks, I really have.

I turned my first book, Just a Couple of Chickens, into an ebook with some success – although the process of do it your self publishing of an ebook was not as fun as I’d hoped.

And I will, as soon as I can, produce an ebook version of my second book, When No One Else Would Fly, the aviation history of my grandfather, Colonel C. J. Tippett.

And I just bought the latest book of my absolute favorite author, C. J. Cherryh, in ebook format.

But.

The first time I misplaced my ereader charger, I was more than a little miffed.

Print books don’t shut down after four low battery warnings.

Silver Laced Polish Chicks love ebooks, but they don't know how to plug them back in, so they don't read much.

Silver Laced Polish Chicks love ebooks, but they don’t know how to plug them back in, so they don’t read much.

When I discovered that none of the other ereader chargers would work on the annoyingly exclusive Nook, I started to get very graphically miffed.

Print books don’t need hours of recharging whether or not one can find the right charger… despite having three other chargers available.

And then, a final straw….

My new favorite book from my new favorite author ended with a cliff hanger and I didn’t see it coming because I wasn’t holding the print book in my hand – and therefore seeing and feeling the upcoming end of the book. So I had reader whiplash.

Yes, I know I could have watched the page count at the bottom – but I didn’t.
I was busy trying to find my charger.
Schna! I felt very growly for the rest of the day.

So for all the discussions of ebook versus print book, I think that I will always produce and enjoy print books, no matter how much the marketplace proves ebooks worthy. I will make ebooks, and I will buy ebooks, but they will never fully replace print books in my world.

 

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