Books are not an obsolete technology. Despite the ubiquity of cell phones, tablets, and computers, books maintain distinct advantages as a technological medium. Here are a few reasons why:
Books do not need to be charged. You cannot lose or break a book's charger because books don't have them.
A book cannot get a virus.
Books have no pop-up ads.
If you find yourself lost in a book and realize you've lost hours in its pages, you will walk away enriched and informed, whereas the same experience with a computer or cell phone will leave you with the empty sense that you have thrown away part of your life scrolling nothingness.
Books don't need to load. They come up right away as soon as you open them.
Books cannot crash.
Books require no monthly fees. No subscriptions, no access, no data, no provider. No hotspot, no codes, no passwords. No overages, no plans. No settings to set up, no platforms to learn. No upgrades to download. No need to elicit help from online forums or teenagers or Far Eastern call centers.
A book can stay in a carry-on bag through airport security.
Books are almost never stolen (except from libraries). Well, actually friends steal books under the guise of "borrowing." Still, if someone steals your book, your life is not in a shambles until you get to a bookstore and buy another book and reload your life into the new book. If your friend steals your book, you can still be friends, and, in fact, have something new and interesting to talk about.
Books are cheap enough that they need no insurance and durable enough that nothing cracks or scratches or breaks on them. Books don't need expensive protective cases.
No one has ever gotten in hot water with a spouse, significant other, parent or child because he/she got into his/her book.
The cost of books never creeps up on you bit-by-bit, month-by-month. A book costs what it costs with no confusing or hidden fees. You don't have to be careful about the creative ways booksellers might be ripping you off, because, unlike your cell phone company or your internet provider, booksellers don't use nickel-and-dime subtle scams.
You can never have your book shut off because you forgot to pay the bill. There are no late fees in the world of books. Except possibly when you return a book to a library, but hey, they let you use it for free.
A book is a physical object that keeps some value and can be resold, given away as a valuable gift, or displayed as an attractive part of a room. It does not become a piece of junk to be upgraded. It does not end up in a landfill. If it does end up in a landfill, it biodegrades and does not harm the environment. Books stay beautiful and even get more beautiful as they age. There's a reason almost no one collects old cell phones or computers.
A book is also a physical object that persists and says something about its owner. Marginal notes, even receipts or lists or business cards stuffed between its pages will one day be precious or at least interesting to the owner's children and grandchildren.
It is dangerous and foolhardy but not illegal to operate a book while operating a motor vehicle. I'm fairly certain I've never known anyone to be ticketed for reading a book while driving a car. Come to think of it, few people are tempted to place the lives of other motorists at mortal risk by operating a book while operating a motor vehicle.
Addiction to books is, at best, a healthy thing, and at worst, perhaps the most tame addiction possible. Few marriages or careers have been destroyed by book addiction.
Everything written in a book has been edited by someone else whose job it is to let the author know if something in the book is objectively false, absurd, logically incoherent, or grammatically disastrous. Many books are full of nothing but garbage, of course, but at least with a book someone had an opportunity to say, "Are you sure you want to publish this?" I'm grateful that books have a filter. You will not find books full of pictures of what your friends ate at Waffle House.
Call me a Luddite, but I'm increasingly returning to the old-fashioned tried-and-true codex for its technological merits.
