How the rise of e-readers takes the fun out of giving books - The Globe and Mail

How the rise of e-readers takes the fun out of giving books - The Globe and Mail: "Stay with me! I swear this is not going to be one of those hackneyed columns about how much we’ll all miss the old-fashioned book. I travel too much to be sentimental about the beauty of marginalia or the satisfying crack of a hardcover spine. Hauling books around the globe has cost me thousands in excess baggage fees, and left me with a hyper-extended left shoulder and a nagging sense of having misplaced something important. Hardly a week has gone by since university when I haven’t stood up from my desk thinking, “Where is that book?” then spent half an hour scouring my shelves before concluding it must be boxed away in my parent’s basement. The idea that, having attained an e-reader of my own, I will now be able to have all my books contained in a single device, like a pocket-sized library complete with personalized Dewey Decimal System, is so liberating it’s almost magic.

My issue is with other people’s books. Specifically that the act of giving books as gifts – once the simplest of holiday rituals – has been perverted beyond recognition as a result of technology."