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There’s nothing like a book.

I’m not talking about what a book teaches or imparts to a reader.  I’m talking about the book itself.  The physical binding of paper with a story or teachings written within it. There’s nothing else like it in the world. For centuries books have been written, handed down and passed to others.  New books have been written, some reprinting the older works and others entirely new.  Books aren’t a trend, they are one of the most important creations ever to be used by humanity aside from language itself, and probably the wheel.  While my opinion on the conceptual creation of written or printed-on-paper literature is certainly subjective, there is one fact most people would agree on; that books are important.

I love books.  I have approximately 200 books of my own some are new, some are very old, and I always keep an eye open for a new one to add to my collection.  A couple of the books I’m most fond of in my collection is a soft leather bound edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, and an 1870 printing of The General History, Cyclopedia and Dictionary of Freemasonry by Robert Macoy (a 33rd degree Freemason).  Nature I found in an attic of an old house, and the other I found shuffling through an annual used book sale for $4.  Most of the books in my collection are precious to me (some not so much I’ll admit).  But what I love is that I can give a book away.  I can loan it to someone, or hand it down to my children when they’re old enough or I pass away.  I love that I can leave something within its pages that might not be found for a long time.  Which brings up a fascinating discovery by David Humphrey (@humphd) which he shared on Twitter.  He found a letter within a novel (Uncle Tom’s Cabin) to his grandfather, from his former high school teacher.  The finding of an old letter or note, gifting or passing down a book has personal significance both  to the giving and receiving individuals.

How can we impart that same significance within an e-book?  How do we pass digital literature down to new generations in a manner which imparts personal sentiment either intentional or not?

If you’ve ever gifted a book to someone have you ever written within the cover a message to them?  My family, on every occasion where I have received a book as a gift (birthdays, Christmas etc…)  they always write something to me on the inside cover, a note of happiness or of love.  The message in the book is for me and not only implies ownership but the message will always be for me even if I later give the book to someone else.  Someday, maybe even after I am long gone, someone will read that same message, perhaps they will wonder who I was.

For Christmas 2011, my mom gave my daughter a book as a present, alongside of the toys she received.  The book is “On The Night You Were Born” by Nancy Tillman, and on the inside cover was written in beautiful handwritten script only a mother can write:

Dearest Kylie,

The night you were born was wonderous and magical…there was a blizzard, a white out and deep snow.  It seemed to take forever to get to the hospital to see your mommy and daddy ~ and wait for you.

The most wonderful day in my life, was the day you were born and I became your grandma.  So beautiful, special, and perfectly you.  And so loved…

Gammy Shari, Christmas 2011

My daughter is almost 5 years old, and right now she doesn’t understand the significance of that passage and what it will mean to her.  And that’s just it, someday when she is older the passage in that book will mean the world to her.

What I’m trying to say here is that e-books don’t seem to allow much in the way of imparting personal sentiment to readers, instead all the e-book contains is it’s literature.  There doesn’t seem to be any room for anything but what the e-book contains to read aside from metadata.  If my mother decided to give me an e-book as a gift, it would lack that personal touch, it would not generate within me a personal emotion and attachment to it.  If I passed the e-book on to my children, what could I leave within it for them to find?  Would they find it?  Is passing an e-book to my children before I’m gone even possible with DRM?  Is it something anyone has yet to do?

Perhaps it sounds silly, but a books worth is more than just the paper its printed on and the binding holding it together. How can we turn a digital medium, which contains almost no personal value to its owner, into something that a person intends to keep forever, something in which they can look back on and remember receiving it.  How can we generate emotional response from someone with an e-book and how can we give them the opportunity to pass significance along?

We won’t do it with DRM, at least not in it’s current form.  I can barely even give someone an e-book without jumping through loops, and for the most part its not even worth the hassle. I might as well purchase the hardcover for $30.00 and give it that way.  I could break the DRM, but that doesn’t solve a damn thing except that I can now give away the e-book to the person its intended for and question the legality of that action.

While I don’t think that books are going anywhere in the near future, where will they be in the far future?  100 years from now?  Look at an old book now, a book from 80 years ago, or from 100 years ago.  Consider for a moment all the things and advances in technology which have happened since that book was written, and then consider what a book written today will be like in 100 years and what the possibilities are in technological advances during that time.  The book will still exist, but it will be battered, yellowed, maybe dusty.  It will smell of history, it might contain a letter or note to the person who got it.  But what about an e-book?  The sad thing about it is, in 100 years an e-book will only be an e-book, never changing.  You will never sit down to read an e-book and think for one brief moment who else may have read that same exact book, who else may have flipped through its pages and read the same e-book as you.  You will never wonder what caused an aweful scratch on the front cover of an e-book.

A child who receives an e-book will never read a loving, hand written, passage inside it from her grandmother when she is all grown up.