I have a Kindle. It's incredibly convenient: instant downloads, terrific pricing (particularly for new items out in hardback), a better and better range of available items as the weeks go by, and very easy to use (though the whole download platform is a good bit more cumbersome than eMusic or iTunes).

On the other hand, our house is full of books. Apart from the pleasure of holding them, looking at them, leafing through them for that-bit-that-just-came-into-your-head-and-you-know-it's-here-somewhere, they add to the atmosphere of a room - they furnish it, as Anthony Powell said.

And I love bookshops, the aimless browsing, the smell of new books, and the pleasure of marching out of there with a couple of good ones under your oxter. Having a book pop into your Kindle can never match that.

Unfortunately, the whole download thing will drastically affect the book business, just as it has the record business. Exactly how, I'm not sure, but I don't think that it will be in a good way for bookshops.

I understand the attachment to books as I'm the same with records and CDs and I like to see them on a shelf but if I could get electronic versions of all my books I would happily chuck them all out (OK not happily but I'm a hoarder and have a problem throwing out anything) I'd be even happier if they found a good home.
I should point out that I never read fiction so all my books are reference books which do lend themselves far better to "electrification".

I'm sure we've discussed stickers on records and CDs here before and if it was on a CD I'd be happy with the Richard & Judy sticker but not the 3 for 2 one (having said that, I don't really know the first thing about R&J - I don't think I've ever seen one of their shows - so it would mean nothing to me).
The (mis)handling of goods by people that work in shops is not restricted to book shops.

if I could get electronic versions of all my books I would happily chuck them all out

If you could get electronic versions of all your books - and you probably can already and you will be able to do so at some point in the future - you wouldn't need to actually *own* them at all. They would simply be available to you at the push of a button or two.

I don't need to own all the books in my house. The number of books I actually refer to regularly is quite small. And yet I can't imagine living without the rest.

... in the bath and as a result it will always be the good old fashioned paperback for me - too expensive to drop a hardback in the bath, nevermind an electronic thingy.

went up in smoke. I have practically no attachment to them as objects... the music is another matter. But I could replace them over time without too much trouble.

My books, however, are incredibly precious to me. I spend a lot of my spare time trawling through art books in shops like Oxfam looking for a rare gem. I've recently been buying large format hardbacks published by Phaidon in the 1940s on artists like Donatello, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli. They are so beautiful, with black and white reproductions that are vastly superior in quality to those in books printed nowadays. I get such a thrill when I find one I haven't got, and best of all they are relatively inexpensive. I'd be gutted if anything were to happen to them. They give me so much pleasure.

I really love books - the "things" that is. I hate getting books from the library even though I rarely read anything twice (Wodehouse excepted)just because I have to give them back and they don't stack up on the shelves. I have coveted them for more years than I care... etc..

BUT - I used to feel exactly the same way about records and CDs and I have to admit that the digital dawn HAS changed my attitude to them. Whilst I wouldn't actually ever get rid of my music collection, since it was digitised I am quite happy to live without the physical articles and as long as I can buy on-line at a decent quality, I rarely buy anything other than downloads these days.

My point is that I suspect that when I finally get round to buying something "e" to read on (which will only be when someone produces a machine I actually like the look and functionality of) my attitude to books may well change as well.

I fell in love with books before music & my love for books will outlast it too I suspect.
They have at times been my only companions, and rarely do they let me down.

I'm already sick of people talking about it falling in the bath. Not just on here, don't get me wrong. But everywhere I read about the Kindle this bath thing keeps coming up.

I'm not an early adopter, so at the moment I don't give a damn about the Kindle. But if and when I do get one, it falling in the bath won't be something I'll worry about because it's an electronic thingy, so I won't be taking it near the fucking bath.

but the bottom line is that they're about the music and the words and not about vinyl and paper.

I was talking with my 82 year old aunt a few months ago and we were on the subject of wild animals, tigers specifically and extinction. Much to my surprise, my aunt said she really wouldn't be bothered if tigers became extinct. It's going to happen, she opined, it's happened to countless species before and it'll happen to countless things in the future. It got me thinking: life moves on might be a cliche but it does. And so it does with books and records.

I recently moved house and, with great anguish, sold or gave away about 500 books and 500 CDs. Guess what? Without exception, I haven't regretted one single disposal.

If there was a reliable, high speed, high quality streaming service that gave me access to all the music, films and books I wanted, I'd use it. Indeed, it's not so much that I wouldn't mind using it but that I would positively welcome the chance to declutter my house and have available on demand all the music and literature and films that I wanted in either brilliant e-reader quality or high resolution stereo.

It's natural to want to hang on to the stuff we're familiar with, be it the message or the medium, but I'm looking forward to a new age where the message is still there for me to enjoy but the medium is a much, much more convenient one.

has anyone developed a completely glitch free product? Something that after 10 or 15 years won't have broken down or developed a bug?

If my hard drive died, I would still have all my music. On CD. The same goes for literature. If you had no books, and then your device died completely, you would have to download (and possibly pay) for it all again. No thank you.

that the medium is insignificant compared to the content. I think I used to think this, but in recent years I've come to realise that in a lot of cases it's the physical "thing" that gives you an emotional connection to lots of music, art, etc.

Take an LP for example: debates about sound quality aside, there is something far more emotionally satisfying about physically putting a needle into a groove and hearing the resulting amplified vibrations, than being aware of an electronic device reading data from a CD or an MP3 file.

It's the same with books I think: feeling the page, getting thumbprints on it, getting it a bit wet in the bath sometimes (yes), creases, breaking the spine, etc. It's a physical relationship you have that just heightens the emotional experience.

I agree in principle that it would be possible for someone to fully not care about the medium being a wholly electronic one. Half the battle is just what you're used to: the next generation who don't know anything other than MP3s and kindles and suchlike genuinely won't have any preference and will find arguments like mine to be quaint. It's our misfortune to be at the curious inbetween stage where everything is becoming more and more electronic.

... And at the risk of waffling on here, I think in my own case an equivalent of where I'm happy to embrace the electronic future is with cameras. I didn't really get into photography until all cameras started becoming digital in the last few years or so. So I have no nostalgia for the old physical film/exposure/etc routine of cameras, and I find digital ones far more convenient (300 photos in an afternoon? Why not!). I can sympathise with people who think that something pure and physical has been lost in the art of photography, but I don't feel the same.

In short, it's a generational thing. And it takes a hardy soul to take the long term view and not get nostalgic about the things they are used to.

I ceased to care about the name of songs in about 1989. They became "track whatever" after a few months of not being able to waggle my head over a spinning turntable and read what song was playing now.

I certainly couldn't be arsed fiddling about with CD packaging to figure out what was going on.

The poring over of an LP cover, holding run-out grooves on an angle to read the scratching, the collecting and fetishising of labels themselves - these things are things the medium brings to the message. They sometimes are of sufficient weight and heft to exist outside the message.

I don't borrow books from the library because if I like a book I want to own it. The object brings with it its own messages - how it looks, the quality of its material and production, the feel, the smell - and I like these things.

I can judge a book by its cover and I wish to continue to be able to do so.

Just [i]reading[/i] a book is not the entirety of the experience a book can bring.

It's a bit empty; like thinking any old friction for pleasure is the same as a good root in a loving relationship.

I'm gonna sound like some over-romantic luddite twerp here, but I'll always take reading a book via paperback over viewing it on Kindle instead.

I spent my formative years reading my favourite novels via Penguin paperbacks, most of which I still own.

There's something about reading literature via the medium of the cheap paperback that makes it so wonderfully accessible. You can underline paragraphs, fold back pages of chapters you want to re-read, scribble personal notes in pen on the back of the cover and genrally make the book your very own.

Add to this an occasionally wonderful piece of book jacket illustration, and the whole Paperback versus Kindle argument mirrors owning a piece of music on LP/CD versus download.

( plus you can read paperbacks in the bath without - OOPS - SORRY!!! )

Yesterday I made a 220 mile round trip to London in order that my 10 year old daughter and her friend could meet Jacqueline Wilson at a book launch for her latest 'Little Darlings'. We tried to get tickets for nearer locations but all were sold out. There were around 300 kids waiting patiently in line to get their books signed after hearing Jacqueline speak for an hour about her struggle to become a published author. At all times she was encouraging and delightful - I was most impressed. I firmly believe that the likes of Jacqueline Wilson, J.K.Rowling and Stephanie Meyer have taken to role of book guardians and they deserve immense credit regardless of the merits of their works. Book reading was one of the greatest joys of my childhood and my daughters childhood. I believe it will eventually be a joy for my grandchildren too when they arrive. Can you imagine 'please can you sign my kindle?'

I'm not at all precious about my music collection,never been the sort to arrange it alphabetically and such what,love my vinyl though.Books on the other hand stand on my shelves and act as immediate touchstones to my past,I can remember when they were purchased,when and where they were read.As I have a very dodgy memory of times past these compact,perfectly designed papery objects have become of increasing value.Electronic books Pah! I can see the allure.I can see that their share of the market will only grow,but I'll stick with ink and paper as long as possible.Also aren't bookshops little islands of peace and sanity when out shopping in busy Town and City centres.They are in Chester.Free from bloody tourists.

I love books. So a shiver went through me when I passed a book shop in Shanghai recently selling books by the pound. Lets hope this is not the future of physical media. More here http://www.simonb.com/blog/2010/03/03/weight-the-other-way-to-sell-books...

jazz cigarettes are difficult to roll on a download of Doremi Fasol Latido.

like books and records and CDs is that you can browse through them looking for inspiration, or just sit in front of your shelves and stare at them thoughtfully, or decide to have a tidy-up and end up knee-deep in them, lost in nostalgia.