Digital Letdown.

A while ago, the book Little Brother was suggested to me.

I'm not going to talk about the book, except to say that it's fantastic and a must-read for pesudo-geeks like me.

What I am going to talk about is why I wasn't raving about it earlier.

I downloaded the book the day it came to my attention. (Before you curse me as some sort of digital pirate, it's a free download right here.) As compelling as it is, I was only able to make it through a couple of chapters - not the author's fault at all- reading for that long on a computer screen just sucked.

(Compare that with reading the entire book in one evening the moment I had it in paperback form.)

I'll be honest - I haven't tried any e-readers, and the moment I hold an iPad in my hands I'll probably be too preoccupied containing my geek-gasm to think of it as a device for casual reading - but something about holding paper in your hand while you read a novel just feels...right.

And it's not the reading material's fault, either - I'm having the same problem with A Confederacy of Dunces - trying to read the digital version while I wait for my actual copy to arrive is almost as maddening.

It's funny - with music I embraced the digital format immediately - movies took a bit longer, but now I've come to appreciate the convenience of a digital copy. But books? I just can't do it.

This all might change the moment I lay hands on on a Kindle or an iPad - but for right now, I say chop down some trees and fill my hands with pulpy literary goodness.


Later.