Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

So, I have a new issue to vent about and my mom suggested I stop complaining to her and find someone else who cares. Then she suggested I write a blog about it. Yes! Of course! I'll vent to the masses and find a sympathetic ear, someone who is also disgusted by the boundaries technology has crossed.

Okay, so I went from bookstore to bookstore this week looking for, duh, a book in a series I've been reading. The book was published (according to the author's website) March 1, 2009. No one at any bookstore had ever heard of this book. Finally a salesclerk at Boarder's asked me if it was an ebook. Me = blank stare. Blink. "Huh?" I got home and googled the title and, sure enough!, this book I've been searching for is not a "book," but a manuscript typed up and available for purchase on-line. It will not be available in hardback/paperback, but will remain an ebook. WHAT!? Now, I knew ebooks existed, but I thought they were for psudo authors designed for all the trash editors would never waste time to print. Apparently not.

Now, I'm a tree huger. I see the benefits of not printing millions of copies and destroying trees. I get it. Yet, to me, books are sacred. When movies, music and shopping all became regulated by the internet, I was cool with the change. But books? There is just something about holding a book in your hands and watching the cover crease with each time I read it; about seeing the lovely book on my overflowing bookshelf; about having the ability to share the book with friends who want to borrow it. I do not want my books to jam my memory on my hard drive and become nothing but forgotten GB's taking up space on my computer. WHAT IS THIS!?

And what self respecting author would agree to allowing their books to not be published, but remain nothing but an electronic copy? And here I say, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Meaning, just because we can put books on-line and never print again (don't even get me started on newspapers), doesn't mean that is the right thing to do and we should sometimes refrain. What is going to happen in the future? Will all the books be "ebooks" (grr..) and the once paper books (aka: real books) be relegated to the same uses as paper towels and toilet paper?! Will kids in the future even know what a real book looks like, or will they someday say "Oh yeah, I saw that on TV once."??? This is just a small tragedy in my world.

I'm just disgusted with modern technology sometimes. This is so one of those times!