“Do I look cool and intellectual?”

The FT has an excellent, detailed piece on “ebooks v paper”:

Now, I’m not saying I got here first. But I did devote a short post back in March to this issue:

The answer – according to my “personal finding” – seems to be, well, uh, it kinda depends.

Print vs. E-book. [Photo by me, 2014.] Note: I have no idea how the 3rd book from the top got into that pile. ;-) — Print vs. E-book. [Photo by me, 2014.] Note: I have, uh, no idea how the 3rd book from the top got into that pile. 😉

I had focused on only the reading experience. The FT does make an additional point that I had not touched upon. It is about the vital question, “How do I look?”:

The book in your hand or on your coffee table is a public statement about who you are. Ereaders are, therefore, useful in getting over concerns with image and providing a kind of licence for us to follow our curiosity and interests more….

….When we sit on a train with a book open in front of us, how much has our choice of reading being influenced by our ideas of what a proper book should be like, and how a proper adult should appear in public?

I write for adults. Generally speaking, of course an ereader cover is an irrelevance in public. However, I do recall that in choosing my paperback cover, I had wanted one that indicated a novel adults would not be self-conscious to be seen reading on a beach, a train, or have on a coffee table. 😉