The switch from paperback to e-reader killed my book club's actual debates

Before we all got Kindles last year, people would dog-ear pages and argue about specific quotes for 20 minutes, now everyone just shrugs and says 'highlight 347' and the whole vibe dies. Has anyone else watched their group lose the physical book energy that made discussions messy and good?

3 comments

3 Comments

miab872mo ago

Started laughing because this reminded me of my friend Jenna who used to write notes in the margins of her books and then get mad when someone borrowed them and didn't read her handwriting. Now she just sends screenshots of highlighted text and it's like trying to have a conversation over text instead of in person.

hernandez.morgan2mo ago

Nah I kinda get it though. Screenshots are way easier than trying to explain what you loved about a passage in person. Feels more direct like sharing exactly what made you stop and think.

the_elizabeth16d ago

Does nobody else miss the dogeared pages and the cracked spines though? There was something real about holding up a beat up book and saying "right here, this line wrecked me." Now it's just a sterile little screen. The physical wear and tear on a book tells a story about how much you loved it. Screenshots feel so clean and detached from the actual reading experience. I'd rather squint at somebody's messy margin notes than get a perfect little screenshot with no soul.