Call me superficial, but I would far sooner buy a beautiful book than an ugly one.
It’s something to think about when Christmas shopping — a concern that’s only magnified when it comes to buying a book as a present, rather than for oneself.
It’s also something to bear in mind in the broader context of the battle of physical books versus eBooks. Sales of eBooks are soaring ever upwards, making even the most old-fashioned of publishers think that they really must be the way forward. Why is it that so many readers don’t mind losing contact with books as physical things in favour of scrollable words on a grey background that only exist inside a pocket-sized computer? And yet, why will I — and many other book-lovers — never love an eBook in the same way that I might love a book?
I suppose it boils down to paper.
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