I'm not ready for e-books

Maybe it will happen someday but right now I'm a long way from every reading let alone buying an e-book - i think they definitely have a function and they have a future, but I still like the idea of holding a book in my hand and reading words printed on paper (and scribbling marginal notes and corrections on paper occasionally, too). I didn't feel that way about PCs when they entered into our world - any technological advance to make writing easier and faster was wonderful, as far as I could see, but reading is another matter (or another story). The Times has today what for me is a kind of sad story about the demise of the paperback, sales down 14 percent, replaced by e-books. Yes, the mass-market paperback is a disposable product, like a Bic lighter or a goldfish. But what will it mean when they exist no more? I can accept that downloading an ebook is a much faster way to get the book into the hands or before the eyes of a reader. But if the only way you can get a books is electronically - then essentially the whole idea of browsing through a bookstore, or talking to the sales help, of the serendipitous discovery of a book you'd never heard of but that you might read and love, is totally gone. We'll only search for (and order, and read) the books we know of already - that is, the highly publicized books on sensational topics or by brand-name authors. It will to an ever greater extent narrow the field of literature - more will be out there and available - publishers might even expand their so-called lists as there will be virtually no cost involved in publishing an e-author and keeping him or her in "print" forever, but they will publicize even fewer books. Take a look at the best seller list already: it's a disgrace, so narrowly focused on a few writers and on a few genres. E-books are another step toward the homogenization of literature and the deracination of culture.