Physical books will always be better than digital ones for a number of reasons, one being their ability to tell stories beyond the author’s story. That’s also why I prefer used books to brand new ones – stories upon stories upon stories. And if you really care about stories – not as distractions, not just as something to consume to pass the time, or for pure escapism – then I can’t see how you could possibly prefer e-books.

A few weeks ago I picked up a used copy of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit at a library here in central Florida for one dollar. I’d seen the movie years ago but remember little more than Mr. Gregory Peck sitting behind a desk and that it involved the rat race of the postwar 1950s. I ended up loving the book and shed a few tears at the end, but this post has nothing to do with that story. Let’s look at the other stories this book holds.

On the title page is stamped, “Maryvale High School Library, Cheektowaga 25, N.Y.”, and in the back cover is the pasted in slip for the checkout card. The card is missing but there’s a stamp for September 27, 1961 on it, so this book was at the library for at least six years. That’s nearly 64 years ago. How did it get to Florida? Did it come down on a straight line or go all over the country (world?) before making it down here? Who prepared the book for the library and added those stamps? What were their lives like? This was a hugely successful novel – how many high school students read it and considerd the importance of work/life balance before even entering the workforce? Not the students that were inspired by the novel in general, but THIS SPECIFIC book that I now hold my hands? Physical books are magic like that, with meaning in every stained the page, every dogeared page, every pencil mark.

In other books I’ve found personal notes, shopping lists, etc., and this one has none of those, but it’s still a wonderful treasure, holding pieces of the lives of all the hands that shelved it, took it out, read it, forgot to return it, carried it to look cool but never read it, hid a comic book in it, pressed leaves in it, and whoever brought it all the way from New York.

What’s an e-book? A cold, dead, lifeless thing that needs electricity to even exist, read on a device that will soon be outdated. Plus, there’s no way to re-create the smell of a hardcover book from 1955. That is a glorious sent and if you don’t think so, well, I’m sorry, you truly are missing out on one of the great pleasures of life.