The printed book/e-reader debate can get heated. Those in the pro e-reader camp point to, oh, I don’t know…size or something? Those in the pro-printed book camp, on the other hand, need only point to Penguin’s beautiful covers (which make lovely post cards) and voila! Debate won: people will be turning real pages forever.
Penguin just unveiled their most recent collectible hardcover classics: Penguin Drop Caps, a collaboration with graphic design superstar Jessica Hische (of Daily Drop Cap) beautiful enough to build bookcases around. (Hello Christmas present!)
And you know what? They want to give you the first three of what will be a 26-letter alphabet: Austen, Jane – Pride and Prejudice, Brontë, Charlotte – Jane Eyre, and Cather, Willa – My Ántonia!
How do you enter?
For one entry: Comment on this post and tell us why you love printed books. (Because you can’t take an e-reader into the bath?)
For two entries: Write on The Anthology’s Facebook wall.
For three entries: Holler @TheAnthology on Twitter.
UPDATE: Contest closed. Congratulations Shannon!
29 Comments
I love printed books for the feel of the pages, and the building anticipation you experience when you can see how many more pages there are until the end.
I love the smell of books, and the way they feel in your hands. And, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of cracking one open for the first time!
Kate
The weight of it, the feel of a book. The anticipation of finding the page where you last left off, flipping the pages until you find the spot you’re looking for.
I love printed book because I’m a page folder, sentence under-liner, margin note-taker! I read books with a pencil in one hand.
I love books….pre-owned books. They have been owned and loved by someone before me. I like to wonder why they were reading it – was their heart broken, were they on vacation, did they read it for class?
I love that the stories I’ve read can occupy part of my home. Theres nothing better in a home than a big bookshelf full of good reads. Plus, sharing! I love to send my friends home with something to read, especially when they reciprocate.
I love printed books because they are truly an artform unto themselves – there is nothing quite like them. The type, the paper, the artwork – printed books give me the privilege of owning a small masterpiece & keeping it forever in my home.
I love printed books!
I love collecting them. I love stacks next to my nighstand waiting to be read.
I love looking at my bookshelves and remembering what was going on in life when I squeezed in reading this book or that (because, of course i carried the book everywhere I went!)
plus, I love walking through bookstores looking for te next book to read (or buy)
I love printed books…
I love owning them
I love looking at my bookshelves and remembering places where I carried the books I was reading…
I love shopping in book stores and taking my time to line up my next few reads…
What’s not to love!
I love the printed book because an e-reader just doesn’t give you the same tactile experience. Plus, the smell of paper just adds to the experience.
I am a librarian so an ereader wouldn’t look as pretty on my shelves :)
So many reasons to love printed books! I love looking at my bookshelf full of books! I love lending and borrowing books with friends. I love the smell of books. And I love the first time you open a book’s cover.
I love that my books don’t need to be charged.
These are stunning. Nothing can beat the feel and smell of a solid book between your hands. Reading is tactile to me, feeling the left side of the book get heavier in your hands as you make your way though it.
For me, books have always possessed a certain degree of nostalgia. They remind me of my childhood, reading under the covers past my bedtime using flashlights, failing to pay attention at dinner tables and family gatherings due to my engrossment with the tale du jour, going to the library as a child with my mom and emerging with a stack so heavy I could barely lift it. There’s something so material yet intangible about actually having a book in your hands – cracking the spine of a brand new one or tracing your fingers along the pages of a used one imagining its past life. I’ve considered getting an e-reader before, but the magic that books have held for me still holds.
I love the shininess of a new cover – I’m one of those people who takes pains not to crease pages or crack spines; when I see someone folding the pages they aren’t reading back, like a magazine, I whimper. But I also just want to own the books that I love. I was never even much for the library since I’d have to give the books BACK. I feel the same about buying a digital download of an album – I want to have it in my hands, and “owning” a bunch of ones and zeroes just isn’t the same.
I love printed books because I love the feel and smell of books. Plus I just love having shelves full of gorgeous books adorning our small apartment.
I love home libraries. Built in shelving filled with beautiful printed books make a room!
I love books because I love collecting the ones I have read and the ones I wish to read. I love sharing and trading them with friends. And I love doggy-earring the page I left off on!
There are few things in this world more beautiful than a well-loved book. Except possibly an overstuffed bookshelf. I have never pitied anyone more than those poor souls trying to read literature on their iPhones during their morning train commute. The very thought makes me shudder.
There is nothing like the feel of a hardcover book! The weight, the sound it makes when you flip the pages…the patient way they wait for you to pick them up again and continue reading, the mischievious way they drop to the floor when you are falling asleep… a wonderful friend in the quiet moments.
I love printed books because I can see how far I’ve read. I have a collection stacked up in my room. I have my favourites books and books that I am waiting to read. :)
I love printed books because I can read them to my family at dinner time.
it’s the smell, there’s nothing better than the scent of book pages! These books are beautiful, collectors pieces for sure.
I understand the convenience of ebooks, but I still love printed books for their history and the way they look in my home.
i love writing notes in the margins and then swapping books with my friends…it feels like we’re reading together :) thank you so much!
julylightning at yahoo dot com
[…] a name out of a hat and the winner of Penguin Drop Caps giveaway […]
I’m a graphic designer (a huge fan of Jessica Hische—designer of these drop cap covers) so I absolutely adore printed books. I love collecting beautiful, printed things. These are no exception! :-)
I love the smell, feel, and look of real books!