[Alfirin]

On this thread there has been a great deal of talk out against the concept of e-books in thier very principle, and I feel that there is some need for arguments in favor of them. Yes the feel of dead tree (or even better dead linen-cotton) has a certain confort to it and there is an inherent tactile pleasure in a physical book that an electronic one cannot match. But electronic does have its advantages too, one of the main ones of which is that, since it can be made cheaper than a physical book (I know it currently isn't but that's more of a factor of coroprate greed than anything inherent in an e-book), it increses the number of people who can have acess to the work. Some people have complained the don't want the e-books to exist becuse they've already invested so much money in the physical ones. What about a new person to tolkein who would like to read and posess the works but doens have the hundreds of dollars needed to get a complete set? Pubic libraries are nice but they can only get you so far. Ultimately I feel that a knee jerk condemmantion of e-books will lead, not to a resurgance of printed books but a situation in which Tolkein's stories are simply not acessible to most people. The life of the paper book, however lamented the fact is, is likey in it's waning decades, if the cost of priting doesn't destroy it, questions about the environmental inpact will (after environmetal concerns cause everyone to swith over to electroinc sources for their newspapers, magazines bill payments and correspondence, what do you think the next paper thing people are going to start decrying is?). I can sort of sypathize with the anti-tech Luddite desire for things to stay as they are (or go back to a simpler time) but the sad fact is that when a new idea comes along, it's supression doesn't usally result in a re-discovery of the old way (at least not by the general public) but a null state where neither form is available. The fact is that with every new tecnological advancement somthing good and fine is irretrevalbe lost, but that if you shun the change, that fairly quicky you get into a state where the old way become impracticable to preform and eveything is lost.

For example imagine someone decided they were going to produce an ultimate Tolkein volume of the most incredible quality, hand limned in iron-gall ink on finest vellum, fully illuminated with mineral pigments and gilt, bound in finest Morroco leather etc. I'n not saying that such an item would not be intensely beautiful and desirable but it would also be beyond most people budget. Now imagine if that was the only way Tolkien came, or better yet if there were only a few copies made and if you wanted one, you had to hand copy it (as I understand was common practice before cheap mass market printing). For the vast majority this would basically end up workiong out to more effort than they could bear for the story, and they would never read it. utimately If tolkein survived at all it would remain in the hands of a small elite cadre to which few, if any would be admitted over time. I could say more but my wrist tire.