More and more I find myself regarding a new piece of technology with a certain amount of disdain, the simple question “why?” rocketing around my head. This is not to say I simply dismiss all new technology as pointless, far from it – despite my love of proper CDs and Vinyl’s, my iPod comes everywhere with me. But certain things, I feel, are better left alone. A prime example of this would seem to be the Sony Reader. For those of you who don’t know, the Sony Reader is a handheld unit that allows books to be stored and then read on the screen. Great…roughly 160 books in one place; are you ever going to read 160 books in one sitting? The unit itself costs roughly £215 and from what I can see, buying the books to put on there isn’t cheap either. This really raises an enormous “WHY?” in my head. I’m torn between whether this piece of kit is an insult to our intelligence or not. Have we reached a stage where it takes a screen to make us read the classics? Have we had to pretend to re-invent reading just to make it interesting? If that is the case then that is a horrific state of affairs. I can just hear the cries of people trying to justify their recent purchase of the Sony Reader with “oh, but we’re conserving paper, helping the planet”. Ridiculous – books are not a waste of paper and they are also recyclable; what about this little reader then? “Helping the planet” hardly seems applicable when you consider all the recharging it will need. Granted, when going on holiday all these books in one little unit saves space but with a good old paperback you don’t have to wait for the next page to load, recharge it or hope it doesn’t malfunction. The old wives’ tale of “square eyes” may be going a little far but staring so intently at a small screen for any length of time can’t be good for you. Another issue I had floating about in my head was, "will we ever finish these books?" If we can have up to 160 on one device, is there any reason we wouldn’t just skip to a different book and simply never return and finish our current story? Is this device going to encourage aimless book flitting? Whilst anything that gets the masses back to reading should be a good thing, there is something to be said for a battered, annotated paperback in the front pouch of your bag or back pocket of your jeans; do that with the Sony Reader and it will either get stolen or crushed. The great works, signed copies, intricate illustrations, different editions may all soon be a thing of the past if this catches on. Call me old-fashioned but unless this Reader can spit out “that book smell”, I can’t see myself growing to like it anytime soon.

By Joanna Robottom