Single-owner books

When we can't share them directly, one-to-one, our common informational heritage is threatened.

David L. Ulin, The Lost Art of Reading

David L. Ulin

David L. Ulin is talking about ebooks. Other problems with ebooks are more commonly discussed. A device doesn't feel as good in one's hands as an actual book. It is more difficult to go back and reread a memorable passage. It is too easy, depending upon the device, to be distracted by a game, email, texts or something else.

There are significant advantages, of course. One can take 20 ebooks on a cruise if one wants to without actually having to carry 20 books in one's luggage.

Yet Ulin puts his finger on one problem with ebooks we may not immediately think about: It has just one owner. The ebook belongs to whomever owns the device the ebook is downloaded to. It can't be loaned or given to anyone else. You can read it or ignore it, keep it or delete it, but that's about it.

If you own a car, you are free to sell it, let someone borrow it or give it away. That is not the case with ebooks.

As I have written previously, I do not ordinarily like to either borrow books or lend my own books to someone else (although I do give many of my books away). But for many other people, passing books around is standard operating procedure. If they enjoy a book, they want their friends to read it. And so they pass it around, from friend to friend. If it never returns to the owner, no harm done. The owner has already read it.

In Ulin's phrase, "our common informational heritage is threatened" when books cannot be given to others or borrowed from others.

Public libraries were based on the concept of many people reading the same book. That is a "common informational heritage." There are no ebook libraries. There are no used ebook stores. There are no secondhand ebooks.

Of course, friends can download the same ebook based on your recommendation, and book clubs can still discuss these books. Even so, it is not quite the same — and it's costly for everyone who wants to read the same book.

And so many books are not even available as ebooks.

I, for one, am glad ebooks have not become as popular as many of us once feared they would become.