How much are WORDS worth?  Check out the article below and then read my thoughts afterwards….There’s also a quiz at the end….  Oh, it’s not hard at all!                                                                      

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2010/02/22/whats-an-e-book-really-worth/

ELECTRONIC  WORDS or E-Books

Are WORDS worth more if they’re typed into a computer and shown to you on this magical screen ?(Watch carefully, Kids and you’ll see some Magic!  Now the word is here! WORD

Now the word is gone!                       See, it disappeared!  Into thin air!  Into the ethers!  Well, at least, into the Ethernet or Internet or somewhere…

But isn’t that cool?  Here, watch me do that again.  WORD

Now it’s gone again!                See, I can do that all day long!)

((Oh you silly Kids, it’s not really Magic! I just use the backspace key, or hit delete or sometimes I just turn off the computer….well, usually that’s an accident, but anyway, you know what I mean…))

…But isn’t that pretty cool?  Next, are they more valuable if you keep them somewhere? Yes, they are valuable. We had to pay for them and Download them.  If they’re not already in some type of “Savable” Format, then you’ll have to Cut & Paste these words into a Document (aka .doc) or Spreadsheet, or whatever Program you happen to have or prefer.  Maybe even a Kindle or Sony Book Reader. If you don’t have one of those, then, you’d better put them into a Folder. Yes, even if it’s an E-Book, into the Folder it goes…

(Remember now, Children, always be neat and put your stuff away when you’re not using it ‘cause if you leave it out, you’ll just lose it!  You know what happened to all those little  WORD.docs you left laying all over your desktop?  Yes, I know you said they were important, but that’s not the point here.  What is the point?  That’s right!  Being organized! I had to put the last ones in the Trash ‘cause they were just cluttering up your space!  So next time, if your WORDS and your Books are so important to you, store them where they belong! In a Folder!  Now, stop taking up so much time trying to think of a good name for your WORD .docs, and just type in IMPORTANT for now!  And then don’t forget to store it with the other important E-Books and stuff in that Folder!)

…Storing WORDS that arrive in packages like E-Books, or in other formats, in Named Folders is important. But then, you have to store the Folders somewhere on your Desktop or… Gasp!  A separate drive on a network, or one attached to your computer, or…then again, there is the Kindle or the Sony Book Readers, and I guess from the article above, there’s more coming!  But until then……

(Now be careful here, Children, this area is kind of dangerous and I’m not really sure how it works… Yes, I see it’s all pretty and puffy –  that’s what Clouds are, now just put your Folders there and let’s get out of here! Quickly!  No wait!  Did you remember to set your Password!  Oh for pete’s sake!  Now we have to go back in there… and Tommy!  No, don’t go in that one!  That’s not your Folder and you know…. I don’t care if it’s not Secure or Encrypted, just leave it alone. Security will find it. Yes, we can report it, don’t worry… Now hurry and set your Password for your own Cloud space and let’s go!)

…Yes, Cloud Storage is quite popular these days, but once I put my Folders away somewhere, I kind of forget about them…And that’s where you can REALLY get into trouble! If those WORDS are accidentally or organizingly deleted…and then, someone asks you…

(Or texts you, or SMS’s you – yes we can include calls and voicemails as well, but try to do as little as possible with that, OK?  Speaking WORDS on the Phone is expensive these days!  Sigh…. I know, I am going to get VOIP soon, but right now it’s just not in the Budget!)

…a question about those very WORDS!   Well, it can get pretty embarrassing if you have to say you’ve misplaced them, organized them away, or whatever….. And you’ll also need to remember that WORDS written by a FAMOUS SOMEONE (even if you don’t know them or recognize their names), need to be CITED properly, and all that, etc, etc….

(That’s exactly right, Kids!  You are getting to be so smart these days. You go right back on-line and download them again… But wait! What else does a good kid do?  That’s right, you PAY for them.  Well, I know it’s getting expensive, but that’s the only thing to do. ‘Cause you lost ‘em, so you gotta pay! No, not Torrents! You can get arrested for that, you know… Well, not really, but one day soon, somebody’s gonna think of some punishment, so don’t’ do it…)

…So Buying, Downloading, and Storing all those WORDS can be scary and expensive!  Especially if you love to read, like many of us do, and you really need to have those WORDS ready to go and use when you want them or need them. But what if you tire of certain WORDS? And you want New, Fresh, Better, Improved WORDS?  Can’t I sell my old Electronic WORDS on-line somewhere, or trade them with a friend, so I can get some new ones? No, you say? Well, why not? Why doesn’t someone start a WORDS or Books Torrent,  Wait! I didn’t say that! I mean an open freeware site that will store all our Books that contain all our important WORDS and we can trade them or something like that…

PAPER  WORDS or just regular Paper Bound Books

Well then, what is the value of the same, exact  WORDS typed or printed onto a piece of paper, or pieces of paper, or bound together into a Paper Book with a fancy, maybe expensive Leather cover?  Or, maybe just a Paper Back Book with WORDS.

(OK Kids! I’ve had it! Look at all these Books lying all over the tables and even piled on the floor!  Haven’t you ever heard of Book Shelves? Oh, I see, the Book Shelves are all empty.  Now let’s pick up all these Books and File them neatly on the Book Shelves. There, now you can find all your WORDS when you need them, they’re stacked all nice and orderly in front of you. What? Well, sure they take up a lot of room here in your bedroom, then put them in the other, bigger Book Shelves in the Library. Yes, I know it takes a lot of Time to go Walking up and down between each row,  trying to find where you stored those certain WORDS in a certain Book. But that’s just the way we have to do it! And please pick up all those Papers too. Yes, they each have their own Folder and that’s where they need to go! And then put all those Folders in the Folder Cabinet, no, over there, right next to the Book Shelves.)

You can trade in old, tired, read-too-many times, didn’t-like-it-here-someone-please-take-it books at your friendly neighborhood used book store. They love any kind of WORDS and you might get a few dollars back!  There doesn’t seem to be a real penalty or any frowning at you when you do this. In fact, it seems to be quite the budget-saving way to continue to have new WORDS to read. In fact, you can even find new or used paper books at Amazon.com…. Wait a minute, aren’t they the same folks who own the Kindle? Hmmmm… Do you think they’re trying to get a monopoly or something on the WORD market?  Oh, probably not. It’s just business…

Or you can join a Book Club, and take your Paper Book with you. The folks I know who are in Book Clubs, don’t really seem to care for the E-Books, and they seem to prefer flipping through paper pages in search of special WORDS at their meetings. But that just may be my friends and colleagues…

…But sometimes the WORDS stored on Paper deteriorate in some way.  For instance, they could burn up in a fire, or a wash away in a flood, or get so old and worn-out (especially favourite WORDS, in favourite Books, I read them over and over again!), that they just fall apart into little pieces of paper and fluff.

(No Kids, we’re not going to chop down another Tree today. We’ve got plenty of Paper for now. Yes, I know we need to replace the Books that were accidentally destroyed by my coffee when the cup fell over on my desk, and someone’s juice box straw – yes Joey, I know it was Annie’s straw…But we have to be more careful with our WORDS that we value so much. That’s right, we need to keep our Books closed, and keep those Books Filed neatly away on the Book Shelf where they won’t get destroyed or lost. Besides, look at all the Books we already have. Do we really need more WORDS in more Books?  I mean, we’ve already got a whole Library full of Books, and then there’s all these Book Shelves in this room, I don’t know where we would have room to store any more!)

ALL WORDS                                                   

…So both types of WORDS are valuable in a sort of relative way… depending on the number of people working at each type of company – either the folks that run the E-Books site that have to enter all the WORDS into the computer in some way, or the folks that run the Paper books printing company, they still need someone to enter all the WORDS into a different format that will print out on the paper.

And each company has to have equipment, either computers that put the e-books together, or the printing presses that put the paper books together.

Each author has to struggle over his or her thoughts for either medium, so that takes Time, Energy, Effort and sometimes Talent and Skill!

So aren’t both types of WORDS are valuable, but maybe in a different way depending on the lifestyle, reading habits, or what type of environment the Reader reads the WORDS…

But why all the fighting? Aren’t there enough WORDS to go around already?????? Can’t we all just share our WORDS?

Which do you like better?  Electronic Books or Paper Books and Why?  (This is the quiz I mentioned…see, it’s not hard!)

(My personal preference is Paper because I like to be able to see all my books on my book shelves. They make me happy – for some weird reason….good enough reason?)