Editor Henry Slocum, I read your May 10th article in the local newspaper Honesdale Times about electronic books, or e-books, with great interest. You made several good points about the disadvantage of e-books. You may have overlooked, however, some of the ways in which they are superior to traditional books. Yes, e-books are expensive, but they are also convenient. In addition, due to their environment-friendly nature, e-books have the potential to change our planets for the better. E-books, for anyone who is unfamiliar with the term, are about the same size and shape as regular books. They have a large screen in the middle, however, this screen shows the reader a page of the text that has been downloaded from a computer. Once the reader has finished reading the page on the e-book screen, he or she scrolls down to see a new page. The process continues until the entire book has been read. As you pointed out, Mr. Slocum, it's great to lie on a warm, sandy beach with a book. You can do that just as easily with an e-book as you can with a traditional paper book. In fact, because e-books are so light, you can carry themselves. Say, for example, that you like to read on the bus. Which would you rather carry with you---a heavy 800-page novel, or an e-book that weighs only a few ounces? Another important advantage is offered by e-books as well. They are more environment-friendly than traditional books. At present, thousands of trees cut down each year to meet the publishing industry's demand for paper. Books that don't sell are eventually returned to the publisher and destroyed, This terrible waste could be avoided if everyone used e-books, which require no paper. Sincerely, David Eng What does Editor Henry Slocum think about e-books?
Interesting Expensive Convenient Environment-friendly