Articles pushing free reading are ticking me off!

Way before I wrote a novel (or wrote for IBM's technical newsletter or my college newspaper), I loved to read anything I could get my hands on. And that's the important part . . . my hands on. I don't mind the downloaded books and even listening to books, although for me there's something lost in both, but I'm downright pissy with every magazine article I see that promotes "things you should never pay for" and books/newspapers are near the top of the list.

I get it . . . it's a bad economy. We should all be reevaluating our budgets and what we choose to spend money on. And I do believe in the public library and the services it provides (help for kids doing reports, people checking out books who can't afford to buy, etc). I also understand that newspapers and authors have to keep up with the times and have electronic versions. I just hate to see the death of paper newspapers and books.

To me there's nothing like dog-earing a book and underlining the parts for your book club discussion or further thought. That's lost with an audio book or e-book/newspaper. Don't get me wrong, I also have a personal interest with a novel about to hit the market, but it really is more personal.

I know there's the horse and buggy arguement, too. We all have to keep up with the times and, in the process, things have to die. I'm going to go down fighting . . . with a "real" book in each hand.