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I remember discussing the usefulness and usability of portable book reading devices (e-books) back in my college days. We pontificated that in the near future students would no longer have need for a bag full of books, but would instead carry around a small device with all of their books loaded onto it. That was over 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure students are still lugging around those overly-expensive treatises on every subject known to man. So I guess the "near future" was not quite so near.

I remember thinking to myself, and discussing with other students, how there is a certain emotional attachment to the feel of a "good hard-bound book". We talked about how an electronic device could not give the same "feeling" as a physical book does whilst reading by the fireplace. How idyllic, right?

Now that I have read many-a-book and news articles on my iPad, and have also praised the amazing technology of devices using the E Ink technology, I have become quite used to reading a screen, and all that comes with it. Yet I still enjoy picking up a book and feeling the pages flip as I read it. I guess I get a feeling of accomplishment with every passing page. So it was to my surprise that as I sat reading one of my favorite publications that a peculiar thing happened. I happened to run across a term that I was unfamiliar with (the "Lake Wobegon effect" if you must know). From using an iPad so much I have become quite accustomed to switching over to a browser or dictionary and instantly looking up any unknown terms or words. As I sat there with the magazine in hand, knowing that it was a printed publication, I still almost attempted to push a button and switch over to the browser to look up that unknown term.

I had to laugh. I have become a person who expects unlimited knowledge at my fingertips. In this case I had to get up, find the iPad, and look up the term before continuing with the article I was reading. Does that mean I will be abandoning the hard-back books that my reading instructor mother-in-law brings for me to read? Absolutely not (mostly because they are all high quality reads). But I can certainly say that I will not be subscribing to any printed periodicals in the future. And as I look for other materials that are of the more educational ilk, I'm sure I will be searching for them on iBooks first before heading to the nearest bookstore.

Oh ... and for those wondering: the Lake Wobegon effect is a description of a human tendency to describe yourself and those around you as all being above average. It's from Garrison Keillor who described the imaginary town Lake Wobegon as "where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

Do you still pine for a good hard-bound book, or have you made the switch to the ever-so-handy Kindle/Nook/iPad world?