It is inspiring to see that the 43rd Chennai Book Fair attracted huge crowds even on working days. This reiterates the fact that physical market for books will continue to grow despite the invasion of online portals and e-books. (Open Page, “If I were a book... all is fair,” Jan. 26). Though e-book readers have become a common sight, traditional books still have their evangelists. A printed book is way ahead of an e-book for a variety of reasons — the feel of the paper, its fragrance, sharing it with our loved ones, its images and illustrations, flexibility in annotation — all make a printed book much better and much sought after than an e-book. Needless to say, an e-book cannot compete with a printed book when it comes to the kind of amity and warmth the latter offers.
R. Sivakumar,
Chennai
