Bookend commercials and a day’s bookend storms…bad; Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bookends”…good. Bookends for books are on the endangered species list. The reason? Ebooks.

Many older readers and others prefer print. Like me, they like to browse in bookstores, libraries, and online; the first two are usually for print books. But, unlike me, they don’t take advantage of the convenience of ebooks: they’ve saved my sagging bookshelves. Bookends are needed to put some order into bookshelves, but they’re not needed for ebooks. Avid readers can load up their e-readers, not their shelves, so there’s no need for bookends.

During the COVID pandemic, I’ve been binge-reading, even entire series (many of them British-style mysteries). Imagine if I had print versions for all of them. Every room in my house would be needed to house them. And that’s not just a recent phenomenon. Even at my old day-job, I’d average a book every two weeks. Now it’s four or five per week, but the principle is still the same: print is impractical.

Besides, I can’t afford print. Many excellent ebooks are reasonably priced at $2.99 or $3.99; print versions are at least $10 in general. So I can buy a five-book series in ebook format for $20; the same series in print format would be $50 at least. (Big Five ebooks are a lot more expensive, but I rarely buy Big Five fiction anymore.) I’m no longer going to Burger King or McDonald’s; in the days of COVID. I prefer food for the mind, and an ebook costs about the same as a fast food meal.

Preference for ebooks had flattened before COVID, but I suspect, when all the dust settles, we will see that the pandemic has not only increased readership in general, but it has led to a surge in ebook sales numbers (why risk going to a bookstore or library when you can order an ebook online?). But preferences change slowly, and they will continue even after COVID. It’s hard to predict how things will shake out. Older readers tend not to be into e-anything, so they prefer print more than ebook versions; younger people tend not to be readers at all, and are more into streaming video and computer games. Any COVID-boost to readership might be ephemeral, but if books have any staying power, it’s more likely it will occur because of ebooks.

So I will continue to read and write ebooks, preferring them over print. Now if I could just protect them from being pirated, I would be a happy camper.

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Comments are always welcome.

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” This series, at times very much in the style of British mysteries, might be binge-worthy too. Esther begins her adventures as a Scotland Yard inspector with an MI6 background as an ex-spy during the Cold War. Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden enters as her paramour. The wags at the Yard have nicknamed them Miss Marple and Hecule Poirot, but those adventures are very 21^st century, with mystery, suspense, and thriller elements. In the first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, poor Bastiann has to deal with Esther’s obsessions. In the first, she’s obsessed with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II. In the second, she’s obsessed with finding St. John’s tomb using written directions left by the Renaissance painter Botticelli. In the third, Death on the Danube (soon to be published), Esther and Bastiann’s honeymoon is interrupted by a murder on their riverboat. Available wherever quality books are sold.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

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