The Last Printed Book

Some days ago I went to a bookstore with my older kid. She was looking for some specific books she had seen at the book fair in her school. This was not a giant bookstore, but it was not small either. The bookstore is part of a chain of well-known bookstores here in Mexico.

She didn't find the books. She also didn't find any book that interested her, aside from numerous editions of the Harry Potter series, which she loves but she already has both in print and audio. So we left empty-handed. She proposed to go to another bookstore, but we ended up at home and, of course, we found the books she was looking for in Amazon.

While we were at the bookstore, I was also scanning the bookshelves in search for an interesting book or an unexpected jewel. Not a programming book, mind you, which bookstores most of the times no longer carry. But some book worth reading: a good biography, a good novel, a suggesting essay...

I didn't find many titles that picked my interest. But even for those titles, I didn't feel like buying the physical edition. I've become so accostumed to reading the ebook version of books on my laptop, with a window open next to the (horrible) Kindle app to take notes, that the thought of reading a physical book... well, didn't work out. And for fiction, I mostly read on my Kindle paperwhite.

Mind you, I love books. And I love printed books. I'm an avid reader. But even when someone gifts me a physical book, most of the times I end up buying the electronic version so I can take notes, cut and paste quotes, highlight, etc.

Somewhen in the past, I realized, I bought the last printed book I'll ever buy.