With the unveiling of Apple’s iPad as well as the slew of electronic reading devices heavily marketed by Barnes, Borders and Amazon.com, it’s difficult not to be tempted to jump on this bandwagon if you haven’t already done so. An avid reader myself, I am torn between whether or not to make the investment.

I love the feel of turning pages of a book. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s a brand new book that no one before has leafed through or a dog-earred book checked out from the local library. In fact, I’ve grown into the habit of leaving my check-out slips in library books I’ve checked out so the person after me knows what other selections I made with that book. I enjoy finding others as well.

I do own a secret library of romance novels in electronic form that I would be too embarrassed to be caught reading due to the racy front cover. To add onto it could potentially be lessening my carbon footprint (if you look past the burning of fossil fuels to power these electronics). I recently heard a piece on NPR about Stanford University rebuilding their engineering library with more than 85% less books on the shelves, keeping only the ones students have regularly checked out and making everything else available in digital form. Perhaps it’s time to follow suit and leave my fears of a post-apocalyptic world behind, to risk still being able to partake in one of my favorite past times electronically…20 years from now. If it were the end of the world, wouldn’t it be more convenient to carry a slim electronic device with survival gear rather than a small library of books?

I am in love with the iPad (per my obsession of everything Apple) and Barnes and Noble’s Nook does come with some pretty swanky covers. What are your thoughts? Do you already own any of the electronic devices or do you swear by the print?

I’ll leave you with 100 year old Virginia Campbell’s limerick:

“To this technical-ninny it’s clear
In my compromised 100th year,
That to read and to write
Are again within sight
Of this Apple iPad pioneer.”