I read a lot online, and carry my laptop with me to the breakfast table, on airplanes, and out to the back patio. Most of my blogs are inspired by articles I’ve read online. But there is a time and place for paper and ink.

In my June blog on summer reading, I referenced an Internet article by outgoing International Reading Association President Linda B. Gambrell. She added a postscript to the article, and recommended a book for the teachers’ own summer reading, People of the Book, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks. While the thought of “curling up with a good book” doesn’t sound particularly manly to me, I must confess to the act. This novel tells the stories of the people who have been involved with a rare and beautiful medieval manuscript over its long and mysterious history. The clues to the book’s guardians and whereabouts are contained in and insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals and white hair.

The paper-and-ink story about a book got me thinking about why paper-and-ink-books will always have a place in my life. I may carry my laptops religiously, but I also have a book on my night table, in my backpack, or by the pool. I don’t need to worry about a power supply or damaging a hard book, but the appeal is more than that. I like the feel of pages, the measure of how much I’ve read versus how much I have got left to go. I’m part of a generation that grew up reading books. I find that I tend to read periodicals and newspapers online, but when it comes to a book, I want just that: paper-and-ink pages.

We’re adding more and more tech options to our Learning A-Z offerings, such as the projectable books at Reading A-Z because both educators and young people are very much at home on the computer these days. But no matter how high-tech we go, one delivery option for our books will likely always be a good old-fashioned hard copy book.

It is one of the key reasons we strive to make an affordable collection of books available for teachers to download, print and assemble for their students; so they, too, an learn to enjoy the pleasure one can derive from getting lost in a good story or acquiring knowledge of their world.