Las Vegas Weekly

November 9, 2010 · 1:32 PM

Books on iPads & Buddhist monks on Ritalin

By Rick Lax

Hardcopy reigns supreme.

My new book, Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners, and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas comes out in January. That means you have two months to make a potentially life-changing decision: Should you buy a hard copy of book or should you buy an electronic copy of the book?

On one hand, the electronic copy is cheaper and kills fewer trees. On the other hand, trees are assholes. They’d have no hesitation about chopping you up and reading you.

Plus, if you do go for the electronic version, you’re going to miss out on all the great Scratch-&-Sniff pop-up pages. But hey, if you’re not interested seeing (and smelling) a perfect 1/1000th scale replica of CityCenter, suit yourself.

On a more serious note: I’m starting to think iPads and Kindles aren’t going to replace hard copy books, after all.

iPads: I’ve got an iPad. I use it every day. I also read books every day. But I’ve never read a book on my iPad. Because I can’t. Tried once. Not even close. With e-mail and Facebook and Netflix a click away (well, two clicks), you’d need the self-restraint of a Buddhist monk on Ritalin to get through a single chapter.

Kindles: They’re pushing them hard at Barnes & Noble. I see people buying them every day. But I rarely, rarely see anybody reading on Kindles. Maybe this is different in cities with mass transportation systems, but here in Vegas, Kindles are rarer than Buddhist monks on Ritalin.

I really need to expand my comedy references.

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