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"Reading online doesn't quite feel the same as reading a real book," says Anisha Ramanathan, a market researcher, in response to why she has not invested in an e-reader yet.
Even as Amazon released its 3 version of the e-reader Kindle, the e-book vs paper book debate has been gaining momentum.
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Kindle, the first e-reader, was launched in 2007 and was greeted by many with skepticism regarding its popularity. 'Who would want to read an entire novel online' was the question.
There is a whole world of people out there who state that an e-book is mainly for text books, journals and other such serious things. Fiction was meant to be read on paper.
But, as Kindle comes out in its 3rd edition, boasting of more e-book sales than hardcover book sales on Amazon.com, the critics have had to eat their own words. The class of people preferring paper books to e-books is shrinking. Steig Larsson's Millennium series books recently crossed the 1 million mark on Kindle.
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A recent report by the Association of American Publishers showed that e-book sales rose 119 percent from the same period last year. In July, for every 100 hardcover books sold on Amazon.com, about 180 Kindle books were sold.
Given the popularity of e-books, it was only a matter of time before online book clubs and other communities came up on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Facebook had an application similar to a library that allowed users to list all books they had read, would like to read and would not recommend. While this was helpful in knowing what their peers were reading, discussion was limited.
Twitter Book Club made an appearance a little over a year ago. It was started by Bethanne Patrick, a book critic and Kassia Krozser, founder of medialope.com.
The popularity of e-books and the constraints of a physical book club motivated them to start an online version.
"It was easy, fun and surprising," Patrick said.
The Twitter Book Club frees people from traveling, the pressure of having to say something always and sound intelligent, which are issues with a physical book club, she added.
Each session, which is held on the second or third Monday of the month, has about 20 to 30 people participating, including the author. Though many do debate about how valid a discussion on Twitter would be, it seems to work with the Facebook site of the club having about 300 followers.
There are obviously drawbacks. One cannot discuss a particular chapter or turn to a single page when on an online platform like Twitter, Patrick concedes. But people like the idea because they do not have to travel a distance to get to somewhere, nor do they always have to read the entire book to be a part of the discussion.
There are ways to get around the drawbacks of discussing a particular chapter, as discussed by the "One Book, One Twitter" project on Twitter.
The brainchild of Jeff Howe, a contributing editor on Wired.com, the project invited all users to read one book - in this case, American God by Neil Gaiman. The book was selected by a poll, and the project that ran in the months of May and June discussed a few chapters every week.
The idea was inspired by the project in Seattle in 1998, where every person in the city read Sweet Hereafter by Russell Bank. Chicago followed suit a few years later with the American classic To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
The 1B1T project, as the Twitter project became popularly known as, became immensely popular that Gaiman himself participated in the discussions.
Author participation is one of the perks of an online book club, Patrick said.
Freed from the travails of traveling, authors are often enthusiastic about participating in these online book clubs, which gives them a chance to interact with more of their readers.
The option is definitely appreciated, though you cannot direct specific questions on a 140-character limit platform, one participant said.
However, pricing remains an important deterrent to the e-book popularity. An e-book is only marginally cheaper than a paper copy. Many people would prefer the books to be cheaper as there are no printing, transportation and storage costs involved.
Other bookworms moan the lack of options like bookmarking a page, making notes on the margins or sharing pages or the entire book with friends.
Barnes & Noble's Nook allows you to 'lend' a book to someone for a period of two weeks. But for most part, lending is a concept that most online retailers have not caught on to, or are ignoring in favor of higher sales. Pricing, however, remains a concern for most people.
"If you have an e-book and want to borrow someone's book, you've to take their whole library," George, an enthusiastic book collector, said.
The ancient tradition of backpackers sharing books is also at risk. Most backpacker hostels have a small ‘library’ where backpackers can exchange their book for something that catches their interest – a tradition that might be at risk once the e-reader fever catches on.
However, for people such as Patrick, who are book critics, e-books are a convenient way of juggling several books at a time. Patrick, who prefers Kindle to other e-readers because of the display, bought her third Kindle.
Other e-readers such as iPad and Nook are also reporting stronger sales. More competition is headed the e-reader way with other computer manufacturers also announcing upcoming versions of e-readers.
And the debate continues, with both sides sticking to their version of the favorite book reading platform.
"E-readers will never replace a real book or newspaper. If I knock morning coffee over my newspaper, it costs me 2 bucks to replace it. But a Kindle?" asks George..
