A cherished American pastime is spending hours in the aisles of one’s town library. With a library card, one can proceed to borrow a few books for a two weeks at a time, free of charge. I can remember sitting in the comfortable chairs of the River Edge library. I can remember the smell of the pages, the pain of the occasional paper cut, and the lessons learned from countless books. If you ask a 10 year old today what a library book smells like, they may give you a confused look. Today, bookstores are going out of business, libraries are downsizing, and book sales are dropping. While change is inevitable in today’s society, something’s I wish would never change.

Another example of holding onto the old when innovations are available would be technology. Books are being printed less and less every day, because of a new technology, called e-books, or electronic books. Instead of having a hard copy of a book, with printed pages, more are more people are now downloading e-books, which can be available to them at any time without having to go to the bookstore or library. E-books cost much less than printed books, and they are much better for the economy because of the fewer amount of trees being created into paper. Although e-books seem to be the better option, in the long run, they may not be. Printed books can be passed on from generation to generation, and have much more sentimental value. Printed books are also better for learning, because there is no distraction in a printed book, except for the words themselves. On an e-book,