Prop Stylist, Bruton Stroube Studios
"I don't read on computer; the straight-ahead position of the screen makes it uncomfortable. So if I need to read a document, I print it out and read it that way. I like books. I like to turn the pages and feel the paper. E-books sound clunky to me, difficult to maneuver."
Ben Swofford
Assistant, Gomes Gallery
"It's not for me. I like buying books at a bookstore, and I like to read the paper at the coffee shop, where I can spread it out on the table. If I want to reach somebody, I usually write a letter or call by phone. I really don't use any of the e-stuff. Do you think people will leave their homes once they can do everything on their computer? That's what I'm afraid of."
Gerald S. Brooks
Director, Marketing and Public Relations, St. Louis Public Library
"I like reading the St. Louis Front Pages on the Internet. Newspapers and magazines, if you want to find something quick, electronic is great because you click to the headlines and go right to the story. Books are a different story. I would much rather pick up a book, and feel it, and look at it, and read it. I would not sit in front of a screen for the time it takes to read a book."
Dave Henline
Production Manager, Oklahoma Gazette
"Not ready for it at all. I'm more a print snob. Print has a tradition. It's an art form. Print is designed, while electronic ... it's like fast food. In the e-marketplace, anybody with a PC can publish anything, good or bad -- and they do -- on the Internet. Anyway, that's just what I don't need, more time at the computer. They say that spending so much time on the Internet can lead to depression. I believe it."
Heidi Waltz
Theater Major, St. Louis University
"I'm ready for it, but only if the cyber-library has The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood available."
Bruce Berg
Investment Consultant
"I'm ready, absolutely. It's the wave of the future. My boss is reading Paradise Lost on his little palmtop, and he told me that if I had a record month he'd download The Bonfire of the Vanities for me -- that's my favorite book. Reading online is so easy. I read Forbes and Fortune and, from time to time, Playboy -- there's some really good articles there."
