Dude, where's my cover?

I remember walking into a record store to buy the new album by Pink Floyd and being blown away by the packaging of the CD.

Each CD was in a box which had a red blinking LED embedded into its edge; a visual representation of the album's name (Pulse).

When the first mp3 players hit the market, I greeted them with little enthusiasm. Now 10 years later I do not remember the last time I bought a new CD. My CD collection (of over 200 CDs) sits idle. I could sell them or give them away but I cannot get myself to do it. For me those CDs are more than the music on them. I remember how each album cover looks and picking up an album brings back memories of when I bought that CD. I love pulling out the inlay card and going over the album details: Who played on which song, notes from the artist, the cover art that makes each album unique.These days I download albums/songs to my mobile player (Sansa Fuze) so I do not get to see the album art and I miss it. I know that iTunes allows you to view the cover but its just not the same.

Pulse would not have been the same had it not been for that dramatic CD packaging. Can any Floyd fans imagine "Dark side of the moon" without that iconic cover of the prism splitting a beam of light? Anybody remember Santana's Abraxas cover? The way music is being consumed today means that the concept of "album" is dead. It also means that the album covers are gone for ever.

I feel the same way about books. I have just started using Amazon's e-book reader (Kindle) and even though I know that this is the way written content will be consumed in the years ahead, I have found the experience of reading a book off the device not as fulfilling. I cannot deny the advantages (portability, size) but what about the other stuff that makes book reading as much of a sensual experience as it is an intellectual one.

Where is that smell of a new book? Where is the cover that I can admire? Where are the beautiful fonts that make each book unique? My Kindle tells me what percentage of the book I have finished but not the page numbers. I miss the fact that I can see my bookmark and visually tell how far I have to go. I love being able to walk into somebody's house for the first time and get an insight into that person by staring at their bookshelves. All these will seem like minor quibbles compared to the benefits but the fact of the matter is that every time we take a step forward with a new paradigm, we lose a few things too.

There will come a time when using the phrase "Never judge a book by its cover" will be greeted with blank stares!