Books are dying.
Or so we're told. I have more books than I know what to do with and when I do move, or die then some Charity Shop is going to have a small library of story books about sales and marketing, exercises, shiatsu therapy and tales from Native American story tellers to white travelers in Europe and America. I have always read books for as long as I can remember.."Kemlo" a boy in space who met all kinds of adventures long before Captain Kirk, Spock or Obi Won Kanobe. I was five or six and the books sparked my love of the stars and all things cosmic.
Through school one of my favorite lessons was English Composition, because it gave me the opportunity to write, to begin my own tales. All that work came to fruition when, in my twentieth year a poem of mine was published in an anthology and the book posted to me. OK so I had to pay for it to be printed, but only fifty or so pieces were chosen and mine was one of them.
This however, was the high point of my connection with books for many years. I began to travel and the thought of carrying tomes of literature around the world in a rucksack didn't really appeal.I may have picked up the odd book in one country or another but they always stayed when I left. How would that have changed if Kindle had been forty years earlier?
My partner Anne has, for many years, swore that books would never be replaced in her life. The "feel" of the pages, the "colour" of the cover and just the pleasure of having a bookmark keep the page for the next time the story would be re-joined. That was then.
Anne has a love of the Cairngorms and Aviemore she visits as often as she can, and has found Kindle. The pleasure of the book hasn't been replaced yet but the freedom of carrying all her stories in one small unit has convinced her that the future has arrived.
Are books dying? Only you can answer that.
Good job Ernie and yes I think we will always have the print book nothing can equal that, but the new technologies have made the backpack obsolete perhaps = ) I like you have a library in my home there is not a room without bookshelves - a writer's bane perhaps, but I have always loved books - and forever will.
ReplyDeleteBillie
Hey Ernie, welcome to the challenge! I monitor the info@ email at the A-Z Blog and will send you my advice via that route.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, to answer your question, I don't think they're going to go away completely, but we're headed in that direction. Yes, the people of our generation love actual books. But our kids, they love electronics. Give that one more generation, and considering how portable books are when on an e-reading device, and I think print books will be obsolete one day, much like vinyl records. Some people collect them, but they aren't manufactured anymore. Great, thought provoking post.
Tina @ Life is Good
Co-Host of the April A to Z Challenge
Twitter: @AprilA2Z #atozchallenge
Great thought-provoking post. As a lover of the "real" deal, your post made me appreciate my "Nook."
ReplyDeleteLinda Della Donna
www.bookorbust.blogspot.com
www.griefcase.net