I have been observing. There is a lot of discussion in all arenas about the traditional book eventually disappearing from use. This is mainly because of e-books – those online electronic books you can download to read, and whatever else technology will – and has already – come up with to simplify things for us. Just to let you know … I am not educated in that because I love books as they are and have been for centuries! Well, the scroll was a little difficult to handle and pack around, maybe, but .. you get my point.
I am not interested in reading a book on a hand-held device, nor am I excited about sitting at the computer to read one on the screen. I am all for holding a made-from-paper-and-ink writing, turning those pages and flipping back and forth as I need to, underlining or highlighting (did I hear a gasp?) when the occasion calls for it – which is rarely because I also use bookmarks and sticky tabs. I fill my bookcases with old favourites (some saved from my childhood), and soon-to-be-loved stories. I have books all over the place, a few in the living room and our bedroom, many in my publishing room, my ‘computer room’, the main room downstairs, and even packed away in boxes in our storage room. My husband, not a voracious reader, also has a few titles on hand.
Most of my children’s storybooks I have kept, and my grandson now enjoys those. I have books that made me laugh out loud, made me cry (and hide behind), pulled me in so deep I didn’t hear anything going on around me. I have books the Lord used to teach me something important. And there are many volumes in my collection which I have yet to cuddle up with and appreciate their written pages. Somehow, I doubt very much that I could enjoy an electronic book the same way, it would even be annoying to me.
I don’t get to the library much at all anymore. There was a time when I would take my daughters there to pick out books for their extra reading, and that was fun for us. I borrowed several for myself when I was taking a writing course and wanted to read the ones mentioned in it. But I prefer to own the books I read, I like to gather them and add them to my own personal collection. Would I feel the same way about having them filed in a little electronic device? I doubt it! It is NOT the same thing!
So, is the way of the traditional book one of antiquity? Is it disappearing? Will my great-grandchildren not even know what it is to own a printed-on-paper book, to smell its ‘bookness’, to experience the thrill of a page-turning story on paper filled with bright pictures and powerful words?
Now I ask you …. what do you think?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Polilla Writes 