please don’t kill my books

i really enjoyed today’s symposium/unlecture. i found that there were a lot of interesting points brought up from the answers to the various questions. so much so that this post may be split into two posts discussing different things. but we’ll see how we go (that’s real essay writing here folks, i never know where it’s gonna lead!).

so, onto today’s ever so important question… is the book dead?
I, for one, certainly hope not! you probably all think i’m crazy but i love books. and i hear you all saying “but lauren, it’s all so much easier on the ipad. who wants to lug around 6 text books?” and the answer is.. me!!! even despite the slipped disk in my back, i still would rather carry around 6 physical books than one lousy ipad. you can flip through a book. you can hold it there in front of you. and you can highlight it!!! (as we’ve already discussed, i cannot do readings online, i need to print them out to be able to take in the info while reading). maybe it’s different on the ipad but on the computer you’re reading upwards, like, vertical. it just doesn’t work!

now, i do see what adrian was saying, the difference between literature and books. and that even though books may be dead, but literature isn’t. and yeah, that’s alright

for the people in offices who don’t want to have to search through 50 filing cabinets to find one file. but what about all us bookophiles (is that a word? it is now) who just love to curl up with a book and read it. an i pad or e-reader or kindle just isn’t the same. you don’t get the love, it can’t really be passed down. and it doesn’t crease when you’ve read it too many times (like my harry potter 4, which had so many pages falling out from overuse that i need to buy a new one. but i love that!). and best of all, crazy bookmarks. i love using different things as bookmarks. here’s the one i’m using now, isn’t it great? can’t have one of those on a fancy e-book now can you?

i liked the idea that soon, when everything does become digital, books will become more valuable, collectors item like vinyls. i guess i’ll be rich then with all my books! not that i’d ever give them up. i was explaining to someone today just how attached i am to my books that when my mum took my copy of twilight overseas and left it there i was both furious and devastated. now, i hate twilight, i thought the book was terrible and i was never planning on reading it again. but it was still my book, i had read through those pages and it had sat on my shelf with my others books so the thought of it lost in a foreign country was just awful. (still haven’t worked out that i’m crazy?).

and no one can ever really get rid of books… right? like was discussed at the symposium, everyone thought theatre would die with the introduction of film, but plays and musicals are still going strong (and if none of you have heard of or seen “book of mormon” i urge you to check it out.) and vinyl is back in fashion again (if only i had a record player). i don’t remember who said this in the unlecture but it was a good point; “the same content but different carrier”. i guess the problem is i like the book as the carrier. i don’t want the book to be a temporary technology. but i guess it will have to adapt to survive in our ever changing modern world. if only we as humans didn’t always find it necessary to have things as technological as could possibly be. i miss being able to throw my brick phone nokia at a wall and pick it up like nothing has happened. i miss when toddlers had to learn shapes and to read from books and toys not electronic games and screens that just tell them everything. maybe i’m a little too nostalgic. but i will miss the book when it goes. hopefully that won’t be for a long long time.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *