Extract from Douglas, J. Yellowlees. The End of Books — Or Books Without End?

I found this weeks reading very thought-provoking because the subject matter is very topical as we are living in a time where nearly everything be becoming ‘modernised’. We’re told that the death of print media (and possibly print-everything) is probable in the near future, so what will happen to good old fashioned books?

I myself have recently rediscovered the joys of reading for pleasure while on holiday in Vietnam. If I could be teleported anywhere right now, it would be the muggy beach of Nha Trang sipping on a coconut while reading.

Victor Nell’s definition in Lost in a Book: The Psychology of reading for Pleasure is very accurate “lucid” is the sense of becoming so immersed in a narrative that we become ‘lost in it’. There is a trance-like state of emersion on a novel that engaging readers find pleasurable.

 

Part of the concept of the book is bound up in its fixity, the changelessness of its text. I found myself agreeing with this point. As much as I enjoyed the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books at the library as a kid, I think there is some element of the reader choosing the outcome as a fixed narrative. Besides, I would always read all of the options in those books and then choose accordingly…cheating on the purpose of the books I suppose.

I can understand the desire to select an ending that pleases you, but each person has their own way of interpreting novels and that’s why some people would classify Romeo and Juliet as a love story, and others a tragedy.

Many people prefer the original book than the film that follows. Often it is not interpreted as the reader imagined, or they are disappointed. This is because one of the joys of reading is that even if you can’t choose the outcome, you are engaging with your imagination and creating your own movie version of what you’re reading. Sometimes watching a film based on a book you’ve read can be frustrating, as the characters don’t look the way you think they should.

Hypertext and modern technology bring up many questions in relation to books. Such as what is a book? Is a blog a book? How about an eBook? Personally, I enjoy holding a physical book, but I also quite like the idea of never-ending stories/books and the possibilities that arise as a result.