Happiness is a warm keyboard = I live to and love to write

Another Bookstore closing…Another Library cutting hours… I wonder just what is happening to the literary world.

I am of course old school and must hold that book in my hand. I am not an advocate for the iPad or nook or whatever title the digital book can be found on. I am not a lover of digital books.

 I need the texture of the page and the simple weight of the tome in hand to draw me into that written world. Having thousands of books at your fingertips is marvelous and I agree. I like the availability of books but I prefer they be the thousands lined on book shelves not the ones glowing up at me from a hard, cold, unbendable device.

Walking to the store is healthy and once there I take my time and allow my curiosity freedom, reading the inner flaps of several books before I choose; it is all part of the experience.  I know I must be a dinosaur in the eyes of techies but don’t you think my way preserves the social and human element in the process?

 I wonder if 10 generations down the timeline we’ll no longer have hands or feet.  Would they not have fallen off for lack of use? We will probably have devices attached to our heads that move with the scan of the eyes getting us information and advertisements by the second. Perhaps food will be bought and devoured digitally too. Who knows how changes evolve us… scary…Science Fiction scary.

Some things are perfect just the way they are. Books, bound and jacketed, are perfectly lovely don’t you think? And if you think about it …not every book will be sent to the digital press – and many great books could be lost in time.

Why am I so down about digital press? The Barnes&Noble in my neighborhood closed this year and I am utterly heartbroken. No more exploring the new releases, wandering the many aisles of choices or reading my new purchase over a cup of good coffee and across from literary companions.

Change is not easy - -so I do hope we can keep some of those idea sharing, gathering places like bookstores as well as the new digital world of books.smiley .

Thanks for listening.

Comments

I loved reading this. there's nothing better than taking the afternoon off to visit a bookstore. And I won't say get rid of digital books, just don't make us choose. We can all be friends :)

x helix

Thank you so much for reading and taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it- I do appreciate your comment. Yes, you are correct, I should accept the new device and  it does still promote reading. And I suppose I would, if its popularity weren't closing book stores, I agree there should be room for both. But I hope, with a reader's passion, that it will not come to us losing the brick and morter wonderland's of true books.  smiley

Penny4athought

If happiness is a warm gun according to the Beatles, then a book is a warm chair.

No one reads books anymore. People don't want poetry and prose. They want digital hyperventilation.

Besides, when the chair is too warm, people either fall asleep or pee in their pants or even worse.

 

Thank you for your candor. I do appreciate your opinion. I am not able to speak on the condition of the chairs in the store as I was not one to rest upon them.  However, I have seen elder customers comfortably sitting and reading in the chairs you allude to and I suppose they may have become too comfortable- Perhaps the decision to change from a fabric chair to a wooden one should have been considered. My issue with digital is the possible loss of older books and manuscripts currently found only in bound books…maybe we don’t lose them today but, if digital becomes the only option, I doubt they will survive for future generations—business will not necessarily foot the bill to convert all printed words… Just my thoughts - thanks for reading them.smiley

Penny4athought

 

 

My time spent in my favorite bookstore was to browse the shelves and open my mind to enlightenment and diversity in all subjects available and read to my heart’s content - until I picked the one that held my interest - to the point I must take it home to finish.   I’d sit with friends in the coffee bar area and discuss thoughts and opinions and open that wonderful market place of ideas that was so conducive to the atmosphere. 

Penny4athought