DISCLAIMER: (yes. A disclaimer. In a blog. Hahaha!)
For anyone who isn't interested in English or, especially, literature and publication, I will post separately about my day, so you can avoid this blog entry completely...
I had my first class today, which was great. Although I was a bit on the tired side, once it got going, it was a really interesting discussion about the changing face of literature - what literature is going to look like now with the internet.
So here's what I'd like to ask from all of the one of you following my blog avidly at the moment (and hopefully that number will grow...) Where do you see books going now with the internet and Kindle, etc. Do you think books will become obsolete and people will strive to get rid of their physical libraries and instead turn to electronic ones or do you think books have something special about them that will allow them to withstand the test of time?
Personally, I think humanity has already undergone one major switch like this: oral communication to mass-produced books on a printing press. And yet, we still strive to hear stories aloud, either read to us in person or we spend a lot more money in order to get the audio book version, which will reveal a different world than the text version. Or is that just me? Anyway, I just wanted to know what you thought about this!
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Argh! Now I get to reiterate what I just wrote. You won't see that, because this computer blew it away when I did a preview, then backed up. So it's just reinforced my opinion that there are some things that work very well in 'print on paper'. I could have read what I wrote and still had it sitting in front of me, albeit much slower for you to receive and read. :p I was making the point that while I use electronic sources for a lot of my reading, I still really enjoy the feel of a book or magazine in my hand, and the ability to curl up with one. Try that with a computer. And it's not the same with a pda or Kindle. I've tried. For me, at least, books are more personal. I have a number that are very good, old friends.
ReplyDeleteThere's room for all of it, and I'm always doing research, reading, scanning the news, etc., on the 'net. I think we'll just learn to use all of it. It's like the old song--make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.
Thank you so much Denise for your insight! This is precisely what I think too - there's just something about being able to curl up outside in the sun with a much-loved book. I don't own a Kindle (yet...) but I can't imagine it being at all as friendly. The first thing I did when packing to come down here was to grab a BUNCH of the books I wanted to read and threw them into my luggage. Clothes were packed around them....
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