Tuesday, January 5, 2010
When I was traveling on Amtrak last summer, one of my fellow passengers was reading from a Kindle. I had heard and read about Kindle and seen pictures of it, but I had never actually seen one before. I asked the man how he liked using it and whether he had difficulty reading a book on a Kindle. He said he liked using it and had no problems reading it at all.
I wanted to ask him if he would let me hold it so I could read a page to see what it was like, but I didn't. I didn't want to take a chance I might lose his place —that is click on something that would require him to go back several pages to get back to where he was. Also I didn't want to bother him or invade his privacy. So I just looked at it and listened to what he said.
Recently, I was in Barnes & Noble in Leominster and they had their Nook on display. So I looked at it and read the excerpt they had on the screen —I don't remember now what it was. I was more interested in the Nook itself than I was in the literature on the electronic page.
Like many book lovers I find the possibility that books as we know them may eventually disappear from our lives to be devastating to contemplate. I love books. The traditional book. The book you can hold in your hand as you leaf through the pages slowly, feeling their texture and looking at the typeface and sampling passages here and there. I like book covers and the excitement and curiosity they generate. Also I think books are a very efficient device, even from a technological standpoint. You can go back and forth and up and down. The scrolling of electronic media is really very old fashioned. That's what the ancient Romans did. Unroll a scroll and read down or up, but they couldn't scan back and forth across. Also a well-designed book can be a work of art itself.
Recently I discussed the future of the book with a friend of mine, and she said she loves books, but the Kindle and other electronic books are coming. It's inevitable. Nothing can stop it. It's the future. The younger generation and future generations won't be fazed by them at all. She is right of course.
But will a child get as much pleasure from an electronic version of “The Little Engine That Could” as from the book version?
There are advantages, of course. One is you can download several books at once and store them on the Kindle or the Nook or any of the other e-books soon to be appearing on the market. And this is a great advantage. Imagine in a few years that the first group of pioneers heads out into space to colonize a distant planet. If they take a supply of e-books with them, they could bring the world's greatest works of literature with them very compactly, and the world's culture could be transmitted and preserved for future generations in the colony in outer space.
E-books also have their advantages for persons traveling by any mode of transportation. Instead carrying several books or magazines, you can bring one e-book stocked with a shelfful of books.
E-BOOKS ARE HERE AND THE MAIN ADVANTAGE OF SUCH IS THIS; You can carry on a single device around 500-5000+ books,etc. instead of many books to deal with on trips,whether by train, plane or boat or on horseback. Storage units will allow peoople,if they are made cheaply and readily available, to hold several thousand or even perhaps, a million works, downloaded or up loaded, as the case may be, into your storage unit. I also think that you might be able to distinguish works by title, author, genre,etc. or your personal whims depending on the technology involved. This device would eliminate storing massive and numerous volumes and shelving such,especially if one is cooped up in a 'sardine can'(read trailer/mobile home,etc.) or a senior apartment or center and also work out in the forthcoming 'libraries' that will have devices we probably do not think possible. For myself, I have almost as many books as the FISKE FREE LIBRARY in Claremont but my problem is to access them easily and quicly, as many are stored in boxes in my shed and attic and I have some abroad in our house there. Some books I hope or plan to donate to the HAWAII KARATE MUSEUM where they will also be housed and stored at THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII. At some time, I hope also to catalog and categorize my writings and notes(several boxes of such) and photos. Electonic storage of photos and videos will also be 'space' savers as I have oodles of albums and vhs cassettes,etc. Same thing for audio stuff and old vinyl records and some my Greadt Grandfather had,etc. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete