At the local antique flea market this morning, as I vision-strolled the merchandise which included a single hardcover book, the man behind the table asked, "Do you still read books?"
I thought I knew what he meant and when I replied, "Yes, I do," he confirmed my assumption by stating, "They'll never be replaced by computers."
I got rid of a pet peeve of mine before addressing this by stating, with equal fervor, "I wish used book sellers would realize how silly it is to put one price on hard cover books no matter what the subject matter and a lower price on soft cover ones, again no matter if they are fiction or non-fiction."
We then had a brief chat about advancing technology to do with books but it was pretty tame and I don't think either of us really expressed what we thought. It was idle conversation.
Later I got to thinking: I do feel technology has greatly influenced book use, book sales, and will continue to do so. Conversations with others (not idle) has us agreeing that we are not buying cookbooks or craft books or medical books or any kind of books that are soon dated for information and turning more to the Net for the information those books might have given us in the past. And the world wide web offers comments and reviews beyond our imagining a few years back.
I do like the look and feel of a book in my hand. I also am becoming more impressed by how a screen in my hand can give me what a book does - in a different way. I can change the size of the font, for heavens sake, and this is appreciated by eyes that have served me well for many years but now benefit from larger type.
It is rather magical to touch the screen and move things around and - have the page turn!
It just now occurred to me but I imagine such a book could also read itself to us somehow.
And hard or soft cover is not an issue!
even my librarian daughter has bought herself a Kindle
Posted by: Crafty Gardener | September 19, 2010 at 05:18 PM