A good friend of mine wrote a blog this week about the possibility of printed literature becoming an endangered species. I remember the feeling I had when I realized my VHS tapes were defunct and my portable CD player was rather archaic. I also know the feeling I get from holding a 10″ record, catching its aged scent as I place the needle to let anything from Louis Armstrong to Tchaikovsky teach me about times in which my current form did not exist. While I do own an iPod and a computer, and while I admit I would have no readers at all if not for blogging, I dread a day when books are a rare commodity.
On a very basic level, I enjoy reading for hours at a time. The eye strain and headaches I get from staring at a screen all day at work make me not exactly thrilled about staring at that of a Kindle. What kind of book-burning name is “Kindle” anyway? I imagine they could come in handy for students on a budget or anyone on the move without the capacity to carry paper books, but I enjoy being able to tuck post-it notes in my text books to more easily access the important passages. I’m sure somewhere there is a highlight or tab function on a Kindle, but my compulsion for categorization requires various colours and codes.
On a more detrimental note, at least in my opinion as a bibliophile and history enthusiast, is the impact the “digital revolution” will have on our descendants and their knowledge about our world. Envision this. Some catastrophe causes the human race to thin out considerably, possibly even dying out completely in some places. Centuries later, once the world has repopulated and formed new ways of thinking and doing, archaeologists dig up the ruins of our “modern age”. They don’t find books that speak of our history, philosophies, inventions, and cultures. They don’t find diaries or travel journals. They don’t find photographs of spectacular landmarks, celebrated people, and every day life. They don’t even find paintings. Instead, they find useless chunks of plastic, glass, and metal in various shapes and sizes. Unable to access any of the coded information, a world of knowledge no longer exists. Our descendants will know nothing of the world that preceded them. Our identity will be gone. There will be no art, no literature, and no way for the world to know what we accomplished in our time on this planet. We will cease to exist. Convenience items like the Kindle, computers, and digital photo frames do nothing to serve future generations. Once the power drains from them or the electronic components wear out they are nothing more than empty casing.
Some of you may not know this, but I collect old books. I’m not sure you can call all of them antique, but I do own quite a few of those as well. I care little about famous titles or how much they are worth to buyers or other collectors. I acquire what appeals to me for no other reason than that it makes me happy to look through what children were reading in 1843 or what a housewife may have been taking a break with in 1937. I have learned a lot about differences, and often about surprising similarities, in thought and form of communication through printed word since the days of Gutenberg.
While I have no problems accepting new technology and developments, I also hope there are others who love and revere books as much as I do and who see the merit in keeping the art form alive.
Go now, my friends. Cuddle up with a good book.
Pearls and Pentagrams 
36 comments
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January 2, 2010 at 00:44
Rindo Ramankutty
Interesting post-apocalyptic scenario. We could use time capsules of solid steel, archive all the good stuff (Wikipedia, for one), bundle it all up with a Kindle-like device with large color-coded controls, give it an atomic battery pack, and then pictoral manuals too. This’ll come in handy, for historians in the distant future, human or *ahem* alien.
January 2, 2010 at 09:39
ishabelle
I like collecting old books too. I prefer reading off from an actual book instead of the ebook stuff that has become a fad these days. I used to keep a journal that was entirely handwritten, but it became too tiring. I hope I can do it again in the future… 🙂
January 2, 2010 at 12:17
Digital Dame
This is my fear as well. We already have seen how quickly technology changes. How long will it be before Kindles, Nooks, and Sony Readers are all obsolete, become unrepairable and you can’t even access your own library anymore? I have the same fear about photos. Most of them will never be seen because the only place they exist is on a CD or computer or SD card. I’m no Luddite, clearly I have and use a computer, digital camera and such but there is much to be said for physical, paper books.
January 2, 2010 at 13:10
Lee
Interesting post; I am an avid reader and also a tech person but have no plans of purchasing a Kindle or any other e-book reader. Will there ever be a day when books are gone from our daily lives? Perhaps, but I don’t anticipate that travesty in our lifetime. About the only scenario I can readily imagine of humans without books would be on distant travels say, during life onboard a space station or an expedition to a distant planet and the sole reason would be for space and weight considerations. Long live books! 🙂
January 2, 2010 at 13:42
Scenis
I agree. Not only could the Kindle (and related devices) strain eyes and have nothing to hold for the future generations, but the feeling of a book in your hand just can’t be simulated by something electronic (and if it could, what would be the point?). I grant that I am a student on a budget, and I do own one – but I’d still recommend paperbacks over a little plastic screen if you’ve got the time and money to get them.
January 2, 2010 at 15:53
Allegra
I absolutely agree with you! While I go through my phases of wanting all of the latest technology, such as the Kindle, I always come back to good old-fashioned ink on paper.
January 2, 2010 at 15:59
bentalbert
Well stated. I fully intend to own an electronic book read some day like the Kindle or the new dvices from Sony and Barnes and Noble, but that is merely for conveniece in travel. It is difficult for me to imagine abandoning a relationship with the printed page.
There is just as much to be said for sitting down with pen and paper in hand versus the word processor. There are neurological processes that occur in different part sof the brain when we write by hand versus the computer. This is also true about reading. Our brain builds very different synaptical connections when dealing with electronic medium, versus the printed page.
All of that being said, it is difficult to say with confidence tht books, pen and paper will never go away. Because of technology, each new generation begins to see their own world in a different way than their predecesors.
January 2, 2010 at 16:28
Cindy (notjustagranny)
Great article and a good point. What will be left behind once we have obliterated ourselves? Hopefully someone, somewhere, like you will have some books they have saved. I too love books, I love nothing more than to cuddle up in bed with a good book and a cup of tea. There is a certain joy to be had from laying the book down next to your bed, a companion, waiting to be opened to the page where you left off the night before when your eyes were streaming from tired and you could’nt focus anymore.
I find reading via the internet tedious in the extreme, how boring to have to remember which page you were on, and having to scroll down to find your ‘place’ where you left off. You also cant take your computer to bed, it simply doesn’t have the same feel to it. Yet my whole business is based via the internet and my computer 🙂
Hopefully as Rindo says, we could create a time-capsule of some sort and store all the digital information for future generations.
Thanks for reminding me too about vinyl 🙂 long time since I had the feel of placing a record on the turntable, sitting down with a glass of sherry and being transported to another world, the soft dulcet tones of Charles Aznavour accompanied by the crackly rasp of the dusty grooves! 🙂
I miss my vinyls.
Cheers.
January 2, 2010 at 19:03
Lynne Melcombe
I love reading hard copy. Even as newspapers gasp their dying breaths, I’d rather read print then online. And how can you curl up on the couch in front of the fireplace on a winter afternoon, with an afghan over your knees and snifter of warmed brandy near to hand, and read a good Kindle? Or lie on a sunny beach or beside a pool and read where a grain of sand might destroy your good “book” and dropping it in the pool would leave you completely without reading material (instead of simply needing to dry it out and then read rumpled pages)? Put me in league with the likes of Jean-Luc Picard: I can’t imagine boldly going anywhere without a real book in my backpack.
January 2, 2010 at 19:20
MoSop
3 cheers for the printed page! I agree with your post wholeheartedly. I’ve noticed that there are some services offering to print out a blog into a book form, and I’ve been very excited about that. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be an option yet for WP users yet. Hopefully, that will be available soon. There’s something so special about holding a book in your hand, and turning the pages, and smelling the paper and ink that can never be duplicated. I’ve been curling up with the most delightful read this weekend. “Remembering Isaac: The Wise and Joyful Potter of Niederbipp”.
January 2, 2010 at 20:11
cronegeek
Very thought provoking scenario. I had never consider the possible dangers of all digital life. While saving all our photos, travel diaries, Christmas letters, etc. on DVDs or portable hard drives may save space (in museums and at home), maybe we should print out a lot of this stuff and give the printed versions to local Historical Society.
January 2, 2010 at 20:14
I’m Not Going Down Without a Fight « Midnight Kebab
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January 2, 2010 at 21:23
Sokobanja
Great post and very useful
January 2, 2010 at 23:42
MinusTheLinus
This is interesting! They’ve developed Kindles so they don’t read like plasma screens, but more like real book pages. But why would we want to make it *look* like a real book, when we have the originals already in big supply?
This reminds me of an editorial in the Minnesota Daily about sexting being the last remnants of our civilization:
http://www.mndaily.com/2009/12/02/%C2%A1viva-la-sextual-revolution
Maybe we’ve already ended our own history and don’t even know it? Hmm… I should blog about this.
January 3, 2010 at 00:10
Joseph S.
Absolutely beautiful. *tear*
I feel the exact same way as you. Subscribing and shutting down my computer to cuddle up with a book.
January 3, 2010 at 00:14
wisdomunconventional
As an avid reader myself, I shocked myself this Christmas when I *almost* asked for an Amazon Kindle after seeing that awesome commercial… Thank God I snapped out of it very quickly, then went back to my good old books. I’ve got the same kind of nostalgia for records and I’m only in my 20’s… I don’t know what I would do with myself if books became obsolete like I’ve seen CD’s, tapes, VHS’s, and so many other things I know and love!
That being said, no one would read me either if it weren’t for blogging.
January 3, 2010 at 02:44
triplealfa
I know, I know! Book reading has been something of a past! I remember buying textbooks but not even reading them, and man do they cost so much! But storybooks are of a different matter! For that reason, you cannot compare reading online to REALLY HOLDING AND FLIPPING THE PAGES. Now, that is really something.
PLUS: Imagine when you wanted to read a particular chapter, and you roughly know where it is on the book, but on the computer, you will need to scroll and scroll and click and click until you get to where you want to get, and by then, I am sure you had probably given up on reading it already.
January 3, 2010 at 03:00
Tushar
I came across your post and really loved reading it. I truly agree with your thoughts and would any day prefer to read a paper book rather that on Kindle even though it’s a cheaper alternative.
The feeling of holding a book in your hand is totally different…
January 3, 2010 at 10:17
Dorkarama
You are right, the problem with the digital age is that everything becomes obsolete so quickly. We had 100 years of cinema, using film stock, now the digital formats are changing all the time. If the history of mankind had been recorded on Betamax, we would have no history.
January 3, 2010 at 12:08
Insurance Telemarketing
Rindo has a great solution!
I don’t think we should fear being without books, however.
January 3, 2010 at 13:34
jossan
This post kind of made the wheels in my head start to roll… It’s a good thing though! 🙂
January 3, 2010 at 15:43
Adam
A good blog. I love books too. I have friends who are into re-distributing books when they have finished with them, both as a way of saving space but also as a means of ‘passing on’ the knowledge that the books contains. I do this as well sometimes, leaving books on buses, thinking that they might unexpectedly enlighten someone’s life,though most probably they end up in the trash can at the depot.
Most of the books I keep, however, as they form a sort of personal biography. I was reading this kind of book a such-and-such an age, and this book at another age. And are good to pull out every so often and have a look back at the favourite passages.
I guess in the same way they are a biography of our time, also. George Orwell’s dystopia in 1984 had an intense suspicion of books, because they contained unalterable truths, and a special department dedicated to editing out the bits which were most at variance with the current ideological stance. So good for you, buying and preserving the older ones – a source of unalterable truths.
January 3, 2010 at 18:55
forkboy1965
Oddly enough your posting reminds me of a book I read some years back about an end-of-world type scenario, where much of the Earth’s human population was killed off leaving only a smattering of folks here and there.
One of the secondary characters, when told to grab important things from his home as he and others fled the devestation, returned with a wheelbarrow full of books. Books on chemistry, biology, physics, construction, wood working, etc. Asked about his choice (when clearly food, weapons, clothing, etc. were probably more in the mind of the lead character) he replied along the lines of how none of their modern contrivances for passing along information would again work in the new dark ages. Books would again gain the prominence and importance they once held.
Good stuff I thought.
January 3, 2010 at 22:57
thenewnatalie
I have thought about this, too. Thinning and disappearing magazines, like Domino last March, and the lack of selection in some bookstores is disheartening. Local libraries are offering ebooks for checkout, and I, too, hate the eyestrain from electronic reading. I hope print books can remain a viable medium. I don’t like feeling the need to be charged, or “plugged in” all the time.
January 3, 2010 at 23:46
tarasdismalnitch
You’re absolutely right and this is exactly what keeps me awake at night. Both my husband and I recognize the decline of the printed word and it saddens us to realize that our many bookshelves, over flowing with books on ever subject imagninable, could become obsolete.
Technology is supossed to be for the betterment of mankind, and while I’m intrigued by Kindle, the technology that created it, will soon be outdated. Our society is very much of a ‘throw away’ society and people don’t seem to understand how one single action can cause a great reaction.
January 4, 2010 at 06:52
A_wandering_mind
I am a complete book worm. I remember in school I used to hide them inside my text books pretending to be studying!! Yes I agree books are irreplaceable. In my opinion, Kindle may replace books to some extent but not for all. Well books are easier to get anywhere in the world.What they may do and I hope it happens is that they may make books cheaper.
January 4, 2010 at 07:08
aldouswright
I’m a Computer Science student who can’t stand not having a gadget and computer with him. I prefer my references be online so I could access them anywhere, whenever and where ever I need them. But when I start studying, and by that I don’t mean barely looking and reading, I prefer having hard copies, written information in piles of paper. I can really feel you especially the obsessive compulsive tendency of bibliophiles to note, and stick other pieces of paper on their manuscripts. I always do that especially before an exam. I can feel my brain working better when I have a piece of paper where I can write on everything I know about the exam.
January 4, 2010 at 07:55
gardenserf
I proposed on my blog to use Kevlar Scrolls. They aren’t dependent on electricity: http://gardenserf.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/kevlar-scrolls-alexandria/
January 4, 2010 at 09:03
pallet racking
interesting post, thank you for sharing.
January 5, 2010 at 00:11
Gabriel Irons
An interesting note – there is historical evidence that philosophers of the time believed that the widespread use of writing to record information would drastically change society, allowing successive generations to access information before they ‘deserved’ it by simply looking it up in written records.
Society has undergone terrific changes, and although I agree that print books have a certain charm, I also cannot deny that they are on the way out. It may be a long time before books leave the mainstream, but it will happen.
January 5, 2010 at 00:42
Khalihs
I am grateful for this blog, as it made me dig through a box of books for one I remember seeing in the garage a few months back. And while I was looking for it, I found my degree, and other things I’ve felt I’ll need if I get an interview in this economy. :p
Ironically, I have more time than I’ll have again, before retirement, and still haven’t read up like I’ve wanted to – it’s hard to look at unemployed time as being ‘free time’ – at least, for me. Though I have caught up on some issues of SciAm and Discover. The only reason I don’t currently have a subscription to SciAm is I can’t decide if I want the print issues, or the online acct that receives PDFs – I find that most times where I read my SciAm are not convenient for the laptop – or as comfortable. There are some magazines I only want a few articles from, and may scan/toss; but my scientific ones I won’t part with – and I can’t imagine ever getting rid of a book – I literally grew up in Barnes n Noble… been going to them with my parents since I was 7 or 8…
The only thing I’ve seen about the kindle/etc that I like is that they offer a way for budding authors to get out there easier than through a publishing house. And if they receive a positive reception from the eBook reading world, they may have a better shot at landing a subsequent print-bound publishing commission. Personally, though, I look at the printed book as a signifier to establishment, research and legitimacy – much in the same way that any idiot can post something online, so that saying “I found it online” isn’t really accepted, typically, as citing a credible source.
It’s one thing to give reference to Abe’s Medicine Site, and another to the National Institute of Health. Likewise, Joe’s ePublishing Company isn’t as legitimate as McGraw-Hill or GoldenBooks, or whathaveyou.
But as for your interest in books that peek into past times, which prompted me to look in the box, I have a treat for you to seek, which I purchased at a fort (read: touristy govt run facility) in either Oregon or Washington: ISBN 0-918222-98-2. It may well be a good read, actually, given the current economic outlook: “The American Frugal Housewife”, by Mrs. Child, published by Applewood Books, 1833. “Dedicated to those who are not ashamed of economy.”
It includes such tidbits as, “Calf’s head should be cleansed with very great care; particularly the lights. The head, heart, and the lights should boil two full hours; the liver should be boiled only one hour. It is better to leave the wind-pipe on, for if it hangs out of the pot while the head is cooking, all the froth will escape through it. The brains, after being thoroughly washed, should be pit in a little bag; with one pounded cracker, or as much crumbled bread, seasoned with sifted sage, and tied up and boiled one hour. After the brains are boiled, they should be well broken up with a knife, and peppered, salted, and buttered. They should be put upon the table in a bowl by themselves.”
Oh my, these excerpts from ‘Reasons for Hard Times” are actually as true today as in 1883: “Perhaps there never was a time when the depressing effects of stagnation in business were so universally felt, all the world over, as they are now.” “But do they reflect why things are so cheap? Do they know how much wealth has been sacrificed, how many families ruined, to produce this boasted result? Do they not know enough of the machinery of society, to suppose that the stunning effect of crash after crash, may eventually be felt by those on whom they depend for support?” “Luxuries are cheaper now than necessaries were a few years since; yet it is a lamentable fact, that it costs more to live now than it did formerly.” “In this way, finery becomes the standard of respectability; and a man’s cloth is of more consequence than his character.” “IT is really melancholy to see how this fever of extravagance rages, and how it is sapping the strength of our happy country. It has no bounds; it pervades all ranks, and characterizes all ages.”
Makes me want to form a book-reading group locally.
Except where I live, I might first have to wage a Literacy campaign… :p
I guess I can be the one reading the book aloud, and they can just be listening… :p
This book is actually pretty interesting.. lol, I think I’m going to read it. And then I’m going to start referencing it’s pearls in conversation (except the calf’s head cooking instructions), and wait for people to tell me Tennessee isn’t ready yet for my “California ideas” – so what if it was written in 1883…!!!
January 5, 2010 at 19:39
lynnemelcombe
khalihs, i hear you when you talk about unemployment not being a time to catch up on your reading. All this time on my hands, all the writing I want to do sometime, and I just can’t see this as the time to do that. instead, I scour Craig’s List and try to justify my continued existence. JK Rowling was criticized for using her time “on the dole” to write the first Harry Potter book when she should have been out there working instead of depending on the British taxpayer. But I am in awe of her using that time to take a huge leap of faith that obviously paid off, and rather handsomely at that. Now there’s a series of books I couldn’t imagine reading on kindle … how can something be called a page-turner when it has no pages?
January 7, 2010 at 18:16
Anna Hayes
Really interesting post. My mother was recently trying to buy some VCR tapes (we’re very retro) and was laughed at in quite a few shops.
Your vision of the future is quite scary – I’m also a book lover and would hate to think that this disappearance of books could be a possibility.
Nice post. Well done.
Anna
http://www.ahayzer42.wordpress.com
January 16, 2010 at 16:01
Nicole
Surfing Amazon or whatever is fun, too, but nothing can replace going to the bookstore and wandering the stacks. I can easily get overwhelmed online, with dozens of tabs open, following threads and suggestions until I’m far removed from whatever I went online to look at in the first place.
Going to the bookstore, though, is an exercise in both adventure and joy. What’s new in the Pagan section? Have my favorite authors released new titles in fiction? What’s new in paperback? I love carrying around so many books my arms ache until I can find a place to sit down and peruse those I’ve chosen.
Even the agonizing moments of weeding out what I can afford to get and which titles I’ll leave behind for another day has its own painful pleasure.
No rainy afternoon spent online looking at books and sipping hot chocolate
can compare with the same at the local bookstore. I’ve also never met interesting people or made new friends at an online book seller as I have at our local bookstore.
Long live the printed book!
January 24, 2010 at 22:05
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September 30, 2014 at 14:59
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