I love bookstores. It’s too bad that they are on the endangered species list.
I have spent some serious quality time in bookstores recently. It is one of my great joys. There is nothing like it for an avid reader, row after row of new books just waiting to be read.
Choose a bookstore with a coffee shop, and you have everything you need to be happy. A nerd’s nirvana, a quiet and safe harbor of peace and fulfilment in a troubling sea of noise and crudity.
Since I am on a break between semesters at Towson University, where I teach in the Mass Comm. department, I am free to read for pleasure. And read I am, every waking minute.
True, I order many books online. Being able to order books and have them delivered is a wonderful thing. I grin from ear to ear when the UPS truck stops out front. I know treats are coming. I pant and salivate like a housebound labrador retriever when it’s time for noon walkies.
But I try to enjoy my favorite bookstores while they last. The shift to book readers (or e-readers) proceeds rapidly. I, too, have my eyes on a tablet computer perhaps more for the book reader capability than all the other apps combined. E-reading is the way the world is going, and I must accept it.
Soon, I believe all the textbooks we use at Towson will be offered exclusively for book readers and tablets. The cost of textbooks is astronomical anyway, so book reader versions are the more economical way to go.
However, I will always love the feel of a good book. Books are one of the few treasures I believe are worth keeping. When other collectibles lose their appeal and become just so much clutter, books will remain worthy of our love and respect. They instruct and entertain. They take us away from the all-too-often grim reality of our day-to-day existence.
Books are the key to a life well lived. And to me, a bookstore will always be a place of reverence.
I have a stack of about 20 paper books, including four my wife gave me for Christmas, that I’m looking forward to reading. But my children gave both my wife and me Kindles for Christmas along with Amazon gift cards! I still prefer “real” books over the Kindle kind, but, thanks to Project Gutenberg, I can download classics of literature for free and scroll through them on screen. In effect, I will have a larger library than I could ever possibly house in my home had I just stocked paper books.
Regarding textbooks in book reader or tablet format, I hate them. As an instructor–and a student–I want the ability to mark up and quickly find certain passages via highlighting or with side notes. So far, I find doing such things difficult to do either with PDFs on a computer monitor or with a hand-held reader.
Bill, I dread the day when all textbooks are in book reader format. I mark up any book I read so as to be able to find salient passages later. I do not think a book reader or a tablet computer will be nearly as useful in the classroom as a real book.
For pleasure reading, I think I will be fine with a book reader or tablet. In fact, their capacity and mobility appeal to me. But not for teaching.
Thanks for your comments.
Les
I love books and bookstores too, and am saddened when I hear of independent bookstores closing, as a couple in Toronto have just this week. I do have a Kindle now, but when it comes to a book that’s a keeper, I prefer to have a print version I can flip through and put back on a shelf rather than an e-version. Let’s hope that books live on in some tangible form and win new fans, much as vinyl records have done!
Sue,
May printed books live forever. Surely there will always be a place for the printed word. A decade ago, we communicators were worried that print was dead. Many pundits said it was, replaced by Web technologies. But alas, not so. We have not nearly achieved the much-touted “paperless society”. I do not believe we ever will.
Your Kindle is a very useful item. Think of all the books you can store and not take up too much space. That to me is a distinct advantage, the mobility of being able to carry around a large library. That is a main reason I wish to purchase a tablet computer. I will then be able to have my fave books with me at any time, but not the textbooks I teach with. I prefer to kick it old style in the classroom.
Thanks for your thoughts, my friend.
Les
Life is about changes. My books are companions. Often, it’s difficult to let go.
Mary,
I, too, believe that books are worthy companions. I also have trouble letting go of them. Once something so special has been a part of your life, it is difficult to let it go. Plus, there is no need to. We can always make space for that which we love. Hang on to those books you love. It will be okay in the end.
Thanks, Partner, for reading and commenting on this.
Les
I share your fondness for bookstores, Les, and I feel a similar way about newspapers. So many newspapers are dying today and those that aren’t are moving toward more digital formats. But there is just something about holding a newspaper in my hands. I still subscribe to the print version of my local newspaper and love to sit down and leaf through it. One thing I miss — and it’s probably an environmental-consciousness thing — is the smell of ink on the newsprint. My first job was working for a weekly community newspaper and I loved going to the pressroom as the ink hit the pages. And I loved taking a fresh copy home with me, smudges on my fingers and all.