I was wrong
Posted in books, technology, writing on June 21st, 2010 by scott – 2 Comments
I admit it. Blame it on the foolishness of youth. A foolishness that’s been tempered by something resembling maturity.
What I’m referring to is this article. Written by yours truly in the early 1990s. If you have a moment, read the article to understand where I’m coming from
[For those of you who don't have the time to read it, the gist of the article was that the drive to make book digital would never create a replacement for actual dead trees.]
Times change, and so do opinions. I’m one who straddles both old and new schools. I still read physical books. But I also read electronic books. The “experience” (whatever that means) of reading both is slightly different but it’s pretty much the same.
In the time that I’ve immersed myself in digital text, I’ve come to the conclusion that many people rethink how they define what a book is.
It’s the words
What is a book? Is it a mass of bound paper? Is it a collection of bits?
It’s both.
What makes up a book isn’t its form. It’s the words. It’s the thoughts and ideas and emotions that those words convey. That is what a book is. Nothing more, nothing less.
It could be that trade paperback on my shelf. It could be, say, that nice hardbound edition of Anna Karenina that I pick up from time to time. It could be a PDF file that I view on my computer screen. It could an ePub file that’s read on an ebook reader or my smartphone. Each and every one of is a book.
A while ago someone saw me with an ebook reader and asked Don’t you think you’re helping kill the book by using one of those things? My reply, in a marginally Nietzchean vein, was Changing something doesn’t kill it. And that’s how I feel now.
The book isn’t dead. It’s just changing form. Books still need to be written. Books still need editing. They still need someone to publish them — although that can be done by the writers, too.
Even if masses of ink and paper go the way of the horse-drawn buggy books will still exist. For now, we have paper and digital. And that’s a great thing.
Thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.
Photo credit: robootb from Photoxpress
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