Waiting in line at the Post Office I noticed the lady behind me was reading an electronic book while she waited for the single clerk on duty to slowly work through the line of not so patient customers. The tablet she was holding was compact, capable of holding several books and, to me, as dull as dishwater. It looked too big to tuck in my pocket, had no apparent way I could flip pages back and forth to compare passages and the tiny black letters on a dull silver screen didn’t impress. I admit that there is a certain ease of use that can be handy, but my preference is for the printed word for most of my reading.
Our home has bookcases in every room and I’ve lost count of the total number of books we have bought and enjoyed over the years Every time we moved there has been a moving charge for between 8 and 10 thousand pounds of books so I guess it’s safe to say we enjoy our reading. Electronic books and Internet content are more like an ongoing conversation, with snippets if information that are ephemeral and soon forgotten, and recollecting where you found it is an impossible task.
That’s one of the things I like about our bookcase data file. I can vaguely remember an issue, a factoid or a passage of prose and walk to the library and spot the book within a few minutes I’ve got the answer that eluded me. Books will be part of our lives, just as close as old friends are a part of our lives. Books and their physical presence are things to be appreciated and kept close, and accumulated as often as possible.
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