This needs to be the year of writing, guys.
Let's face it: Writing is a dying art. Anyone can have a blog and call themselves a writer or a blogger. Print has been dying since late 2008. We saw how many newspapers - some of which were historical institutions - die with the bad economy. Why? Because we'd rather sit in front of our computers to read.
Trust me, I am ALL for saving trees. But I also know that there are so many alternatives for paper such as hemp (not pot people, HEMP). Hell, we could take a cue from the ancient Egyptians and create something along the same lines as papyrus. There's an idea!
My point is this: we have options to save writing and still have print without killing the environment.
We're not even reading books any more. We're reading stories on our computers or nifty little gadgets called Kindle. Don't get me wrong, e-books are currently the main bulk of my sales. But you can't curl up under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate and a good Kindle. We ALL remember that great cozy feeling! Is there anything better than that?
Living in this digital age has separated us from human contact and from those feelings of warmth and reading good books. Now, we'll read something, see a flashing ad & go over there. We have allowed ourselves to have an attention span of about 2 seconds.
I miss books. I miss READING. I miss the feeling of a book in my hands. I spend so much time on my computer typing away. I would love nothing more than to curl up on my couch and read, or to get lost in a good story right before bed.
Let's do what we can to save our ancient roots as story tellers. We need print. We need our traditions and formats to stay. I look at our little three year old and wonder if she'll ever have the memories I have of just reading books, or will she be glued to a computer before she even turns 10. I don't want her to miss out on that. I don't want our society to lose its historical roots. I think we need to make this the year that our art form is revitalized and doesn't become a bunch of zeros and ones in the computer world.
We need to all come together as readers and writers to make 2010 the year that our art doesn't die!
Happy new year and happy reading!! :)
5 comments:
I'll miss newspapers and paper books because the "product" itself is a great art and craft in addition to the actual words. The sensation of holding a paper or book, turning its pages, seeing the beauty of the paper selection and the binding and the cover is all sanitized away with the advent of Kindles and PDF files.
Even so, storytelling has been with us for eons, from the oral traditions of pre-history to the coffee table volumes of today. I think it will survive the loss of paper as long as we don't let it.
Nice post.
Malcolm
I fear a day when all our reading comes from a digital reader as both a bibliophile and historian. When archaeologists of the distant future dig up our homes and treasures, will they find nothing but useless chunks of plastic? Our history, our culture, our beliefs, and our identity will go when we do, and there will be nothing to teach future generations. We might as well not exist. Besides, I can only read so long from a screen before I get a migraine...
I love real books! Nothing better than sitting in front of the fire place with a nice read or up tucked in bed. I love bookshelves. I love the smell of books.
I am a little literary geek at times.
I am not buying into the e-book nonsense. Reading a novel on a screen is only going to ruin my eyes and make my head hurt.
I will be sure that my kids learn to enjoy reading real books and turning real pages, even if they other kids think I'm being old fashioned!
My problem is that I don't have enough room for all of the books I want to read. While I insist on having some print books (yes, I also like the feel of a book in hand), I admit to also liking the compact-ness of ebooks.
Try this as a long-term text storage medium: http://gardenserf.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/kevlar-scrolls-alexandria/
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