LeAnne Hardy, author and editor
  • Home
  • BIO
  • My Books
    • Children's and Young Adult
    • Historical Fiction
    • Non-fiction
  • Blog
  • Editorial Services

My ​Times and Places
​


​​

The Future of Books, or What I want for Christmas

10/25/2010

1 Comment

 
As a librarian, I started hearing early about the death of the book.  Why build library buildings when books will soon be obsolete and all our information digitized?  In the early days, I think the proponents of this view imagined a shoebox of disks that would contain the knowledge of the ages.  It didn’t seem to occur to them that someone would need to organize the quantity of files for research or house the equipment needed to access it.
Then there were the books-forever people who seem to forget that reading survived (and even thrived with) such technical innovations as the codex and the printing press.

I am a book lover.  The walls of my office are lined with bookcases that hold my Inklings collection, classic fairytale picture books, research for my current project and two shelves of writing and literature studies.  There are Bibles and devotionals in our bedroom; theology in the spare room; travel books, Africana and miscellaneous fiction in the family room; and current magazines in the living room.  There are books in every room of our house including the bathroom.

But when I pack my bag for a trip I have to choose.  A Bible, a devotional book, and my prayer notebook take up a lot of space before I ever think about reading material for the plane.  I’m a fast reader; it takes a thick book to get me through a four-hour flight.  And I have a habit of reading before I fall asleep.  How many nights will I be gone?  How many volumes do I need?  Will there be any room for clothes in my suitcase?  I did discover a decade or so ago that the Classics take longer to read than light fiction.  I read Moby Dick on a recent trip.  (Would have made a good short story.)  Don Quixote was delightful.  War and Peace lasted me for weeks!

But imagine having one book or a dozen take up the same amount of space.  In my ideal world, they take up no more space than my iPod.  In the real world my devotional book and prayer notebook get left at home unless we are traveling by car.  In the e-book world, I could take a whole set of commentaries as easily as my little travel Bible, and read popular page-turners instead of Dostoevsky.

My daughter got a Nook last Christmas.  That’s the e-reader from Barnes and Noble.  One of the innovations of Nook over Kindle is that it allows loans.  She administers a Facebook page with more than 2000 members, linking people who want to borrow with people who have to lend.  They have more than 700 readers in their book club. 

She got me reading e-books when Barnes and Noble offered free downloads of classics.  “The reader is free,” she told me, “and you can read them on your computer until you buy your Nook.”  (Unfortunately, this promotion is over.)  On my recent trip to South Africa, I read Jane Austin cuddled in bed with my laptop.  (I know, she’s not Robert Ludlum, but she is good.)  With the computer on my lap I had two hands free for my cup of tea.  I could click on the footnotes and get explanations of literary references or cultural practices I didn’t understand.  And it was easy to click back to the text.  My place was automatically marked when I closed the program, and how far along I was in the book showed on a strip at the bottom of the page.  I could even highlight passages I found particularly witty (in multiple colors), but I had to copy them to a Word document if I wanted to hold on to them when I archived the book to save hard disk space.

My e-book reading friends tell me that they read far more than they did when they couldn’t slip their library into their purse.  They also tell me that they still buy hard copies of the stories they treasure most.  I can see that coming for me, especially when I pack for my next trip.  But then, no device will work when I take my dream trip through the Grand Canyon….

1 Comment
LeAnne
1/7/2015 03:51:04 am

This post was moved from another site. All comments were lost.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives.

    RSS Feed

    Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
    To receive an e-mail when I post a new blog, please subscribe.
    Subscribe to Blog

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Author Interviews
    Current Events
    Devotional Thoughts
    Guest Blog
    Holidays Christmas
    Holidays Easter
    Holidays-Easter
    Holidays Other
    Holidays-Thanksgiving
    Missions And Missionaries
    Music
    My Books
    My Life And Family
    My Travels
    Non Fiction
    Orphans And Vulnerable Children
    Photos
    Publishers And Publishing
    Reading And Sharing Books
    Reviews
    Skating
    Theological Education
    Tributes
    Writing

    Archives

    June 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    March 2000

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • BIO
  • My Books
    • Children's and Young Adult
    • Historical Fiction
    • Non-fiction
  • Blog
  • Editorial Services