I found out this morning that my favorite bookstore is closing. Across the country. There are no other bookstores in NEPA, unless I want to drive to Wilkes-Barre, and I don't. Want to.
What is the world coming to? Fareneheit 451 predicted we wouldn't have books -- they'd all be burned. Bradbury got it right on the whole house thing -- I call all of those cookie cutter houses that face inward and you drive by looking at their backside with no porches and no neighborhood camaraderie "Farenheit 451 houses" -- but he may be a bit off on his burning books idea. They -- the ubiquitous "they" -- aren't burning books, they are digitalizing them.
The effect is the same: no books. Those eReaders have their place, no doubt. But it is not the same as opening a new release, sniffing glue and paper, feeling the roughness of the page,seeing words indelibly left for generations to come, to read and analyze and ponder and laugh and share and enjoy. eReaders? Read it, erase it, download a new one.
This will be the end. The end of wall to wall bookshelves. The end of rereading that favorite book because there was that ONE scene that the author did so well! The end of purchasing classics for my nephews and niece, letting them turn the pages as we snuggle, as I once turned the pages when I snuggled with my favorite adults.
Here's a question to ponder: If Jefferson hadn't collected 1000s of books, how would we know what he read? How would we know what influenced him? How would we turn to those books ourselves to learn what he learned? If future generations read only downloadables that unload when you finish them, how will we know what influenced the next great leaders of our nation? How will they share those ideas, when they themselves cannot go back to reread that book for that ONE exquisite thought?
Don't worry, people, I'm sure when the time comes there will be an app for that.
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