I like books a lot. I like real books, and turning the pages, and carrying them around, and seeing the old favorites get kind of wrinkly and yellow. I like that some of them have tea stains and food stains and weird lists jotted in the back cover.
I don’t have a Kindle. I think it’s kind of a cool idea, though. Convenient, you know? I read a lot of things on my computer – mostly PDFs for school, but I’ve also read tons of Terry Pratchett novels in TXT format. I read the New York Times online. I’ve bought the paper version ONCE so far this year, but I visit the website almost every day. It works better for me. Convenient, you know?
What am I getting at? There is certainly a tension between digital (Kindle/online/etc) and analog (real/paper/bound) forms of writing and reading. But I don’t always agree with the people who start ranting and raving that the digital stuff is going to be the death of books, the death of TRUE reading, the death of doing things the right way. I understand what they’re saying to an extent, but I think I see the value of both sides. I like my real books, but I like my blogs, and I think a Kindle might be nice. Can we have both? Can we accept that both have value, maybe to different people or in different situations, and not freak out because we’re scared about new things? Can we appreciate both tradition AND innovation?
Well. There’s my blog post for the day. Now I’m gonna go read a book. They both stimulate me and make my life richer. So there.
