Signs indicate, the times are a-changin’ relative to “paper books”. Some booksellers have already closed their doors. This morning the purveyors of the News (most news is bad news and I often long for “no news”), the almighty Media, reported that sales of e-books have now exceeded sales of the paper version.
What really upsets me (possibly all the way to an irk) is that the groups who have an agenda against paper (the plastic-based electronics-sellers for one, and the fanatic “environmentalist whackos” for another) have unfairly and disgustingly spun the name for traditional books. The Media, in their unquestioned shameless wisdom, now call them “the dead tree versions” of novels. The purpose of such a lack of respect seems to be to hasten traditional books’ demise. I don’t know about you, but that saddens me and also makes me stand in protest.
I’m not necessarily an opponent of e-books, or e-readers either. The plain, boring, yet convenient (think TV dinners and boxed wine) hand-held-petrochemical version of books probably has its place too. After all, you are not reading my rantings from a paper-style medium. However, last time I checked, paper was made from the scraps of trees harvested for lumber or grown specifically for pulpwood. It is a renewable, sustainable resource, where the oil used to manufacture plastics isn’t. Additionally, how do novelists expect to make decent money on their work when the digital world is so insecure? Unlawful “sharing” (read “theft”) of copyrighted material is showing its evil face already.
When I publish my Great American Novel it will most likely be e-style, although I always dreamed it would be something with a colorful jacket that people could hold, and turn over, and see more words and colorful pictures on the back . I hope it will be a real “page-turner”. I wish those pages could be felt in the fingers; be seen and heard while being turned until the last, mystery-solving, plot-resolving, evil-defeating, paper page is on top. I would also hope that one could dog-ear an inspiring page, or underline an important sentence, or highlight a burning truth, or use an interesting, colorful, bookmark that you received as a gift, or store pictures, letters, and leaves from one’s child, pressed between the pages.
I can’t imagine having a Bible without those qualities. Can you?
Today’s news suggests that it is almost certain that, sometime in the future, there will be no more new paper-based books, and probably no paper at all. That prospect for mankind just seems like a huge cultural loss.
Copyright © by Gloryteller 4-18-2011 All rights reserved.
Alone in the Rockies.
Gloryteller 