http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/04/a_library_without_the_books/?wtf
Good bye books. Kinda scary. Are we on the quick slide to "Idiocracy" or is this just a natural movement towards the digitization of all info?
I'm heading down to my local used book store and start buying cart loads. And all my National Geographcs (own every issue from 1942 till 2000) that I use for reference but have been tired of dragging around for the past 15 years and thought about putting out on the curb- their value just leaped up ten fold. I don't care how heavy they are. The article above just proves to me that my fears for the passing of printed material into the "quaint but out-moded" venue is not without a basis in fact. The knuckle head dean of that prep school may have saved some space and some money in the short term for the school's trustees but he has just bankrupted the schools value as a source of all forms of learning. They'll regret this in the near future. My NatGeos and all my books (and I have many) aren't just worth their weight in gold. They are gold.
I'm heading down to my local used book store and start buying cart loads. And all my National Geographcs (own every issue from 1942 till 2000) that I use for reference but have been tired of dragging around for the past 15 years and thought about putting out on the curb- their value just leaped up ten fold. I don't care how heavy they are. The article above just proves to me that my fears for the passing of printed material into the "quaint but out-moded" venue is not without a basis in fact. The knuckle head dean of that prep school may have saved some space and some money in the short term for the school's trustees but he has just bankrupted the schools value as a source of all forms of learning. They'll regret this in the near future. My NatGeos and all my books (and I have many) aren't just worth their weight in gold. They are gold.
Matt, I totally agree with your assessment. It is scary to think that people won't know what a book feels like when it is first opened, or the way it smells, the smile that lights a face as the first pages are read and then turned. It's a real shame. I hope the powers that be don't forget that a book is precious. It's just not the same on a digi-pad or reader or whatever they're calling them these days. Happy reading and writing everyone.
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