7.6.11

Damn You E-Reader!

The NY Times recently published a wonderful article entitled "The Books We Read Outdoors". I was excited to see that most of the random people they approached were actually reading books in their true form.


I walked up to a woman in Port Authority the other day to comment on her book. She was reading The Help, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I then turned to my Mom and boastfully said,  "That's the problem with your Kindle!" You see, dear reader, my mother and brother and damn- near everyone I know has turned their backs on books in their original form. Which is a holy sin if you ask me.  


I'm all for technology, but the Nooks, Kindles and iPads of the world are interfering with the dialogue surrounding books. Books (like the kind you can hold in your hand-the kind with paper pages) represent a community, books start the discussion and books create debate. Imagine if this young lady had been holding a Kindle? I would've been that creepy girl looking over her shoulder trying to figure out what she was reading. I have been known to do this. The truth is, everytime I see someone with a book in their hand, I become Inspector Gadget, cranking my neck in weird formations, trying to see the title. The vast differences in literary selection fascinates me. 


Im sure you're thinking that I need to get with the times. But my meditative-trying-to-live-in-the-present-self can't breathe deeply enough on this one. We are slowly losing one of our last opportunities to interact. These e-readers are isolating people the same way cars in Los Angeles do. I reserve the right to defend the original form of the book-even if the only way to purchase one is through Amazon (R.I.P. Borders and B-Dalton and Waldenbooks).


So I encourage you to join with me on my quest to reconnect people through the ancestry of 'The Book.' The world will be a better place if you do...  

1 comment:

  1. I don't like e-readers either. To me, since I an not an avid reader, I actually like owning and saving the books that I've read. Sort of like a trophy to me.

    Plus I remember you telling me you like to give people The Alchemist. I think you even gave someone a copy of yours right on the spot!

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