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I don't know why the thought of babies made me think about Arthur and books, but while I'm on this topic...
The rise of e-book readers and Borders' liquidation sales worry me about the future of paper books. If a giant like Borders can't even make it, I can't even begin to think about the hundreds of small independent bookstores that will be affected. Will we eliminate bookstores and just resort to online sellers (Amazon, half.com), or will paper books get eliminated completely? I understand that books take up space and aren't eco-friendly, but I'd like to think that there are too many paper book advocates out there for them to go completely extinct. So sad.
This may sound a little conspiracy theorish, but I think one reason it's important to keep paper books around is to have a physical record of history and art. Even if something is printed and later found to be untrue (in the history sense), it's still better that it exists, if only as a record of that mistake. I don't think it would be impossible for governments or others to one day have some means of changing digital information remotely, once everything is digitized. Newspapers, historical documents and social criticism could be endangered if that happens. I think book printing should be reduced for eco reasons but they should still be printed to a small degree, even if it requires public money to do.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that Arthur was an aardvark either!! I'm sad that Borders is closing too. I don't really like to read, but it's pretty sad how not only one Borders is closing...it's ALL of them...
ReplyDelete-M
Joe: Thanks for the insightful comment! I've never thought about it that way, but you're right--it would definitely be easier to change digital information. Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteM: Yeah, you need to fix the whole "I don't read" thing.