Written in Pixels

While my affection for new digital delivery systems has been Kindled, I won't be entirely thrilled until they develop the technology that can make the Kindle smell like an old book. Ahhhh...

Molly adds: Seriously! When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to tell a really good one by cracking it open to the center and taking a deep breath. Electronic items that smell of warm plastic don't really offer much in that department.

Mmm. Plastic. You hit a nerve, Molly!

I realized after getting a Kindle (my Stepdad passed along is 1.0 model to me - which was very nice of him to do...) that the way I read is very "un-Kindle-like." Especially when it comes to non-fiction. I tend to read one step forward two steps back if that makes any sense. I'll be in the middle of one chapter and realize I need to return to a previous chapter to refresh my memory regarding a date in history or the name of some French prince etc so I move back and forth a lot. And you just can't do that on a Kindle.

I also love a good index and use them often when reading.

And illustrations! One of the first books I downloaded was Ned Sublette's Cuba and Its Music and I quickly realized that I was going to seriously miss the maps and photos that accompany his incredibly detailed history of the development of Cuban popular music. Geography is not my strength. Argh!

I hate to say this, but we composers are often the ones who actually buy into this bull that if its NEW it must be a STEP FORWARD when in actuality you lose something (or several things) with any technological "development." Anyone who is honest (and has ears) and works with digital recording tools will confirm this.

P.S. Just yesterday I was telling a couple friends about the first time I smelled the smell of vinyl in a fully stocked record store in Columbus, Ohio circa 1975. Mmm. Vinyl...