A reader writes, apropos of various postings on technological change and the e-book:
I fall vigorously on both sides of this debate. These days, I do the majority of my reading on-screen. I even read a lot of fiction on my Pocket PC (a Viewsonic V35).
But bookbinding is my hobby, and when I run across something I really like, something that isn’t available in hard-copy, I haul up a word-processor and a publishing program, massage the text a bit for felicity (I maintain the old distinction between its and it’s, even if the rest of the world is giving up) and print it out onto acid-free paper. And next thing you know, there it is between hardcovers, with a gold-stamped title.
A hobbyist can only bind so many blank books, after all; and this way, something I think has lasting value is locked down out of reach of format change. And this, I suspect, is why books aren’t going to vanish: they’re immune to format change.
Now there’s a true “About Last Night”-ist after my own heart!
As for the role of the library in the age of the Web, another reader writes:
I now live in Petticoat Junction. My house is bigger than our local library, and this ain’t no McMansion. I may not own more books
but I’m catching up quick. To top it off, the librarians hate me.
Which is astounding to me. Everywhere else I’ve been, librarians
have loved me. I’m an ideal patron. I borrow lots of books. I
whisper. I pay my fines. I bring my kids in and have taught them
all the proper library manners. But somehow I offended the staff
here my first day in and they’ve never forgiven me.
And still the library is a valuable resource for me. Because of inter-
library loans.
Our library belongs to an association of over a hundred libraries,
all linked by a single computer system, so I can go online at home
and borrow anything from any one of them, and have it show up
here in a couple of days. Just another way the web has made life
better in the analog as well as the virtual world.
I’ve never had trouble getting hold of a single book or video.
Except for A Terry Teachout Reader. Go figure.
Well said.
Oh, by the way, rumor has it that you can get hold of the Reader at amazon.com….