I awoke early this morning, buzzing around in my brain was ‘Neil Young’ ‘The world is turning, I hope it don’t turn away’ (brownie points are awarded if you know the brilliant song that is from :-)’
I had a brilliant program last week in the ‘Imagine‘ series by Alan Yentob and it was all about books… are we going to lose them, are they being replaced by ipads and ebook readers, and if so how will this effect the planet.
Books have been with us forever… well if not forever, for a very long time, I myself am a huge lover of the book! and would love to have more time in which to read them.
I have always been of the school that a book is a far preferable expereince than reading it on a machine… I even tweeted this out to an author who was singing the praises of her ‘kindle’, as I mentioned to her, how am I ever to get her to sign a kindle should we ever meet… ? No a book is an individual thing, it should not be lost within thousands of other things on a machine.
I think, though; I might be wrong? but at the beginning of this program Alan was of the same opinion as me. But as it progressed as we met more and more people, ie authors and indeed the scientists who make the gizmo’s it became more and more apparent that in reality the book is indeed history…. It fills my heart with deep sorrow to say this, but I do think it will become like the record, a niche thing.
I think we have become via social media creatures who want to share our world desperately, I am not saying this in a derogatory way, we do don’t we, we go out for a meal we ‘check in’ so all our friends will know we are cool and are eating at where ever it might be, we go to a concert and we ring up our friends/Mum during our fav tracks so they can share the joy, everything has become a part of the whole… I could get very deep here and say I actually think its a brilliant thing for the planet, all this sociabilty will hopefully one day counter balance all the negativity that is thrust down our throats from dawn till dusk.. but I will try and stay focused.
The long and the short of it is, the Ipad/ebook is here to stay.. we can walk around with everybook ever written on a machine and choose from a vast amount via amazon and other recommened retailers…. (which leads me on nicely to my next blog…)
By the time the program had finished I was sold, Ipads are a magical thing (of which I dream of owning one one day) the books in fact come alive and jump off the pages (if thats what they are still called?) a chap had written a book filled with items and you clicked on the items and it sprung to life, you can share your reading with thousands of people, you can highlight where you are up to, highlight your favourite passage, ask for others opinions on sites such as the brilliant ‘Goodreads‘.
So Neil was placed in my brain for the very reason that, the world is indeed turning! I just hope I can keep up.
Merry Christmas!
