You do it Stopping by a library for the Wifi connection you take a stroll in the stacks with your Kindle. Irony upon irony. You float along eyes scanning and the the H's begin and you see the first cover and then the next. It is your hometown library and they have multiple copies of all your books. And so you thumb that first one that you agonized over for seven years. It is well thumbed and someone has scribbled in pencil on the first page. Some of the pages are bent. The library pocket has your birthday stamped and followed by a dash How long until that final date?
The second book has been brutally abused. A good sign of anxious readers. The pages are even more worn, some turned back to mark a spot. Someone has dumped a glob of coffee that stained the cover page brown. You slip through the pages that took another seven years to produce. It is quiet in it's plastic cover that the small publisher had created but had now dimmed and turned to a yellowed plastic. The third novel looks like it just came off the shelf and has not seen the same action of the others. It was a quieter novel though more violent. The publisher had gone all out and the author photo looks like that of a very prominent successful man of the literary world.
The fourth novel, your most recent has truly been abused. The cover is dog eared and coffee seems to have been dumped on several pages in wholesale quantities. Maybe jelly stains on a few other pages. There were more local references in this one so maybe people thumbed through quickly. The book already looks older than others but it is of a cheaper quality, more modern, less heft.
So you slide the books back and wonder what testament there will be to a person reading now. With a kindle there is none. You read and download another Very convenient, fast, changing that physical interaction. None of these old battle hardened soldiers of the public library. You wonder how long they will last now that the digital age of books is here.
You walk on. Your afternoon is almost over and it is time to go back to work. Just a little less enthusiasm as you open your computer. You sigh as your Kindle warms up.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
The second book has been brutally abused. A good sign of anxious readers. The pages are even more worn, some turned back to mark a spot. Someone has dumped a glob of coffee that stained the cover page brown. You slip through the pages that took another seven years to produce. It is quiet in it's plastic cover that the small publisher had created but had now dimmed and turned to a yellowed plastic. The third novel looks like it just came off the shelf and has not seen the same action of the others. It was a quieter novel though more violent. The publisher had gone all out and the author photo looks like that of a very prominent successful man of the literary world.
The fourth novel, your most recent has truly been abused. The cover is dog eared and coffee seems to have been dumped on several pages in wholesale quantities. Maybe jelly stains on a few other pages. There were more local references in this one so maybe people thumbed through quickly. The book already looks older than others but it is of a cheaper quality, more modern, less heft.
So you slide the books back and wonder what testament there will be to a person reading now. With a kindle there is none. You read and download another Very convenient, fast, changing that physical interaction. None of these old battle hardened soldiers of the public library. You wonder how long they will last now that the digital age of books is here.
You walk on. Your afternoon is almost over and it is time to go back to work. Just a little less enthusiasm as you open your computer. You sigh as your Kindle warms up.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
