I love books. I've been addicted to the written word so long that I can't even remember the title of the first book I read by myself. Childhood afternoons were spent at the local library in a mythology-reading frenzy. Greek, Roman, Norse, Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian myths are just a sampling of what I devoured.
And there was Beowulf, epic poetry at its finest.
I don't remember why I read it exactly. This wasn't part of a class assignment or a parental dictate. I was just hungry for something new, something different. When I found it sitting on a shelf in the library, I sat down, opened it up, and didn't stop until I'd gotten to the end. And this was no child-friendly version either. It was the full-blown-for-adults-English-translation-with-academic-notes version. (As you might imagine, I ignored all the footnotes. They were too boring.)
Beowulf is much on my mind as the last of the independent brick-n-mortar bookstores shutter their windows and libraries lock their doors due to lack of funding. I only read Beowulf because I found it on a shelf while I spent hours wandering the library. Many of my favorite books and authors I only discovered because of my "wandering the shelves" habit. With the digital revolution, I'm losing the ability to impulse purchase my books.
This past year, I finally joined the 20th century when I downloaded the Nook app for my laptop and Smartphone. The convenience of eBooks is a wonderful thing, but I miss holding a conventional book in my hands. Curling up in a comfy chair with hot tea next to a roaring fire on a cold day just isn't the same when I'm cradling a Smartphone instead of a book. And trying to browse the bookstores electronically isn't easy. Nook Mobile doesn't appear to let me browse past the first 10-15 books in a specific genre (I can't find the "next page" button), which means I have to know my book title name or author name or stick with the Top 100 books list, which is not where I acquire my pleasure reading.
Then there's the guilt factor, the thought that the more I buy into the digital revolution, the less time I might spend at my local library. Or the more I purchase in digital books, the less money I'm spending at my local bookstores which might make them close even sooner.
Things I like about eBooks include the ability to turn on the phone anytime, anywhere, and just start reading. There's no extra weight in my luggage, no extra items to lug around. If I spend $60.00 - $100.00 on a bunch of new titles, I'm not breaking my back by lugging around huge, heavy shopping bags. Some of the eBooks I've read have been fantastic: well-written, well-edited, and beautifully presented. But, I've also been turned off by as many eBooks as I've enjoyed. I didn't used to get burned so badly when I could wander the shelves and hold the book in my hand.
I don't believe print is dead, if for no other reason that I personally don't want it to be dead. I do believe, though, that if a book or magazine is beautifully written, presented, and edited, that there's no reason why it can't be digital and no reason I can't enjoy it just as much as the dead-tree copies I usually prefer.
One of the perks of working on Penumbra is that I get to see stories by authors who I may never heard of before, who never had a chance to end up on those brick-n-mortar bookshelves. I can read all these wonderful digital works and make mental notes to keep that author on my future book search list. As that thought makes me smile, though, I pass the old Borders store which still hasn't been appropriated by another retailer. Then, a few minutes later, I pass a store that should be a Books-A-Million but appears to have vanished without warning. My heart aches. Weren't the big chain bookstores supposed to last longer than this?
As I prepare to mourn the not-quite-yet death of the written word, I remember something I never knew as a child but learned later in college.
Beowulf was meant to be spoken, not read.
I wonder what the old Germanic tribes would say if they saw one of their surviving epics sprawling across a digital screen.
Learn more about Brandie Tarvin and her writing on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
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