My husband gave me a Samsung Galaxy Tablet for Christmas this year. It's the smaller one because I had wanted something that I could easily carry around, and the main objective was to read books on it using an app of some sort. I originally thought a kindle or an ereader device would be good, but then realized I could do that plus much more on a tablet AND it was cheaper than a kindle fire. I finally got to open and play with said tablet this past weekend because we had postponed our Christmas twice due to my being sick. Yes, I'm STILL sick. As in this is going on 5 weeks of sick now. I've been the the doctor twice, and have been given all sorts of diagnosis's (is that the plural of diagnosis?) and medicine. And I'm thoroughly convinced that none of it made any difference, this thing is going to run its course whether or not I try to interfere. As we were preparing to have my mother in law over last weekend, my husband said to me after a particularly disgusting coughing fit, "are you sure you want to do this?". After I returned to consciousness, I said, "no, I don't think so". He promptly called his mother and postponed yet again. But, I digress.
Scott, had already gotten and played with his Christmas present, a kindle fire. So, I finally got to open my presents because I knew it would cheer me up. I had some presents from Kathie, (thanks Kathie!) and then my tablet. I opened it, turned it on, and was off and running (while wearing the presents Kathie had given me). Scott helped me set it up to our internet connection and less than a minute later I was downloading books to my tablet. I started reading and although I love the ease of an ereader, there is something very sad about the inevitable change from having a honest to God real book in your hands to a small electronic device devoid of any inherent qualities of cloth and paper. Or, leather and paper if it's a really expensive book. My tablet doesn't smell like old paper. Not the musty, moldy, yucky smell. But the warm, comforting, dusty smell that paper takes on when it ages. There is no heft to the tablet like a good, big book. You can't snap a tablet shut with a resounding CRACK! that definitively states you have closed this book. And, although we are told the ebooks we buy will be ours forever, there is permanence to a physical book that no ebook will ever replace. Yes, once on the internet, always on the internet, but a physical book and all its clones has more permanence to it than any binary code can ever replicate.
Twice in my life I've had the following comment directed at me, "awfully big book for a girl" and "that's a big book for a girl". The first comment was many years ago (1987?) and I was reading Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising for the second time. And, yes, it IS a big book. The second comment was directed at me when I was studying my chemistry textbook in 2009. I replied to the person that I was only looking at the pictures and smiled my most vapid, empty-headed smile I could muster. I'm not sure if the person understood the sarcasm of my comment. Interestingly, both times the comment was made from a man. I've never once had a woman tell me I was reading big books, but I have had women tell me that they hate reading and I had one coworker proudly tell me that she has never finished a book in her life. I almost cried at that statement because she really doesn't understand what that tells the world about her, and that she was proud of it made me very, very sad. However, with my new tablet, I will never hear the big book for a girl comment again. No one really knows what you are reading, and as a society we've grown so accustom to seeing people with their faces buried in an electronic device of some sort that an ereader will never draw the attention a Tom Clancy novel does. I'm ok with that, but part of me always liked seeing people reading books in public. I guess that's the librarian in me.
Which brings me to my last point. The evolution of brick and mortar libraries. One of my greatest pleasures in life is to walk into a library and just take in the stacks. I love seeing shelving full of books and materials just sitting and waiting there for discovery. When I was a kid, I lived in a very small town. Jackson did not have a library, except in the elementary school. West Bend, the closest city did have a library, but only West Bend residents could get a library card. This was before the computer age, libraries banding together to form large lending establishments, and the understanding that you really do want your kids to love the library. I remember being told in a very snotty manner that "Jackson" kids can't get a library card because their parents didn't pay taxes to West Bend. Which, to an 8 year old, means absolutely nothing. All I knew was that I wanted to be part of the library because, well who wouldn't!!!? I've told this story many times, and I can still experience that feeling of inferiority I had because I truly didn't understand why I couldn't have a library card. But, that's all in the past. I have a library card for not just Lakeview Community Library in Random Lake, but for all of the Eastern Shores System. Yeah me!!! As I read on my tablet however, the nagging little voice in the back of my head tells me I am contributing to the death of the form of the library I love the most. As libraries convert and evolve to accommodate ereader devices, that means less and less physical books to put on a shelf. I understand that evolution is inevitable and change is going to happen, but there is a distinct possibility that by the time my life is over (assuming I live to a ripe, old age) a brick and mortar library will be a rare thing that is only a repository of documents, archives, artifacts that can't be digitized, and records. There will be a few places that will have computer access for those that don't have it, and many will become "community centers" that will serve the needs of folks who want to take classes, participate in community functions and festivals, and use the library for things they can't afford like internet access. But not for the act of walking the stacks to find a book cover that draws your attention and makes you select it. Not for checking out a physical book and wondering how many other people have read these words and did they like it, what did they think of it, and why would someone spill coffee on it? (at least I hope it's coffee)
Awfully big book for a girl. I wonder if anyone will ever utter "awfully big tablet for a girl". It seems to me that the electronic generation will never even understand the dynamics behind the technology they are using. Nor would they want to. It's just there for them to use and from their perspective, it always has been. Part of me, however, is very sad that as time marches on, fewer and fewer people will know the joy of walking into a building, smelling that papery smell, and be engulfed into stacks and stacks of words, stories, ideas, lamentations, examinations, diatribes, documentaries, pictures, and experiences that are much bigger than themselves.
