I Haven’t Read a Book in Years...

That’s right… it must be 4 or 5 years at least since I’ve read a book cover to cover. What I have done instead is read several dozen on my computer and many more on my Palm Pilot, but it’s not the same.

Remember back when you first discovered the magic that a few well written sentences could evoke? With a simple “coming in view of the ancient swamp” we were swept up and could not only see an image of a misty bog we could almost smell the rotting vegetation. And what was that… yeah that… a trick of the wind or was there another, more sinister sound being masked by the croaking of a thousand frogs?

See what I mean? To me the printed word of ink on paper brings the image alive so much more than on a computer screen. There is just something about holding a book in your hands that makes it so much more real. To feel the texture of the page as you turn it in anticipation and after reading a particularly intriguing passage to be able to simply put the book down and contemplate. That pause, just for a few minutes, can bring so much more vividness and understanding and these experiences are what I miss most in the modern age of electronics.

What a loss to the youth of today who will (I think) miss something of Herman Melville, H.P. Lovecraft, Jack London or Dante. And don’t get me started on how much you seem to lose from the likes of Robert Service on a brightly lit monitor. Who can possibly feel anything of “The northern lights have seen queer sights” in that glare?



Ah, must be getting old I guess but I miss the evenings of reading quietly with no TV or other distractions. Guess I’d better turn off the computer now and find that old copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull that I’ve been meaning to re-read for years.

What's in YOUR library these days?