It is with great sadness today that we announce the untimely
demise of our old friend the book. While we mourn his passing, we are comforted
by knowing that his words shall be carried on by his children, the Kindle, the
Nook and the Sony Reader. Still, while this younger generation of word carriers
has a much greater capacity than their father, they lack his warmth and
comfort.
The centuries long love affair that mankind has had with
books appears to be waning. While the love for knowledge is still there, modern
man has decided that he needs his knowledge encapsulated, so that he can gulp
it down from electronic media in a moment’s time.
While nobody is truly sure about book’s date of birth, he
first appeared in a printed form in 1492. Before that, he was only transcribed
by hand. Yet, the invention of a means of reproducing him rapidly has done
wonders towards spreading knowledge around the world. Even so, his children
aren’t all that excited about his accomplishments, citing their capacity for knowledge
and how quickly they could download content. They appear to believe that their
ability far outshines their old-fashioned father’s accomplishments.
While we look with sadness upon the demise of our friend the
book, there is an excitement over what his children might accomplish. Already, e-stores
are filling up with countless cheap knockoffs of poorly written content, which
are intended to replace the fulfilling words which our books have brought us
for so long. Wherever will this lead us?
We fear that the takeover by this new generation may bode
ill for literacy everywhere. While books everywhere used to be counted in the hundreds
of pages and hundreds of thousands of words, many of these new e-books are only
5,000 words, less than 20 pages. Is this a trend? Are we seeing the beginning
of the end of reading?
Even more than this, these new e-books are becoming filled with
images, audio files and even video. Where once the ability to read was a sign
of education and refinement, that too may soon pass, along with the death of
our good friend, the book.
Book’s three surviving family members, his children, aren’t
saying much about the future, just looking smug about it. While there remains
fierce competition between them, it looks as if they are all here to stay.
Soon, we may see our libraries and bookstores empty out, to be replaced by a
small kiosk, where one can download any titles that they want.
Oh, if only book could come back to us. We will miss him;
his warmth, his comfort; the ability to cuddle up in front of a warm fire and
enjoy his stories. Will his children ever fully meet this need?
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