Saturday, October 20, 2012

A book's magic may reside in its physical form

"Let's reverse the trend against books: Build a home library, however small. Buy books. Support real libraries, not information centers." 
— Thomas Moore @thomasmooreSoul tweet 16 October 2012

The blog Defying Obsolete quotes Thomas Moore in its post "Digital Apparitions" and then shows why e-books are dissatisfying. It shares Moore's description:
 "There are several books on my shelves that I love to see there for their sheer company, although I have no intention of ever reading them. In some cases, I have several editions of a book, not because of variations in translation but because of different bindings and typographies. A book is a book, and in these times in particular, when information is available in many different formats, especially on computers, it may be important to remember that a book is more than its text. It has a presence, and in that presence lies it's magic."
— Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life 
The blogger avers, "Technology is fine, but I can't help but notice that the digital age threatens everything I enjoy. Books and the things related to them (e.g., libraries) are at the top of this list, but it's other stuff too. Objects like typewriters and letters teeter on the verge of extinction, as do more intangible, quality of life kind of things, such as
community, solitude, and so on."

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