Are Books Dying?

In Eats, Shoots & Leaves (I know, I'm a nerd), Lynne Truss laments the demise of punctuation in today's society. This demise is brought on largely by the Internet. In the final chapter, Merely Conventional Signs, she posits that technology may eventually replace all printing, including books.

Are books dying?

God, I hope not.

I have heard for many years now that newspapers are dead. This is nothing new. With the Internet we can receive news instantly via Twitter. By the time the newspaper is printed, everyone with the Internet has already heard what the newspaper has to say. My father works in the newspaper industry, and he is well-aware that it is dying. I don't have quite the same affinity for newspapers as I do for books, but I am a little saddened by its demise as well. I can't imagine working the Sunday Crossword Puzzle on a computer, though I know that many people do. There's just something special about curling up with the folded newspaper and a pen, scribbling in the margins and writing over wrong words.

But books? That just breaks my heart.

One of my fondest memories as a child was curling up with my mom for a bedtime story. She wasn't an avid reader, but she made sure to spend time reading with me every day, and through that time I developed a curiosity for and a love of reading. I'm not sure it would have been quite the same experience if we had huddled together next to a computer screen.

There is definitely a place for the Internet, and I think it's a great thing. I love facebook. I love blogging. I love that I can work from home thanks to email. But it's a different medium.

Books are more portable than the internet. I know we have wi-fi and laptops and smart phones, but those require electricity at some point. Those require being within range of a network. And somehow toting a laptop to the beach doesn't seem quite as appealing as tossing a book in the beach bag.

Books require more focus. This is a great skill for children to learn, as it will prepare them for learning in general. Unlike the Internet, books don't have flashing lights or blinking icons vying for your attention. And books tend to focus on one topic. When you pick up a book, you know what you will be reading about. When you conduct an Internet search, you really never know where you'll end up (although I have found some very interesting articles this way).

Books are accurate. When a book is published, editors check the validity of claims made by the author. On the Internet, however, the writer merely hits "post", and it's published for all to see, regardless of whether there's any legitimacy to it. There is a lot of misinformation promulgated by the Internet (e.g. chain emails--just ask my husband!).

Books are more permanent. Whereas a published book has the potential to be around for a thousand years or more, this blog will probably be ancient history in less than ten.

Although it's great that there is a medium that is openly available to all, there is something to be said for the old publishing process. In the past publishers rejected thousands of manuscripts, saving readers the time of having to sift through a whole lot of crap to find something decent to read. And editors checked grammar and punctuation, preserving our written language and sorting out ambiguities that the writer may not have noticed.

We read books to our children, and my hope is that someday they will read books to their children. But will our grandchildren read books to their children? Will books still be around, or will they be obsolete?

I don't forsee books becoming obsolete in my lifetime. If so, I will be proud to be considered "old fashioned" in my old age as I sit by the ocean sipping a margarita and turning the pages of a book.