Sunday, October 26, 2014

Books, Made of Paper

Tablet computing has come to The Homestead.  First EDO, and then VSO, put money into Android and Apple, respectively.  I'm a tablet widow now.  When I come home, no one greets me.  The house is dark.  I look into the living room and see glowing halos around a pair of faces.  There is, periodically, a soft blipping sound.  "I sent you an email, Mom."  I go to the kitchen and open a can of cold spaghettios.  I go for my book.  I turn on a light and sit by myself.  I turn pages.  Made of paper.  I practice a lost art.

Actually, while some of the foregoing is true, what is not true is that books are being entirely replaced by tablets.  The Economist had a good essay on this topic earlier in the month.  Entitled, The Future of the Book, the article points out that real bookswith paperare tough to beat.  It is "surprisingly challenging to compete with a format of such simplicity."  Paper is portable, durable, visible, and doesn't need batteries.  The guy that runs Amazon's Kindle business admits that paper is a "competitive technology."

Amen.  Good point.  Books are still viable.  It's not all about tablets now.  I'd like to tell someone about this.  I guess I'll send my family an email.

1 comment:

  1. Awwww, come on! You never have to eat spaghetti-o's. Plust, we lift our heads and say hello sometimes. You're just jealous because we can beat you at Subway Surfers.

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