i never could express exactly why i thought books provided a unique experience until i read Kurt Vonnegut's explanation in Timequake, where he writes "It now appears that books in the form so beloved by Uncle Alex and me hinged and unlocked boxes, packed with leaves speckled by ink, are obsolescent. My grandchildren are already doing much of their reading from words projected on the face of a video screen. Please, please, please wait just a minute! At the time of their invention, books were devices as crassly practical for sorting or transmitting language, albeit fabricated from scarcely modified substances found in forest and field and animals, as the latest Silicon Valley miracles. But by accident, not by cunning calculation, books because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds and souls, in a spiritual adventure I would be very sorry for my grandchildren not to know about"
Posted on 04.07.2008
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