Thursday, July 28, 2011


I have always loved books. It started with comic books and a little science book about the Wonder of Living Things. That science book was one of the initial sparks that led me into a career of medicine. I gradually progressed in my reading habits and settled on Mark Twain as my favorite. Through the years I have relished the joy of reading. Now, books as I knew them are disappearing and being replaced by the electronic version.

Borders bookstores are the latest victim in the vanishing world of books. Kindles and Nooks are now becoming the preferred method to read a book. These are great and convenient with the books even costing less than the printed paper version. I still like cuddling up with a hardback book and even enjoy the smell of the printed word. All this is now going the way of the horse and buggy.

The great magazines of my childhood have disappeared and the newspapers are in a rapid state of decline. Letters and handwritten correspondence have gone the way of the scroll. Even e-mail has declined in favor of texting using symbols and abbreviations. About the only mail I now receive at the post office are advertisements. No wonder the postal system is broke.

The small independent bookseller is totally a thing of the past. Soon there will only be two booksellers; Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Hope these giants survive. Even these giants are threatened by places like Sams that sells books for greatly reduced prices. There is hope that Sams and Walmart will be unsuccessful in the book business because their average customer doesn’t care about reading.

Anyway, it’s sad to see books like good TV and Movies fade into oblivion. I’m trying to learn the art of texting, but my thumbs and sensitive screens seem incompatible. Also, much of the written word, in any form, will likely be replaced by symbols and abbreviations. Even oral communication is being threatened by squeaks, groans, and words like awesome, like and you know.

When my new porch is completed, I guess all I can do is sit and stare at my backyard. There will be no books and the only TV shows are things like Americas Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, Survival shows and CSI, all of which I hate. Even the pesky deer have disappeared from my life. All this is enough to make a body depressed.

2 Comments:

Blogger Mark said...

Hey-I still have your blog which is an electronic form of media. Didn't have that a few years ago!

4:29 AM  
Blogger B(O)B said...

Get a "Nook Color"... you'll like it. You won't have to "lug" books around when you travel. When was the last time you looked up something in an encyclopedia? You have already become more "electronic" by default then you think. Hee! Hee! Love ya... in a manly sorta way!

7:20 AM  

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