Title: There Will Always Be Books
Author: Ron Meyer
Word Count: 735
Interest Level: All
Ron Meyer's opinion on why books will never be done-away with.
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There Will Always Be Books
by Ron Meyer
Imagine a day when "anyone can be anywhere, instantly," as Edward Abbey
wrote; a day when any book can be had for the viewing; a day when accessibility of
information is instantaneous and universal; a day when books on paper become obsolete.
If you think that day is rushing toward you and your home computer on the information
superhighway, think again.
Being a veteran computer-user and a techno-skeptic myself, I might be tempted to
agree with Washington Post columnist Amy E. Schwartz, that being "anywhere,
instantly" is tantamount to being "nowhere forever." But that glib
rejoinder I can dismiss out of hand: what matters is not where you are, but what
you do while you're there.
In fact, I'm not one of those who looks forward to the day when any book can be had
for the reading on a home computer. The principal reason, I believe, is that it won't
happen. How do I know this? This may be heretical for a computer user like me to
say, but computers are simply not a technology for the masses. Books are and always
will be.
Books are more personal and more human than computers, no matter how "user-friendly"
computers claim to be. Books require, at most, a comfortable chair-- or a place to
sit on the train, or a shady spot at the beach, or a seatback on the plane-- and
some good light; not sitting erect and staring at a screen assaulting your retina
with radiation. And if you're blind, you can read even without the light. The learning
curve for computers is pretty steep; that for books is no more challenging than knowing
how to read. Computers need power and software, a tabletop and probably a telephone
line and network connection as well. Even portable computers are really not "beach-friendly."
I've never accessed a computer standing up in a subway, or in the waiting room of
a doctor's office, or on the treadmill at the gym, or sunning myself by the pool,
or in the bathtub, or (how shall I say this?) answering the call of nature. And I've
also never had someone special inscribe a note to me inside the cover of a gift computer.
All the special conditions necessary for even the most basic computer put humans
at the mercy of the technology. And any technology that puts humankind in its service,
rather than serving humankind, is not going to survive for long. Technology must
solve problems for humanity, not create problems. And that doesn't begin to address
the question of cost. Computers are not cheap.
Costs being what they are, and high tech being what it is, I predict that the demise
of the print book is not at hand. Nor will it ever be. Books will always be cheaper,
more durable, more versatile, and more personal than electronic texts. Even if copyright
problems are solved, there isn't enough money in existence to make electronic texts
generally available on the scale at which paper and ink are.
The chief virtue of computers and e-text is their ability to find large amounts of
very current information with great rapidity. Books can't compete with that capability.
But books don't need to. Books are distillations of knowledge, not just repositories
of information. A book can take you to anywhere a computer can, but also to any "when."
Books answer the "why," computers spin their drives over the "what."
Books require thought and care and planning in their creation, because they have
a destination in mind. E-text and online information don't require this care and
organization, and they aren't amenable to introspection and reflection-- it doesn't
matter what it does when the information gets there.
Speaking as one who has used a computer for 12 years (and who has narrated over 100
books onto cassette tape), I believe books and print still have a relevant place
in society. I submitted this article via e-mail, but I had to proofread it on paper.
Computers are wonderful tools-- if we remember that they are just that. Their ability
to access gazillions of megabytes of information is wonderful. But the information
superhighway is the electronic equivalent of the gas-and-go station: you stop there
just to fill up on information. When you want to make sense of it all, however, you
need a full service station: you need a book.
First published in the November 1996 issue of Seeds & Stems, bi-monthly publication
of the Maryland Apple Corps, PO Box 668, Riderwood, MD 21139-0668.
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