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Not long ago, and mostly for self-amusement, I made a declaration that I was rejecting paperback books on the grounds that hardback books are more sophisticated - and what with education being valued lower than a pauper's grave, few were reading anyway, so why not give the literate a decent physical book.
This turned into a debate among friends about e-readers allowing information to be more accessible.
Perhaps.
I personally own a Kindle and it is virtually weighed down with digital content I was able to gain for free. Despite this, I did not read any more than I normally would have, and briefly actually read less. In all honesty, e-readers are just not as satisfying as an actual book.
In this mostly - initially - facetious argument, I came to see in myself a desire for actual 'things'. Not a materialistic greed, but a desire for actual physical objects and not digital books or songs held in some cloud or upon a laptop or mp3 player.
I found a sudden tactile need within myself of warm cloth or leather bound hardback books with ink upon a paper page to hold in my hands, and not the cold impersonal plastic e-reader with a computer screen...this longing to hold the liner notes of a CD (or dear God, even a vinyl recording) while music plays from a spinning disc in a stereo, and not a pocket device with ear-buds. It cannot be unrelated to my desire to become a wood-worker.
It is a desire for reality. A rejection of ephemeral possessions that one does not ever really own. I can leave behind a collection of books to my grandchildren one day which will still be as useable as the day I bought them. I cannot say the same of my first generation Kindle which is already obsolete.
The first purchases since rejecting the digital world has been:
Musically: A 2 CD set of Ottorino Respighi's classical works (including the Pines of Rome); Awolnation's Megalithic Symphony.
Literature: Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World; and Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince.
There will be much more.
-Brent
"I want to be part of the resurgence of things that are tangible, beautiful and soulful, rather than just give in to the digital age. But when I talk to people about this they just say, 'Yeah, I know what you mean,' and stare at their mobiles." - Jack White
