Do We Still Need Books?

So. I read an article this morning with this title, and I have to say, the fact that it is a legitimate question worries me. It made me think about all kinds of things that, frankly, I'd rather not. Like the fact that I am an avid reader and book supporter, but I do love my new Kindle. Like the fact that I will buy books just to "have them" and not read them (hello "Wind in the Willows"!*), or the fact that I firmly believe that I will NEVER have enough bookcase space. Ever.

I worry about the fact that taking a Kindle on vacation or to the beach is legitimately easier than hauling around 5 physical books. But I love physical books. I love the heft. I love the smell. I love the texture of the page. I love to buy used books because they seem to me to be older souls, they've been loved and they've been read, and I am just a part of their history, just as they may become a part of mine.

I love buying books for $.01 on amazon, I love buying books for $1 at book fairs. I hate that the modern school library is slowly but surely becoming a "media center" with more computers than bookshelves.

This is a seriously fraught subject for me. As anyone who would actually read this would know, I come from a VERY literary family. My name is from literature. BOTH of my brother's names are from literature (that is my one brother's two names. First and middle. I do not have two brothers.). As a thought experiment (or maybe he was just bored) my brother once counted all of the books in ONE room in my parents home. 1300. not counting the books on the over the door rack (i'm pretty sure it was supposed to be used for canned goods or movies or something, but my family used it as book storage. Makes perfect sense to me). Thats a lot of books. Like. A. Lot.

Books are important. A book is a tie to the papyrus scrolls of ancient Egypt or Babylon. A Kindle is not. What is the scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast when you realize that they are meant to be? Does the Beast hand her a loaded Kindle? NO. He gives her a library. Full of BOOKS!.

But (whines) I really like my Kindle. I can throw it in my purse and have a lot of reading material with me! I can decide in the middle of my day to switch stories and not be like Rory in Gilmore Girls**. I like that I can really personalize it and not be at the mercy of the covers dictated to me by the publisher. It has happened that I will avoid a book simply because the cover iggs me out (Tina Fey's "Bossypants" anyone?".

What is the answer? I certainly don't know. I hope that children are reading real books, but I don't know that, not having any to study nearby (children that is, not books. A careful reader will know by this point that I ALWAYS have a books to study nearby). I saw a distressing YouTube video of a baby playing with an Ipad and then her parents took it away and handed her a magazine. She was stymied. She kept trying to flick the pages, and had no idea how to TURN A PAGE! granted this was a 9 month old baby, but honestly. No one had ever given this child a book to chew on? NO ONE!?!? not even Pat the Bunny!??!! What is WRONG with people?!?!?!

Sorry about that. Sometimes I get carried away.

Anyway, I guess to sum up: books are good, but so are Kindle's. And I suppose as long as people are reading and using their (insert jazz hands) Imaginations then it's really a moot point as points go.


* I never liked that book. Ever. As a kid, I just hated Mr. Toad so much that everything else was erased from the book. I honestly couldn't tell you what its about. And I bought a copy at Target because it was only $2.50


** The one scene in either season one or two when she is trying to fit all of her school books AND all of her fun books into her backpack. She has a book of poetry in case she feels like that, a fiction book, a biography and at least one more that I dont remember. And she can't fit them all in. Much to her mother's enjoyment.