Book Party

At a recent party--a wild affair replete with balloons, bottomless glasses of lemonade, and gray-headed people who were, in lieu of death, marvelling at the weather--I struck up a conversation with an acquaintance who told me, with some aplomb and pride, that he liked to read books and would never purchase "one of those electronic devices that are now all the rage." He ended his thoughts with the idea that he wanted to help preserve traditional book publishing.

"I'm glad you read books," I said. "Do you buy them, too?"

He seemed perplexed by my question, as if saving books and buying books were, somehow, unrelated.

Ah, but herein lies the problem--and many people are now weighing in on the great, sweeping changes that are now tossing publishing houses and bookstores into uncharted waters.

In the summer fiction issue of The Atlantic Monthly, author Paul Theroux offers some excellent insights about the e-book vs. the paper book and deftly manages to navigate these two oceans that seem, on the surface, to be in different hemispheres of thought. But one reality looms large in the discourse: publishing is changing . . . and rapidly. On the one hand there are those who regard books as either an entertainment or an information medium. And if this is what a book is, then it doesn't matter how that information is conveyed. Digital is faster, easier, and more readily accessible. One doesn't need paper and ink to get information. And on the other hand there are those who regard books as entities, as objects, and not just information crucibles. The book itself is a form (with first, second editions, etc.) and without the form we lose the ability to appreciate the medium and the art.

I see both sides. But one thing is certain. Paper and ink books (and bookstores) will go the way of the dinosaur if people don't buy books . . . in bookstores. That's true of any medium. The movie industry cannot survive (screenwriters, producers, actors) if people do not go to movie theatres to buy tickets. If the movie industry is reduced to DVD and Blu-Ray rental, it will soon collapse (and is, in fact, showing some signs of collapsing). The same is true of art and any creative act. If creation is reduced to a pop-up on the computer or as a screensaver, no art, cinematography, photography, painting, or writing can survive for long.

Still . . . the conversation needs to continue. And I'm still waiting for my friend to tell me he is actually going to buy a book instead of just being a reader.