A chief virtue of digital books is said to be their economical size—they take up no space at all!—but even a megabyte seems bulky compared to what can be conveyed in the few cubic feet of a bookshelf. What other vessel is able to hold with such precision, intricacy, and economy, all the facets of your life?
—
Kevin Hartnett, In Our Parent’s Bookshelves
I can’t imagine what it will be like for future generations not to experience getting to know someone by scanning their bookshelves, learning, by their lovingly worn condition, which novels they read over and over and over, and, by their perfectly unbroken spines, which their best intentions never quite got them to. Finding out that sometimes they needed a good mystery or thriller, or that they went through a serious Faulkner phase by spotting all those matching Vintage paperback editions lined up in a row.
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rise-or-die reblogged this from thebronzemedal
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jessedarland reblogged this from thebronzemedal and added:
reaction to Kevin Hartnett’s article on bookshelves
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adamholwerda reblogged this from thebronzemedal and added:
Can you write on the inside cover of an ebook? Can you write something like:
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mills liked this
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mills said:
It will be like not learning about someone from their LPs scattered about their rooms, the sleeves in tatters around their favorite records; or not observing the care they take in placing the needle just so for their favorite song. The self remains.
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thebronzemedal posted this
