I cannot see a life spent without books. My house is saturated with them. I have them by my bed, on shelves in every room, in the car (breakdowns!) and sometimes, for the hell of it, small ones tucked away in pockets of coats. There hasn't been a time where books haven't been part of my collecting mania. As a boy it was all about war comics and Mad magazine, Famous Monsters of Movieland and Cracked. The book jones was always salted with the pulp I couldn't buy but could always borrow from the library. That was the place where all the serious stuff was found, where all the classic literature and heavy paper art books and interesting illustrated stuff dwelled. I couldn't have made it without the library in my life.
It's no small wonder that I got into the profession that I did, that all my truly close friends are writers or artists or collectors of books in some capacity or another. I can't go out into the land of commerce without wanting to come back with some kind of printed matter or another, be it a pamphlet or a bookmark or yet another cookbook to add to my collection. And while I don't necessarily find the world of big box bookstores my favorite kind of place to buy books, they're always a port in a storm when I'm out and about and want to escape the madness of the crowds at the mall.
So these days I mostly settle in with light stuff. I haven't read a novel in months, and printed matter mostly comes into my life across the screen or throughy recipes in the kitchen. But when I read the opinion post below I had to wonder about that new Sophie book technology he mentioned. I've always dreamed of a device that would let you not only dive into a great piece of literature but would also allow you to take off down various alleys of thought and ideas as they came up or were inspired by what you were reading. I love the idea of not having to set down a book to check out a fact or see a visual reference or a painting or hear a piece of music, to have the reading experience be more than something that's only taking place in your head.
I love books and reading if only because of the interconnectivity with life I find in them. My favorite novels, my favorite cookbooks, my favorite reference resources have always taken me deeper into the things I love, or want to know more about. Call it literate one stop shopping if you will, but reading about Sophie got me excited about books and reading all over again. This is technology waay past Kindle and that lot. We're on the verge of something truly grand., damn near mystical in it's level of excitement. Just can't wait.
Salud!
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-decade-books20-2009dec20,0,6874483.story
It's no small wonder that I got into the profession that I did, that all my truly close friends are writers or artists or collectors of books in some capacity or another. I can't go out into the land of commerce without wanting to come back with some kind of printed matter or another, be it a pamphlet or a bookmark or yet another cookbook to add to my collection. And while I don't necessarily find the world of big box bookstores my favorite kind of place to buy books, they're always a port in a storm when I'm out and about and want to escape the madness of the crowds at the mall.
So these days I mostly settle in with light stuff. I haven't read a novel in months, and printed matter mostly comes into my life across the screen or throughy recipes in the kitchen. But when I read the opinion post below I had to wonder about that new Sophie book technology he mentioned. I've always dreamed of a device that would let you not only dive into a great piece of literature but would also allow you to take off down various alleys of thought and ideas as they came up or were inspired by what you were reading. I love the idea of not having to set down a book to check out a fact or see a visual reference or a painting or hear a piece of music, to have the reading experience be more than something that's only taking place in your head.
I love books and reading if only because of the interconnectivity with life I find in them. My favorite novels, my favorite cookbooks, my favorite reference resources have always taken me deeper into the things I love, or want to know more about. Call it literate one stop shopping if you will, but reading about Sophie got me excited about books and reading all over again. This is technology waay past Kindle and that lot. We're on the verge of something truly grand., damn near mystical in it's level of excitement. Just can't wait.
Salud!
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-decade-books20-2009dec20,0,6874483.story
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