Media Meditation #03: Do you remember a time when books were made out of paper?

Last week I started a new book “The Book Of Tomorrow” by Cecelia Ahem. So far it's about a girl who lost her dad and moved to the countryside to her aunt and uncle's house. She is very unhappy and bored. One day a traveling library came into town and there she found a strange book that she had to have. It was locked and neither author nor title was known. A few days later a nun helped her to open the mysterious book, it was empty. So she decided to start a diary, but as she began, the entry of tomorrow was already written down.

Book cover: popular.com.sg

I didn't finish it yet, but it won't take me long. It has so much tension and keeps me reading. Last night I sat in front of the burning stove and read for a while. It was so cozy and I couldn't stop reading. I can't imagine how to read with a Nook or a Kindle. It's great to listen to the sound of turning over the pages and I carry a book with me almost everywhere I go. I would feel weird to sit on a bench in a park with my iPod reading an e-book. I like the picture of myself holding a “real” book. It makes the impression that I'm educated and not addicted to technology. In our book “ MEDIA AND CULTURE” on page 329, it says that I can store 200 books at a time on a kindle. Who need that many books at a time? I only read one book at a time and I'm frustrated when there are more books I want to read, but can't do it, because I'm already reading a book. Nook uses a different way to allure us. Barnes and Nobles offers reading one hour for free in their stores (Persuasive Techniques, Bribery).

Another thing I love about real books, are the bookstores. I can't stand the online bookstores. I need the smell of books and I want to touch them, turn over pages and read a little bit in them. In Germany there is one big bookstore chain called Mayersche. It is comparable to Borders or Barnes and Nobles. I could spend hours in those stores. But I like the small independent bookstores, too. I just love to be around books.