Quote of the Day, Dec 1, 2008

In his New York Times article, author James Gleick comments on the agreement between the Authors’ Guild and Google, given the latter’s intent to digitize every single book ever published. Rather than the lament (prematurely) the passing of the printed word, Gleick highlights the unique aspects of the book, a “venerable” technology which will always have relevance and value, despite other technologies. (Take note, Amazon’s Kindle.) So it behooves those of us, perhaps a little obsessed with new technologies (such as social media), to truly appreciate what is most valuable and relevant in our daily lives. Sometimes, just sometimes, the good feelings of a cup of coffee and a chat with a friend might outweigh all our Tweets or blog comments that day. Try it and see!

“There’s reading and then there’s reading. There is the gleaning or browsing or cherry-picking of information, and then there is the deep immersion in constructed textual worlds: novels and biographies and the various forms of narrative nonfiction — genres that could not be born until someone invented the codex, the book as we know it, pages inscribed on both sides and bound together. These are the books that possess one and the books one wants to possess.”

— James Gleick

How to Publish Without Perishing