Written by: Marc - marc@empirelifecoaching.com
– July 11, 2011
A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. – Henry David Thoreau
Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. – Groucho Marx
The other day, while at my neighborhood Verizon store, I noticed a young woman on the customer-service line next to me reading a book. As I will often do in these situations, I tried to subtly peek at the title. However, I could only view the book’s back, which didn’t help me. Then one of the salesmen walked by and said, “You’re reading that book? I loved it!” and they proceeded to chat about it. I was finally able to twist my head around enough to see that the book was The People’s History of the United States, which I have heard about but never read. With a little Internet research, I discovered The People’s History is Howard Zinn’s effort to portray American history through the eyes of common people rather than political and economic elites. The book was a 1980 runner-up for the National Book Award, and I have now added it to my “to read” list.
Lately, when I find myself playing the book identification game, I end up pondering the electronic reader and its likely unavoidable place in my life. Like last year, when I succumbed to a smartphone and realized I wasn’t becoming part of an elite, as I’d expected, but was rather catching up with technology that was advancing at the speed of light. There was an inevitability to it.
I do not own a Nook or a Kindle, though Alida, my mom and mother-in-law each have some version of their own. A friend of mine in the publishing industry proudly holds up his Nook and tells me he has 30 books on the slender device. But, put simply, books are different from phones.
What would our forebears have made of these reading devices, I wonder? Would Ernest Hemingway, who was quite vocal about most topics, have accepted the shrinkage of The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell to Arms. Would Emily Dickenson have felt comfortable with her poems slimmed down to fit on an electronic pad? Then again, contemporary writer Chuck Palahniuk, author of The Fight Club, said recently, “I don’t care what they do with my book so long as the flippin’ check clears.”
Perhaps it’s a reflection of my age, but I still love the experience of holding a brand-new book, turning the pages, cherishing the size, color, and art of the cover, and reading the quotes on the back. A substantial part of the joy I am experiencing from the book I am reading now, Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson, is from holding the book and turning the pages. As a child, I learned from my father the satisfaction that comes from building one’s own personal library, the unsurpassed feeling of being surrounded by books; as an adult, being able to acquire a sense of who a person was by visiting their home and discovering what books they did or did not own. Today, I take pride in my shelf of signed copies in an honored spot on the top of my bookcase. And while I see the e-reader in my life somewhere down the road, I am not yet ready to succumb. But then again, I wouldn’t mind a little more space…
So, whatever you do this week, wherever you go, take a book with you. In whatever form. It will improve your life.
Have a rewarding, productive week.
Peace,
Marc
marc@empirelifecoaching.com
– July 11, 2011
A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. – Henry David Thoreau
Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. – Groucho Marx
The other day, while at my neighborhood Verizon store, I noticed a young woman on the customer-service line next to me reading a book. As I will often do in these situations, I tried to subtly peek at the title. However, I could only view the book’s back, which didn’t help me. Then one of the salesmen walked by and said, “You’re reading that book? I loved it!” and they proceeded to chat about it. I was finally able to twist my head around enough to see that the book was The People’s History of the United States, which I have heard about but never read. With a little Internet research, I discovered The People’s History is Howard Zinn’s effort to portray American history through the eyes of common people rather than political and economic elites. The book was a 1980 runner-up for the National Book Award, and I have now added it to my “to read” list.
Lately, when I find myself playing the book identification game, I end up pondering the electronic reader and its likely unavoidable place in my life. Like last year, when I succumbed to a smartphone and realized I wasn’t becoming part of an elite, as I’d expected, but was rather catching up with technology that was advancing at the speed of light. There was an inevitability to it.
I do not own a Nook or a Kindle, though Alida, my mom and mother-in-law each have some version of their own. A friend of mine in the publishing industry proudly holds up his Nook and tells me he has 30 books on the slender device. But, put simply, books are different from phones.
What would our forebears have made of these reading devices, I wonder? Would Ernest Hemingway, who was quite vocal about most topics, have accepted the shrinkage of The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell to Arms. Would Emily Dickenson have felt comfortable with her poems slimmed down to fit on an electronic pad? Then again, contemporary writer Chuck Palahniuk, author of The Fight Club, said recently, “I don’t care what they do with my book so long as the flippin’ check clears.”
Perhaps it’s a reflection of my age, but I still love the experience of holding a brand-new book, turning the pages, cherishing the size, color, and art of the cover, and reading the quotes on the back. A substantial part of the joy I am experiencing from the book I am reading now, Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson, is from holding the book and turning the pages. As a child, I learned from my father the satisfaction that comes from building one’s own personal library, the unsurpassed feeling of being surrounded by books; as an adult, being able to acquire a sense of who a person was by visiting their home and discovering what books they did or did not own. Today, I take pride in my shelf of signed copies in an honored spot on the top of my bookcase. And while I see the e-reader in my life somewhere down the road, I am not yet ready to succumb. But then again, I wouldn’t mind a little more space…
So, whatever you do this week, wherever you go, take a book with you. In whatever form. It will improve your life.
Have a rewarding, productive week.
Peace,
Marc
marc@empirelifecoaching.com
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