Bibliophilia
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the fate of the book. Part of this is due to the invention of the Kindle which, despite its wonderful name, leaves me skeptical. Even Captain Jean-Luc Picard read real books. I love real books. I study Renaissance literature and dabble in the medieval, so I can’t help but be totally fascinated by learning how ink was made, how sixteenth century printers kept buckets of urine in the shop to soften leather balls used for applying ink to the type, how certain religious books were so valuable that they were chained to the church—all that stuff. Put me in the Rare Books room at the British Library and I’m as happy as a baby with a pacifier.
I mean, look at these images from the Book of Kells. Tell me they’re not awesome.
Ok, you might say, “Sure, they’re awesome. But I’m looking at them online. That’s good enough for me. I don’t need to see the real thing.” But I have seen the real thing, and it’s magical. There’s a big difference between seeing a real Van Gogh and glancing at “Starry Night” plastered on a coffee mug.
If it sounds like I’m saying a real book is a work of art, I am.
NPR’s “On the Media” has the great series about books, electronic books, and reading. Check it out.
The kindle! Enemy. Mostly because well, you don’t own anything with it. You license it. I try not to get into a meddle with those copyright issues until they are all sorted out. Anyhow, my books don’t need batteries, for instance, & I can stick my thumb in to mark a page, & well. I think kindles & their ilk have a ways to go before supplanting such.
I do recognize that there’s at least one big plus to the Kindle: it’s eco-friendly.
Also, I recognize that me raving about the Book of Kells overlooks something important: of course it’s better to see parts of it online than never to see it at all, just like you can look at a facsimile version of Shakespeare’s folio if you can’t get your mitts on a real copy (but then, who can?).
See, not that I disagree, but I heart some of my facsimile books SO MUCH. Oh Voynich Manuscript!