But we have a problem when it comes to books. They are disappearing.
No, I don't mean they're vanishing out of thin air or that...I don't know, there are book-loving pirates out there stealing all our book booty. I'm talking about books becoming digital.
I have a Nook from Barnes & Noble. I got it when they first came out with it - should have waited to do that - and I liked it because it allowed me to carry all of my books with me when I left the house. It's come in handy when I walk all the way across campus to find out that my next class has been cancelled for the day. So books going digital isn't a bad thing.
The reason why it is not necessarily a good thing either is because... Well, it's hard to explain. Let me put it this way:
One of my absolute favorite games ever is The Longest Journey. I know, I know, a little outdated, but terribly fun. The game is set in the future, 3023 if I'm not mistaken. In that era, almost everything is digital and connected through what they call the "Wire".
You don't get a lot of information about the Wire until the second game, but I won't get into all of that right now. All you need to know is that the Wire acts a lot like our internet, just a little more advanced. I'll give you an example of how the Wire is used, the first one that popped in my head: everyone has cash cards instead of actual cash. They use these cards for everything. There is no alternative currency.
In between the first and second games, the Wire crashes, sending the economy into a mini-depression(not as big as the one in the '20's[the 1920's, I mean]) because no one could use their cash cards. Also, in the second game, they've changed their currency yet again. All of their money is on their cell phones. T_T
Anyway, books going digital is probably a really bad thing in a way. What if our Wire - the internet - were to crash? Yes, we'd still have our books that we've downloaded on our reading devices, but how do we get more? What about the people who prefer physical copies of books? How do we go about getting an actual copy that our favorite author can sign?
I started thinking about all of this a couple of months ago because the book shop that I'd been going to during my 3 hour break between classes closed down. You may have heard of the store: Hastings. They had a little cafe inside called "The Hard Back Cafe". Call me a nerd, but I loved the name for the place.
Hastings was a sanctuary for me. I didn't live in a dorm at the time, so I had to find something else to do during my breaks. It wasn't hard most of the time; I'd just go to the school's library and study for something that was coming up or go over all my notes again. However, there were times when I just couldn't bring myself to study(most of the time, this only happened when the pace in one or more of my classes was going a little slow).
I also didn't live in town. I live about 45 minutes away from my university. Anyway, when I didn't have anything better to do, I'd run into town, get lunch, and go to Hastings. Once I was there, I'd buy a coffee, grab a book that looked interesting, scope out a fluffy chair to relax in, and read.
For the record: I was not in any way breaking any rules. I can't claim to know every Hastings store's rules, but the Hastings I went to allowed you to pick out a book and read it in the store without buying it.
That's actually how I read most of the books I like. As a college student who has to commute an hour and a half each day, I didn't have a lot of spending money. I also had to buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day(I'm hypoglycemic so I have to eat on a regular basis).
And then the place announced that it would be shutting down. I was devastated, mostly because I had just begun reading a book I'd been looking forward to reading. I still haven't managed to finish it.
I started to wonder why Hastings would shut down. It was a very popular place, not just with college students, but also with the town's people as well. They had books, movies, music, novelty toys, t-shirts, all sorts of stuff that people loved. So why would it shut down?
The answer smacked me in the middle of my forehead. More than half of the store was dedicated to books. Society has tablets that are specifically meant for reading and smartphones that you can download books to, which is a lot easier than going to a book store. With one click(or a few), you have the book right in front of you in digital form. On top of everything else, buying a book digitally is a hell of a lot cheaper than getting the physical book.
Think of it like this: you really, really want the new book in this series you've been reading. It just came out and you're scoping different places to buy it so you can get it cheap. Every bookstore you've researched is selling it for $16.99, but there is a little bookstore two cities away that is selling it for $10.99. You only have...let's say $15.00 you can afford to spend on a book this month and you can't wait until next month to get it.
So all of the places selling it for $16.99 is out of the question. You could go to the little bookstore two cities away and get it in your price range, but the gas money you'd have to spend to get there will actually make it more expensive. So you go online on your tablet and find the digital book selling for $6.99 as it is on sale. What do you do?
You go for the digital copy, of course. You won't have to drive anywhere to get it and you'll spend less money on it. It's a win-win, right? Totally. On top of everything else, you can even read this book in the dark!
I don't know. I guess I have this irrational fear that something will happen to the internet and the books that I want to read will no longer be available. No, that isn't quite right. It's more like I'm afraid that the book will be destroyed, that there will no longer be an existing copy for me to read.
And, damn it, I really liked curling up with a book and a coffee in a fluffy chair in Hastings!
No comments:
Post a Comment