That’s the title of a seminar that took place yesterday at the London Book Fair.
Tania Kindersley has the recap over at the Guardian. Her aptly titled story “The Death of the Book, Again” conveys the almost monotonous battle of print vs. digital that has been hovering over the book industry for years. As Kindersley says “It is an immutable law that the Death of the Book must be debated at least once a year”. Actually once a year would be refreshing. The drone seems constant nowadays.
“The old pro-book arguments are so rehearsed as to fade almost to background noise”.
Feeding off of noted social psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s remark that the book is “something you hold, near to your heart” Kindersley lays down some new ‘pro-book arguments’ that describe the essence of the book’s place in our culture:
-The book is an artifact of the heart.
-Our bookshelves are the record of our lives.
-The physical act of opening a pristine novel, getting the scent of it in our nostrils, and yes, holding it close to our heart, are sensory and uniquely human experiences.
-We carry books to show who we are.
-We need to stop “taking the book for granted and start realizing that it is something rare and marvelous.”
As her friend the Man of Letters says, “I wonder if anyone has ever cried while reading an e-book.”
This is good stuff.