Reading with Picard
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 03:25PM 
A guy whose opinion I trust tells me that I should get off my blogging butt and stop posting videos - point well taken.
So...
The thing that has been concerning me lately is the publishing industry - wait, don't yawn - and is it some literary canary in a coal mine? Sure there has been this proliferation of bust out news on ipads and kindles and nooks and the such - but is anyone reading much anymore? Philip Roth, a writer I really admire, has said in interviews that this weird habit of reading novels will soon be a thing of the past - he puts more of an edge on it than that, but basically is saying that book reading is a dying, and maybe even dead art. It makes me think of those episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation where Picard is shown reading an actual book. It creates great respect for the character - so brilliant, and forward thinking, yet still in touch with the past. In other words, only the really brilliant dudes that get to fly starships will be reading novels in the future. I never get the idea that people will read full books on their readers - maybe at first, sure. But as attention spans shrink so will story length. Witness the rise of first flash fiction, then micro and postcard fiction. Soon there will be single letter fiction. "J" by Ernest R. Toobusytowriteawholebook - a long awaited prequel to his longer work LMNOP.
I am far from a luddite... real far. And I love me the technology. Hell, if I had the bucks, I'd pick up a ipad. But I do wonder how far we will drift as a society of sound bite driven postcard readers.
Do me a favour - tell me on this blog the last book you read. Give me hope. It was a whole book right? With a bunch of pages? And you weren't on a starship.
Reader Comments (4)
"A New Kind of Christianity" but that doesnt really count I think. I did read the total Hitchhiker's Guide, Harry Potter Series and Lord of the Rings to Wendy over the years, that was very cool.
For sure that book counts Ian - I loved that book! And the others you have mentioned as well. Reading to your partner is always a special pleasure.
On another note - really sad to hear about your dog. Take care.
I can't be on a starship?But...well, okay. A friend gave me the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book, which I never would have picked up on my own and I enjoyed it, oddly enough. Now back to my crumbling pulp paperbacks...
Hey, who am I to say you can't be on a starship?!
And I'd read that book just on the basis of its great title - wow.