What happens when the new technology meets the old and wonderful desire to read? I think we end up with what Virginia Woolf was talking about in that rare recording of hers on the BBC from 1937 when she talked about words.
As she said, “Words don’t live in dictionaries but in the mind.” And for us today, reading isn’t about turning pages or being a consumer, it is about allowing the full impact of the words to invade our beings. Does it matter if those words are on a screen or on a piece of paper?
Yes, it does. In today’s world as the technology flies faster than most readers can keep up with, we have come to a fork in the road. Environmentally, we must choose between being chained to those books that will crowd out the land, cause us to consume fossil fuels and create more landfills of destroyed books. There is also the opposite fork to take. One that allows us to use our imaginations to create less environmentally toxic forms of books. Books, which after all are the containers of our thoughts. Let’s not just live in a static moment with our bound books but plan for the future that includes new ways to store and enjoy books that won’t destroy the planet.
