Books...Books....BOOKS!

Recently, I went back to my hometown in Kansas. On the flight home, the reality of the new technological age punched me in the face. We have iPods, iPads, laptops, bluray discs and Kindles, but I don't pay attention to any of them because I don't use them.

This is coming from the girl who STILL doesn't have an iPod or even an MP3 player. I'm the girl who didn't buy a single DVD until 2004 because I thought VHS tapes were "easier" to deal with. I'm the girl who just recently retired my CD player only because it broke a few months ago. I'm an apathetic girl when it comes to the new gizmos and gadgets.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. On the flight home, I noticed that as per usual the pilot tells passengers "no electronic device may be on during take off."

However, as he named off the list of electronics we couldn't use, he also said Kindles. Wow.


So someone spends over $100 on a computerized device that can hold a large sum of novels only to not use it when you need it most? I've never been a big fan of the Kindle, but to each their own. I happily pulled out my print version of "The Time Traveler's Wife" and began reading.

Are books really going out of style as the years progress?

I remember rushing to get to school when the Scholastic Book Fairs came to my school. It was like Christmas for me to leisurely walk around the library (my sanctuary) and decide which books I wanted to buy.

I'm happy that reading comes in a new form by way of the Kindle, but nothing can take the place of a book. Have we as a society been so far removed from the relaxation of reading an actual book that we get upset when someone hands one to us?

A perfect example is that brat of a child who received a book for Christmas and complained about it. If that were my child, I would shove those books down his throat and I'm not just saying this out of bias.



Children should be happy for any gift they receive on Christmas because they could have not received anything at all.

Some excuses for his behavior have been: "Oh well he's just a child!" "Did you want books when you were three?" and my personal favorite "He's just confused because he was expecting toys. He's adorable."

Call me self-righteous, but if not now at the ripe age of three, then when will he learn to accept ill-mannered gifts with a sense of decency?

So does this mean that book publishing is meeting it's doom?

Not necessarily, but when you have the Kindle outselling the number two best-seller (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows--print version) with an estimated 2.5 million sold on Amazon.com, the future doesn't look so bright.

It's great that more and more people are reading...but at what cost to those who are losing their jobs in the book publishing industry?

To all of the book publishing companies around the world, you'll always have me, the girl who rents and buys books and also make her friends and family BUY a book if they even think of asking to borrow one from me.