Never Better or Better Never?
The Never-Betters believe that we are on the brink of a new utopia, where information will be free and democratic, news will be made from the bottom up, love will reign, and cookies will bake themselves.The Better-Nevers think that we would have been better off if the whole thing had never happened, that the world that is coming to an end is superior to the one that is taking its place, and that books create private space for minds. The Ever-Wasers insist that at any moment in modernity something like this is going on, and that a new way of organizing data and connecting users is always thrilling to some and chilling to others; that this is what makes it a modern moment.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik
Book owners have smarter kids
The books in your house matter more to your children than your education or income. A study recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility found that just having books around the house (the more, the better) is correlated with how many years of schooling a child will complete. The study found that growing up in a household with 500 or more books is "as great an advantage as having university-educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the advantage of having a professional rather than an unskilled father." Children with 25 books in the family household completed on average two more years of school than children in homes without any books. There is something in possessing a book that's significantly different from borrowing it, especially for a child. You can write your name in it and keep it always. It transforms you into the kind of person who owns books, a member of the club, as well as part of a family that has them around the house. You're no longer just a visitor to the realm of the written word: You've got a passport.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/06/02/summer_book_giveaway/
Writers will have to change the way they write
"Over the last couple of years, I've really noticed if I sit down with a book, after a few paragraphs, I'll ask: You know, where's the links? Where's the e-mail? Where's all the stuff going on?" says writer Nicholas Carr. The internet is training us to read in a distracted and disjointed way, he argues. But does that mean writers will have to change the way they write to capture the attention of an audience accustomed to this new way of reading? Carr thinks the answer is yes.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122026529
How to Destroy the Book
Anyone who claims that readers cannot, will not, and should not own their books are bent on the destruction of the book, the destruction of publishing, and the destruction of authorship itself. We must stop them from being allowed to do it. The library of tomorrow should be better than the library of today. The ability to loan our books to more than one person at once is a feature, not a bug.
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