What is a book?
A book is a game-changer. It is a catalyst, an enzyme. It
generates thinking and stimulates a change to occur within each individual as
they read the texts. Books have so many positive values. And the reason they
will never die, the reason we will always have books is because of their ability
to enforce change upon the reader. We have become a society that is lazy. Don’t
believe me? Every new piece of our technology is simply meant to help make our
lives simpler, to cut down on the amount of effort we put in to achieving
every-day tasks. The most beneficial quality of books? They take work.
Today, literature is shared in a variety of mediums: eBooks,
audio, movies, plays, and while all these are creative (nothing shows a book’s
influence over individuals like having movies and plays made form it), it’s not
hard. It doesn’t take exertion. These platforms share the same story (most of
the time: I’m looking at you Marvel movies) but it’s…easy. It’s easy for us as
viewers/readers. We digest the information, but we get the information from the
point of view of whoever changed the book into another product. Audio-books:
beneficial for multi-tasking, but can we really say we aren’t influenced by the
reader’s inflection, by the reader’s own personal idea of what the books should
sound like when read?
True, books are old, but they have always been an accomplishment;
they have always been catalyzers, promoting healthy work. But just because it
is not “the-newest-hottest-thing” does that mean they are any less valuable? McDonalds.
A corporation that for the longest time was on the fore-front of the fast food
market everywhere. They have over a million stores in all sorts of countries,
drawing in billions of dollars of business at any given moment. But let’s be
honest. Are they the newest? Since McDonalds revolutionized the fast-food market,
companies like Chipotle, Subway, and Chick-fil-a have entered the playing field,
providing healthier options to the food we all love, fueling our desire to get
(semi) decent food not only cheap, but fast.
But here is the interesting thing.
McDonalds is not suffering. Despite the rise of competitors,
a change in the audiences tastes—frozen burgers to chicken burgers or burritos—McDonalds
still gains business. You know why? Because they still offer what they did
20-plus years ago. Certain things promote growth. They have qualities that
reproductions do not and cannot have. Originality, sustainability, and a
promotion of hard-work. (Get it? Cause with McDonalds you gotta work off all
the crap you put into your body!)
A book is a book is a book. It is true, Tim Parks and Victor
LaValle, that they are nothing more than mass produced sheets of paper, assembly-line
stapled between sheets of cardstock. But you read a book. You read an eBook.
You let me know which one you get more out of. If you want to get the most out
of something, you have to work for it, and books are the only option that
promote rolling up your sleeve.
Maybe they are a little outdated. But books changed the game
then. They do the same now. We just have to except that. It’s time to stop
being lazy. It’s time to put forth effort into what we do, to not let wires and
touch-screens run our lives. It is time to get our hands dirty.
It’s time to get to work.
I like how you started this blog, it really captured my attention talking about a book as an organism. I also like how you go on to break how you think of a book personally. The way you talk about books is great, the way you specifically talk about what books can do is very meaningful. I agree with you in how you talk about how that even though society is becoming more lazy that a book, is still a book. This really stood out to me.
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