Kindle Schmindle
One can procure a Kindle for £111 and store thousands of tomes, from Tolstoy to Turgenev. This plastic beast is lighter than an apple -- the fruit -- and only needs new batteries once a month. However, as with the iPod, vast choice at your fingertips is not, necessarily, something to cherish. Remember those hours spent voraciously devouring that dog-eared, yellowing book, which smelt vaguely redolent of museums and mothballs? Ah, the nostalgia. Back down, newfangled critter.
You are not the only one that feels this way... "Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a – it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It’s-it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um, smelly." Giles agrees.
ReplyDeleteThere is something nicer about a real book but when moving house I do wish all my weighty tomes could be transported in one small plastic cartridge.
ReplyDeleteI concur, Samantha. Olfactory senses are hugely powerful. Occasionally, when I perambulate down the street, an emanation pervades my nostrils and I feel quite heady.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sam, too. In terms of transportability, the Kindle annihilates the weighty tome.
ReplyDeleteHi Andy,
ReplyDeleteThis has kindled my interest. I have just read an edition of Lolita which has really beautiful binding and endpapers.