I am currently reading McMurtry's COMANCHE MOON after first reading LONESOME DOVE and DEAD MAN's WALK. The former, which won the Pulitzer, is a magnificient novel of the old West whereas DEAD MAN's WALK was a disappointment. So far COMANCHE MOON is every bit as good as LONESOME DOVE.
I am also perusing McMurtry's new memoir called BOOKS. In addition to being an author, McMurtry is a long-time antiquarian bookdealer and collector. He owns bookstores in Archer City, Texas, his hometown, and Washington D.C.
The book is composed of short chapters of a page or two or three with stories about his life in books. Here is what he says in one place with regard to his penchant for collecting reference books.
"Most young (book) dealers of the Silicon Chip Era regard a reference library as merely a waste of space. Everything there is may be a click away, but there are still a few of us who'd rather have the book than the click. A bookman's love of books is a love of books, not merely of the information in them."
I identify with McMurtry, but I fear that our way of thinking may be passing away.
4 comments:
Yesterday I talked to an older lady about my essay on this topic of technology and books. Although I am ambivalent about this issue, I am writing about some of the negative effects of digital, which you may not expect of a younger person. This older lady however, a former librarian, is gungho about technology.
The forward march of technology is unstoppable. The most we can do is to be aware of and warn people of the negatives.
Now that I have been thinking about these things for a while, every time I see a kid playing a game on the computer, I want to lecture him or her about the dangers of digital supplanting print, and then walk away whispering, "Read a book."
Hooray! I think your sentiments are exactly right. The problem is that I believe it IS a losing battle. All we can is be aware of what is going on. If I were in your position, I would focus on the digital in terms of career opportunities while decrying some of the negative effects.
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