Books Reading Today
posted by on April 27 at 10:00 AM
Only one reading going on today, at the University Book Store. Judy Norsigan, who is one of the founders of Our Bodies, Our Selves, is talking about pregnancy and childbirth. (SPOILER WARNING: There could be talk about mucous plugs.)
If you’re not so much into pregnancy and/or childbirth, may I suggest that you read Ross Simonini’s books lead this week, which is about e-books and free literary magazines? You could literally spend all day sitting at your computer and reading free, good fiction. Here’s a snippet:
For all those soothsayers who looked to the music industry and portended the literary apocalypse, it was never “the end of literature as we know it” but “the end of literature, period.” While the latter is horseshit, the former has a little truth to it. The term “publish” will take a new meaning. Gene Morgan, the editor of Bear Parade, presents a sober argument for e-books: “The same impulses that drive people to download MP3s and torrent movies will push literature forward. People want to consume art as relentlessly and cheaply as possible.”
And before you get your anti-e-book freak on, you should read the end of Simonini’s piece, also, which is a loving tribute to the good old-fashioned book.
Also, don’t forget to check out the full readings calendar.
Ranging from the pragmatic elements of printed literature to the emotional, I don't think that books will ever go entirely out of fashion. While I am in front of a screen for six plus hours a day, I still prefer to read the same text in print because it doesn't kill my eyes as badly. The sentimental reasoning for print literature lies in the fact that a book makes the intangible a solid, the lines that spring from the writer's mind are now sitting in the reader's hands, instead of floating in an ethereal stream of information. In a way, e-literature is like the next generation of the oral tradition, with more room to spread.
That was beautifully said.
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