Bookends-Bookbeginnings

Hello The Once and [the] Future [of the] Book bloggers. This is Laurel Toews.

I come to the MI program with a background in French to English translation, mainly for documentary film. I’m in my final leg of the MI program, and I have focused on Archives and Records Management. Outside of ARM courses I have dabbled widely in the other MI paths. That said, book topics have been turning into a kind of vortex for me and I found myself being pulled into this class — The Future of the Book. I missed the The History of the Book class but last term I took Rare Books and Manuscripts; the past and the future bookending each other. I’m very curious about what this fast-forward into the book future will look like.

To date, I have not yet read an e-book. I don’t own an e-reader of any kind, and I sold my iPad. I’m one of those people who surveys a subway to see how many people on public transit are reading “book books” and how many are reading e-books. Many of my friends are e-book converts; one in particular has an eye condition which is eased by the backlighting of the e-book reader.

So while I love the tactile analogue page-turning object (the book) and its rare and ancient forms, I am coming ‘round to the idea of the e-Book. I do in all earnestness hope the analogue book never vanishes, as it is a beautiful thing (and I don’t think it will) but I also recognise the advantages and opportunities an e-book future presents, and I want to know more about that. I am proceeding with some caution, but not scepticism. Part of my curiosity is to understand or explore the advantages and disadvantages; what is lost, what is gained?  

I’m also very interested in learning the basics of text encoding — hard skills are always good!