World Book Day

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”  – Oscar Wilde

Last week, the 23rd of April, was the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and also the day chosen by the UN to celebrate books and their influence on our lives.
But books, in the traditional sense are fast going out of ‘style’ and are quickly being replaced by the much more versatile eBooks. Novels and even textbooks are being sold as digital reproductions, rather than in actual print.
These eBooks have certainly revolutionised the world of reading. Instead of waiting for weeks for your book to be shipped in, or for your local bookstore to receive their orders, you can receive your eBook within a matter of seconds.

Of course eBooks lack the feel and smell of an actual book. They lack the feeling of turning a page. We’re sure that when we moved from handwritten manuscripts to printed books many people were bent out of shape.  But eBooks make up for that with their own useful features. Useful features like being able to define a word within that very book, instead of having to track down a dictionary which would most likely be shoved way back in one of the far corners of your bookshelf.
And then of course there are audio books. Persons can make otherwise mundane tasks like vacuuming or doing laundry more tolerable by just downloading some of their favourite books as audio books and listen to the books being narrated to them. Of course, the danger of that being that there are some narrators who simply do not do justice to the books with their dull, monotonous reading.
Technology has touched all aspects of our lives. It has affected the way we prepare our food, the way we travel, the way we communicate with each other. And it has certainly affected the way we read, and what we read.
There are sites like ‘Goodreads’ where the users can discuss the books they’ve read, review the books and speculate over what might be the fate of their favourite characters in upcoming books.
Too often, there are books that our friends have never read, have no interest in reading, or are simply not as rabidly interested in as we are. So while you have a burning desire to dissect every sentence of the book to try to discern the character’s motives, or you want to theorise about motives and whatever, there mightn’t be people around you with that same compulsion.
And that accompanying realisation and disappointment can be crushing. For those of us who are so emotionally invested in what happens to our favourite characters, we need to discuss them to get closure.
So now, thanks to the millions of book forums on the Internet, we can do that. People, millions of miles away from each other can go over plot points, go over nuances that other persons might have missed. We can rage about characters we hate in a space where everyone is there, just appreciating the same book or series. Share theories about what might happen next. Write our own ‘fan-fiction’. Happy reading!!!
Technology has changed the way we read in so many, many ways.
Reading and books will always be a part of our world. It’s just that we’re changing, and adapting the way we read. And the best things always adapt to survive, to remain with us through the ages.