In Praise of the Written Word

Borders is filing for bankruptcy. While as an English teacher and writer I should nae be happy to see the demise of any bookstore I'd far rather walk into an indie bookstore like Green Apple in San Francisco or Book Passages in Marin. They're a part of the community in which they work and they operate in an ehtical manner. They don't keep employees at 19 1/2 hours a week so they don't have to pay benefits. They listen to their customers' needs and wants and adapt accordingly. In this digital age people turn more and more to e-books like Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble Nook. I'm sorry I still prefer my fingers to caress the pages of the written word in a *gasp* actual book. Granted my bookshelves are buldging at the seams and my storage unit is half full of books I bought for my classroom thus making one wonder why I continue to buy books. In Shakeperean times, the written word was only for the wealthy upper class due to the expense of "publishing" the written word. With the advent of the printing press, the written word was able to be distributed to the masses, yet there were still some (in particular black slaves) for whom reading was illegal. I appreciate the appeal e-books may have to techno wizards and business people in a hurry. But where's the ritual? Where's the curling up on a rainy day with a good book, a spot of tea and in my case my cat?  Then again, I hauled an entire suitcase worth of books back from my trip to Scotland and England two years ago. Now, you may not be quite as enthusiastic a collector as I, you may even prefer gliding your hand across a computer screen rather than risk a paper cut on actual pages. But give me a book, even a hard bound lug it off the shelf, won't fit in your lap book. I can get lost for hours in the lake country with Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters. I can travel back in time to ancient Scotland with Galbadon or even try to solve a mystery with Diane Killiane. How can one get lost reading a computer screen? Give me an indie bookstore to browse in and I can get lost for hours. Give me an actual book to read and I'm ecstatic.