Sorry I missed posting last week due to illness. I’d like to thank you all for your concerned emails but as I didn’t get any I’ll just move on.
Do any of you watch The Block? (Australian TV show in which contestants are taken to an apartment block that only has the framework left, and they compete by building and decorating one or two rooms a week.) The last time I watched it (I’ve been ill, you know) they revealed the living and dining rooms. One couple have constructed a “library” on one of the living room walls. I think it is fantastic, apart from being a bit small. The judges loved it. One said it was the first time he’d seen bookshelves “styled correctly”. I gather we’re supposed to group the books according to the colour of the covers. Learn something new every day.
When the other competitors checked it out, it didn’t seem to impress. Some were rather bemused at the idea of having to watch the television surrounded by “all those boxes”. One couple said, “What’s the point? How many books do we have in our home? Two?”
At first I thought, Way to show your ignorance on public television. Then I felt a cold draught on my neck and a dark shadow slid overhead. A small voice in the back of my mind whispered, You have seen the future. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Please, tell me it isn’t so!
Actually, I don’t think it is so. There have always been people who are voracious readers and those who are not and there always will be. It doesn’t surprise me that contestants on The Block would be amongst the latter. While an interest in renovation doesn’t mean you never read, it could well indicate you have interests in other areas. My son’s bookshelves are already full and he’s only eight. I think that will continue as he gets older, so he is one of his generation who will be a voracious reader.
I know there will always be voracious readers, thank goodness. I was thinking more along the lines of eBooks vs print. I have mixed emotions about that. As an eBook author I should be pleased but as a lover of books in print, I’m not. And all the modern technology at our fingertips means that anyone with a little bit of cash and some technical knowledge can churn something out and call themselves a writer. That’s probably already been said about me!
I don’t think print books will die out. At the moment they are making a comeback. At least there will be speciality book shops.