Keeping Books Alive In the Age of Kindle

THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO, I predicted, incorrectly, paper made books would be replaced by some sort of electronic reading machine. I didn't know what such a machine would entail, but I knew it would arrive. My friend disagreed, and was quite correct. similar predictions by others ensued, and still do. they are also incorrect. The magic of paper and pen would appear to be mightier than the mouse. People seem to prefer the feel of paper in hand to the cold, hard glare of metallic lighted screen. It turns out that there has actually been a significant increase in paper book sales over the past few years, Kindle notwithstanding, notwithstanding the decline in reading in the U.S.. Bibliophilia thrives, unless one digs deeper. Twenty five percent of the increase consists on adult coloring books, whatever they are. Then, there's the fact that everyone who is anyone speaks into an audio recorder, grabs a ghost writer or two, and prints out a quick batch of celebrity tell all. The adoring public gobbles these up, for vicarious celebrity. In a culture in which half the populace are celebrities, the other half their sycophants, there's your book buying binge. then too, so many Americans have spent time in prison, recovered from drug addiction, killed someone, nearly been killed by someone, died and recovered, been abducted by extraterrestrials, or has a political or socio economic as to grind, it no wonder that we want so dearly to have the melodrama in hand. Those who speak-write successful books (those which sell well) invariably conjure up a sequel (why not?), no less appealing. Popular books these days always seem to come in avalanches of of follow up books for more profit. Considering the sheer number of people overweight but don't want to be, love to cook, love to eat, are recently divorced, hurting and looking, greedy, broke, or both, the fuel for the self help industry is more abundant than ever, and people somehow believe that help in between book covers. science fiction has exploded in popularity ever since the science was removed and replaced by magic and fantasy, and of course, more than ever, we love to escape into a romantic fantasy world of melodrama and sex. We love to escape pseudo scientifically and pseudo historically, as long as we take sex and violence along for the ride. Books derived from U tube flow like sewage in over crowded cities. Percentage wise, fewer read than ever, but they read fast, in large easy to read print. Every movie becomes a book. Quantity trumps quality, although there is a breath of fresh air in the doubling of human knowledge every twenty minutes, and the publication battles which accompany. Even with computers, paper libraries are expanding exponentially. the Library of congress now has a collection of over one hundred million volumes; one can get lost and starve to death among the stacks. As the marginally literate David Crockett, who was aided gently with his best selling 1834 pre Alamo autobiography wrote in his preface: "most of authors seek fame." Fame, and money. Their readers seek to escape their mundane lives. Long live pulp fiction.