Posted by Alex Herman, Art Curator and Nonfiction Reader for Issue 4.1
I remember very vividly the thrill of dragging my mother into bookstores as a kid. It didn’t matter if it was the corner shop in the mall or the Borders bookstore two towns over, if there were books in the window, we had to stop there. I’d spend forever perusing the shelves, my fingers dancing over the spines, yearning for a new story, and, if I was lucky, finding one my mother would let me take home.
Nowadays, though, I’m lucky if I can even find a store.
It’s undeniable that we are now smack dab in the middle of the digital age. Between cell phones, laptops, and tablets, everyone seems to be
plugged into one device or another at any given time. As a result bookstores, and by extent, printed books, have seemingly fallen to the wayside in favor of their digital counterparts. But are these ebooks really as superior as sellers like to claim? Is it possible that we, in our lifetimes, could witness something as timeless as printed books go completely obsolete?
Not if I can help it. Continue reading