"I see a dagger before me..."Says A Book - Is it the Internet?

Is the Internet killing reading and books?

Really interesting (and ongoing) debate.

The Internet is powerful. I recognize the power of it first hand. Crawling the web has lead me back to some dear friends in far away and not so far away lands (after too many years), free phone calls, created a few concrete business opportunities, led to several leads to publishing and has served as a great marketing tool.

But there is NOTHING like curling up with a good novel - when you're feeling under the weather, or on a rainy day or just because...reading a BOOK (vs catching up with my friends on Facebook.com) is so satisfying. Could I read an entire e-book (like a novel or non-fiction or a play) online or download to my laptop and read it on the screen?

Ehh...not yet, I don't think. I'd have to (you guessed it tree-lovers) PRINT IT!

But I'd be willing to do so for some poems, or an article or maybe a short story.

And yet...a book. How would a writer doing a book signing, sign an e-book? Hmm...

And oh! The joys of perusing and taking your time with and chatting with second hand book store proprietors (Thanks Hasani and Brian!) prompted me to write my FIRST article many eons ago.

So in the final analysis?

As one winner of the Commonwealth prize said in the discussion, I believe they can co-exist। Listen to this Commonwealth Prize winners' discussion

But I still think there are some things a book can do-that the Internet like any other means of technology-cannot.

I recall the joys of introducing books as friends to my daughter began long ago; when she was an infant. In fact my 1st "gift" to her WAS a little, plastic book that she drooled over (but caught on quick!). I KNOW story time was one of the ways we definitely bonded. Later, dramatizing Lady Macbeth from the play when she had Shakespeare texts assigned brought the beauty of the language alive.

As for the children going to the LIBRARY to use the internet to chat or mess about on the computer (rather than using books there) in the UKCommonwealth discussion; I've seen it PLENTY myself -right here in Barbados. I take a different view. I for one, am grateful they are IN the library.

The library's job is to get this captive audience to discover the world waiting in some new friends-between some covers sitting right there on the shelves.

Copyright (C) Sandra Sealy, 2008