You had asked me to comment on the message board. So hear goes! :)
You can see from the reactions that conditioning is very difficult to give up. For a generation brought up on books, the feel, the comfort, the smell as someone put it is difficult to give up. But, you will be amazed how a 4 year old will prefer a computer to a book! You are right, the book in its present form will disappear.
In India knowledge was designed to be transferred by word of mouth. This also ensures knowledge is retained. Perhaps this was one reason why books were not accepted widely at first. It was easy with a book to not memorise, but look up in the book whatever one had forgotten. So, it need not be to exclude certain sections of society.
One more comment on the non-availability of books to certain classes of society. This was not so before the coming of the British, but it became terribly so by the time they left. Whatever the reasons for this, it must have been terrible for those who had 'suffer' those years.
Hey Ajit, I did not even read your article - just scanned through. Now if you were in the printed bok version, I would have read it for sure. But, no offense !;-)
Simply because of the "feel", "smell", and the non threatening nature they ONLY possess in the very violent world ! No Ajit, you got it all wrong....the printed word will stay for long. The only threat I see is if it's an environment issue like we have little or NO trees left
Maybe this sounds very immature and prehistoric.. But for God's sake please dont close down the libraries. PEople need to know what it feels like to take a book in hand, smell it, read it, take it with you in your bed, fold it, enjoy it..
On the otherhand, how much ever ambitious the project seems to make digital library a reality and digitize all books, you must not forget that we are humans after all and human nature is hard to change.. We have been used with paper for aeons and it could take generations for the paper culture to fade out (which i suppose should be for good at that time because trees would be scarce)
The essay was interesting.I felt that the demise of the reading habit spells the doom of the book rather than the profit of the publisher. I have no idea whether the reading habit is really dying or not. As regards the future of the book itself, the same will yield to an electronic form. With the digitalisation of information; literature of our choice and liking can be accessed from the Internet in much the same way that music can be downloaded to an ipod. The digital book could be a device about the size of a normal paperback with an LCD screen and an internet browser, a touch screen keypad and a "reading software" is all that is needed. With prodigious digital memory at the fingertip one can download an entire library from the net, sharing software will allow anyone to share comments, and actual literature without hindrence. I asked whether this fitted the description of the tablet pc and it seems that this PC is much more than a "book" that I have in mind. If and when such a thing does happen and it may not be too far in the future the future of the book publishing, book distribution and even the book library would have changed forever. But who would inculcate the reading habit if it were lost in the melange' of instant entertainment?
Mr Balkrishnan had some cure from ayurveda, and he used this occasion to thrash the very subject in appreciation !!
Simillar is the stuff here... Indians had written material, or say Brahmins used written material. British had collected some of these, and some of the explanations were used in french revolution.
Memory was never the end, there have been descriptions to this effect. It was certain step.
Let Balkrishnan not stoop so low to deform the subject by taking half a sloka on memory, and then fitting the wholething into marxist dogma of caste/class. Balkrishnan's attack is mere repetetion of a foot soldire because far offensive slander has been used bu govt of India to implement actions, what purpose would be served by reference to class/caste than making Balkrishnan a petty intellectual ?
RE:Ajit Balkrishnan has bit of maculayism
by biz Narayan on Apr 16, 2007 02:01 PM Permalink
correction on French revolution - I meant to write important writers of france literary revolution.
I strongly believe that Reading Books certainly could not be replaced by any innovation like Internet. Books might be available in the Internet; but, can any one carry it with him/her to the remote/deep forest/hill/shore and read it whenever he/she wants? No way, E-books can't & never replace the Printed Books. Be honest, eventhough my career is in Computer/Internet, still my love on reading the Printed Books never diminish; whenever I visit India for vacation, I go to Higginbothems, in Chennai and buy many books and read them during my vacation or travell in the train/bus/flight. Books are good & real friends whatever be the innovation takes place.
first you can not see library where library open only once in month. article is good to give little information but i think everyone knows. it is good but BOOK is book. you can see the benifits of books. you can read when you want, you can carry wherever you want adn whenever you want. ofcourse you can find lots of information on net and thats is very good. but one more thing do not just read on net long time.this will be great if you can save the material and print out and then read. because just reading on screen it will damage your eyes slowlly slowlly and you will get so many problems in your eyes. not only 20,000 but there are so many things on net but we should use in proper way but Book is book. how many people have lap top, how many people can give time alwayes on net, how many people from city to vilage can buy their own computer. but book can reach everywhere. i think rediff next plan is to sell book on their website and this is good add for authors and other people.
RE:IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN
by Sharad Churamani on Apr 16, 2007 10:13 PM Permalink
Yup, Books are alive and well. Rather than digitize books innovative guys are finding ways to reduce prices by selling online even used second hand books. Just do a search for 'second hand books India' and book lovers will find many cheap options.
There is so much stuff out there today on the net and as information sources. Do kids with access read them at all.As a publisher, I am surprised my book on Spoken English without CD sells more than the one with CD. I have been following up on this "death knell to books theory" with great interest and have been collecting information from all over. There is nothing to suggest a shift away from books to other forms of information dissemination. Maybe the revolution is still in the making. Lesser reading is happening all over for sure due to a variety of competing channels. But more and more books are produced, definitely not a correct indication of things hunky dory. Publishers will disseminate information whatever be the form or media. An increase in the market is a boon for us publishers and surely there is no attempt at stifling the info flow. May be that is a thing of the past. What say. I fear the death of the salesman and the poor marketing skills may impact publishing more than anything else.Cheers!
