Books and Stuff

If this blog is about poetry and "related musings" we'll have to mark this entry as dealing with the tools of making poetry. If language is the software books are the hardware, especially books that help to make sense of language. Reference books. Dictionaries. Grammars. Thesauri. Even encyclopedias.

One of the reasons for this is because I picked up for my perusal and amusement three little books, part of the New Webster's Library of Practical Information, which consisted of five volumes of hard cover pocket sized volumes. I have three, in excellent condition. A joy to hold and peruse. They look good; they feel good; they carry good information. What more can you ask of a reference book?

The other reason is because Steve Jobs and Apple announced today the introduction of the iPad, another application that could interfere with good reading and writing I suppose. Some sort of hybrid of the iPhone and a laptop computer. Supposedly, because of special applications available to it, a step up from the bulky electronic readers already on the market. And it comes with its own content supplied. So, imagine your daily paper delivered as a PFD and subscribed to like iTunes. I see it and shudder.

People in the streets are dying. Drivers and pedestrians (and I wouldn't put it past cyclists) are going about with their eyes and ears electronically engaged, no longer free to function as they were meant to - to assess and appreciate the environment around them.

Soon it will be the flip side of conservationism: how many people die to save one tree?

(Sorry, this has become a rant. I love books; they are part of what I understand myself to be. Electronic devices are toys.)

Gadgets will find their places; they always have and they still do.

I don't have to like that truth.