Monday, January 23, 2012

Eating Crow today...

Now the most godlike of all human gifts-- the singular gift separating Man from the brutes--is speech.  If he can harmonize speech he has taught his first and peculiar faculty to obey the great rhythm: "I will sing and give praise," days the Psalmist, "with the best member I have."  Thus by harmonising speech (in a fashion we will discuss by and by), he arrives at poetry.                          -Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Poetry

I love books, I love old books, especially. My nose wrinkles profusely at the very idea of an electronic book. To go further- I had a three hour discussion (ahem-argument) with a team mate this past summer on the particular and heinous evils of Kindle and owning one. 

Ours arrived Saturday -it's a gift to each other for our anniversary.  A pragmatic back-up to carrying around thick old books.  Free old poetry at my fingertips that I don't readily have, tempting...  Good, old commentaries that are easy to copy quotes for transferring for sermons notes...tempting.  Old thoughts, new technology, right?  A blog is like an electronic newsletter? 

I still wonder -- is the kindle the legible equivalent to street jargon?  And is this e-age eating away something that can't be replaced?  And yet, I type...

This quote stopped me, I couldn't pass it up and adding it to my clippings took my electronic journaling into a new sphere.  NOW, if I could just figure out how to transfer the information without retyping it...

2 comments:

Trisha said...

I completely understand, my dear JoJo!! I was one of those Kindle opponents, too, and I believed everyone who bought one was hurting the cause of REAL books. :) Yes, I do enjoy my Kindle, but I still do most of my reading from hard copies. Enjoy your new device, my friend. While it's a wonderful thing to get so much of the older writings free, it makes me sad that so many readers have no interest in them.

Love to you!!

EJN said...

Mrs. M at K's school talks about developing a taste for what is good. It hard to find a place to learn what tastes truly good to the soul.
Love to you!! Jojo