While killing time yesterday on a rainy day, I walked through the public library of the new millennium-Barnes and Noble. While wondering about the people who sit glued to their lap tops, lattes in hand, I wondered why any retail store would let people come in and use their product for free. Maybe I just don't get it. Try walking around the grocery store and sampling food-hmm, done that. Go down to the shoe store and try on the newest styles-seen that too. I know, I'll go down to the bike shop and ask for a demo ride, and something that was verboten before is now offered. Does anyone pay for anything any more? Are we a society of samplers? Lots of anys there. Anyway, while in the B and N Latte and Free Reading Emporium, I noticed tables everywhere stacked with books with huge discounts. 50% off, or more. 30% off with rewards card. But the ones who were reading the latest magazines were enjoying the best deal-100% off! I believe the term is free. But not the latte. It figures that after reading a $10 magazine-ouch! for free, they would pay the $5 for the latte. And you don't even get to keep the cup!
Somehow the system is backwards, paying for the temporal-the latte, but borrowing at no cost something you could keep and reuse-a book or magazine. And it is always my good fortune that when looking for a certain magazine, the only one left is worn and tattered, from others reading it. So I pass on it, cursing the latte stains, and eventually just subscribe to it myself-fleeing the whole system of weak coffee and free books.
Now you can buy a Kindle, or the take offs of it, and never have to turn a page again. But you have to buy the book. And soon when the Kindle generation takes over, the latte club will have to find another place to indulge their caffeine intake, and where will I find a book to read? Kindle may be the future, but to me there is still nothing like holding a book when reading. Unless you have the dexterity of the youth of today who were raised on touch screens, which when in my hands the screen either gets smaller, changes before my eyes, or goes blank. So I will keep my old ways, my old books, and my old magazines, and maybe someday a young man will ask his dad what the book is he picked up. "They used to read them, how inefficient. Now you can have 500,000 books in your Kindle 12 and never have to worry about how cumbersome the old books were." And with it a whole generation loses one of the earliest dating lines ever, "can I carry your books?" "Can I carry your Kindle" will never take, it would be like asking someone if you could carry their i-phone. Yeah right! And soon backpacks will join the endangered species list, and do away with security guards who check them, and soon the entire reading society will be in chaos. Page 2.
And I will miss the table piled high with books that didn't sell. At huge discounts, which is where I find many treasures. Just because it is there, doesn't mean it is bad. Some are just overpriced, $50 for a book about jokes about bees, and you wonder why it never sold. But I will really miss the full size covers, the dust jackets that catch your attention, and the smell of freshly printed pages. Oversize books that must be held on your lap, or small paperback sized ones that you can hold with one hand-while drinking your latte, while driving. Will anyone ever remember the sound of pages turning, and how good it sounded? Or be able to look ahead to the end, just by turning a few pages? Maybe Winston Smith was right, 1984 has come and gone-leaving only a blank screen, for blank people to look at.
It appears that Kindle also has various versions of the Bible available. I am beginning to see i-pads, and other electronic devices in church. And I wonder about the temptation when your pastor hits a snag, are you Kindlites really following along in the Word, or have you switched to something more entertaining? Or the Charger game? At least there are no lattes in church-yet! It is true we have come a long way from papyrus and scrolls, but to me there is still nothing like turning a page. Even an old saying tells us about turning a page in life, just call me BK, Before Kindle. But no matter what, stay in the word. Are you in the word? More importantly, is the word in you? Your actions, attitudes, and words will say more than any Kindle ever will.
So when the teacher tells you to "turn to the book of Job," I like the sound of pages turning. And I believe so does God, I know pastors do. I hope no electronic sound ever replaces the turning of pages. And as for the discount tables, best sellers don't need to be on sale! The Bible, still the perennial best seller, I have yet to see on a discount table. Maybe there is a theme there, as the Self Help table was overflowing yesterday.
Wait'll they hear you can get those books on Kindle? Will that mean they are only good for kindling? Stay in the word, and let it stay in you. Read it openly in public, and if someone offers you a latte, accept it. Tell them it will go great with the bread of life. Offer him some. For man does not live by bread alone-but from everything that proceeds from the mouth of God!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogpsot.com