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August 16, 2021: Swimming Against the Tide

We supposedly are entering a new era, one in which most readers opt to read digitally-based books. My thinking is that the corporate entities, the majority of which are computer-based, are promoting this myth. Readers are told that reading on-line is more convenient, and that because there are no physical signs of books, there is less clutter in their homes.

Many have remained resistant to these claims. Those who (it seems) prefer print and image-based books are those who skidded to shore ahead of the digital wave. Children of course are not opposed to Kindles or the like – so the push is on to get them to grow up as print-based readers.


Alys paddling in SE Alaska


I call those inbetween the youngers and the elders the lost generation. They are in the majority as far as Kindle use goes. They’ve been co-opted. I don’t think it’s possible to get them to go back to reading print books.

I was thinking all this today, as I was at the Meeting House, sorting books that came on Saturday, from the recycling center. There were so many books in this place that I decided to do a major reorganization. I sorted, put books on the available shelves, and got books ready to go the Senior Center and to the distribution bookcases. I did not have time to stock the distribution shelves.

I am planning on making more space for books by clearing the upper shelves which have outdated videos – vhs I believe they are called. I’m also going to go through the theology library and boxing up books, this after seeing if the local Bible college is in need of any more books. They may be tapped out. Hard to say.

The books that remain in this space are in what I am calling a holding pattern. The phrase is used by airlines, to describe planes that are circling and waiting to land. Getting a book into someone’s hands, this is a theoretical landing.

Tomorrow is a book cleaning day. In preparation for this I put several boxes of gardening and children’s books on the work table. These books, after being cleaned and further categorized, will be taken to the Alaska State Fairgrounds where they will stashed in the newspaper box at the Eckert Garden, and the newspaper box at the recycling center booth. I suspect that the number of books taken from the Eckert Garden site will be relatively small. And I suspect that the number of books taken from the recycling center site will be relatively high.

I am a bit concerned because the books in the distribution sites are moving out slowly. I predicted this; it’s the end of the tourist season. This means that in the next few weeks I’m going to need to make a concerted push to get more distribution sites going. Otherwise, I will be dealing with literary overflow.

Ahoy matey, do you want a good read? In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, “and so it goes.”

Yes, on days like today I do feel like I’m swimming against the tide. However, I do envision myself moving forward, not backwards.

Next: 227. 8/17/21: Keep ‘er going

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