THOUGHTS OCCASIONED BY RE-STOCKING MY LIBRARY

To begin with, my title is just a bit pretentious. It’s not as though I have a collection like Thomas Jefferson’s, which he donated to re-stock the Library of Congress after the conflagration of the War of 1812. I had some ceiling damage in my study, and needed to completely empty the room for the plasterers, then, to re-assemble the room -- desk, computer equipment, and a small wall of books. The “library” of my title.

But the process did elicit some thoughts:

1. Although I agree with people wiser and more prescient than I that books will be with us for a long time to come, I couldn’t help the feeling that I was engaging in an almost-quaint activity, like returning a bunch of scrolls to the scrollery. Some writings I wouldn’t think of having except in book form, but for general reading, ten of the last twelve books I’ve purchased have been on Kindle (actually, the Kindle app on my iPhone).  When I wonder how long the transition will be, really, from the book to whatever is next, I’m haunted by Benjamin Franklin’s reflection upon first seeing manned balloons over Paris: “This is such a wonder; it will be a mere thousand years before mankind will be traveling by air as a common practice.” The Wright Brothers flew 120 years later, and fifty years after that jet passenger liners were flying from Boston to Paris.

2. I was convicted (if that’s the right word) by the number of books I have purchased and not read, and those that had book-marks one-quarter or one-half or two-thirds of the way through, where I left off reading them. In almost every case, I had thoroughly enjoyed the books that I had partially read, and in almost every case I still want to read those unread. I know that Adult Attention Deficit Disorder is the fad diagnosis of the day, but I wonder….

3. There were so many books that I had read – and with great pleasure. Our re-stocking project was slowed by my pausing to comment, “Oh, this was a good one…” as Caryl waited patiently to hand me the next one.

4. Three of the books, lifted coincidentally from the storage box one after the other, brought to mind a category of “great endings” (which was actually the impetus for this blog post). And, in the spirit of endings, I will end with them:

The ending of A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean:

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

The ending of The Donner Party, a book-length poem by George Keithley:

After this life we will listen
to the long river running through the soil
saying it is Spring— 

the sun has begun to burn
the brown needles nesting on the ground
around our graves. 

The jays perch in the pines and cry
and wherever we may sleep
among the dead we will rise 

together under the trees
like men who are set free
from the folly of a dream 

into the fragrant morning
to hear the heavy stream
of our blood begin to sing, 

our souls awake and warm once more 

and weaving like a fire

when the light begins to dance
in the land of our desire.

The ending of The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. (Yes, fellow LOTR nerds, I know it’s not the actual ending. But it really is.)

“Well, here at last, dear friends on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” 

Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Some Kind of Reformation Going On...

Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be....

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam"

In addition to a normal historical interest, I have an extra "Lutheran" fascination with the development of Gutenberg's printing press because about sixty years after its invention it was used to publish Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses (and everything else Luther wrote), resulting in Luther's becoming the most famous person in Europe in his own lifetime. (The printing press undoubtedly also played a role in rescuing Luther from the fate of Jan Hus, the Bohemian priest who was burned at the stake for teaching -- one hundred years earlier -- the same things Luther taught.) The history and success of the Protestant Reformation and the book are inextricably entwined. 

I thought of this as I watched Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos deliver an engaging (to me) introduction of the "Kindle," Amazon's new digital reader, on CSpan. (Here's a YouTube version.) At the conclusion of the piece, I was raving "I want one!" Although I later settled down and had second thoughts (because it is currently limited primarily to best-sellers), Bezos' presentation seemed like a charmingly subversive hint of significant things to come -- like a change of Gutenbergian proportions. 

The Kindle is no Printing Press, but it certainly is one of many technological advances portending the end of the book as the primary medium of information. Yes, of course, I bemoan this. But if I do, I'm contributing to my own grief, for what I really want is the Kindle for convenience and the ability to order any volume I desire in book form. (Will this not become increasingly possible as yet another niche in on-demand on-line marketing? Order up a printed copy of "East of Eden" and have it delivered in three days.) I would never be satisfied with only the digital existence of the poetry of John Donne (for example -- and hundreds of others). I want the Kindle and the classic book-lined room. I want it both ways.

I'm not observant or far-seeing enough to predict what Reformation-like change may parallel this new technology, but some societal event will certainly occur (is occurring) that someone -- writing five hundred years from now -- will claim couldn't have happened without the transition from paper to digital information. 

What was literally unthinkable to me just a few years ago (the end of the era of the book!!??) now seems as though it has always been inevitable -- why should we expect that this "little system," like its predecessors, wouldn't have its day and be succeeded by the next.

What was the change like five hundred years ago? Here's a clever video depicting the introduction of the book to a skeptical medieval scholar.