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The World of Books Has Changed, Part 3

talking back to books, books talk back

The World of Books Has Changed, Part 3

As a young person, I bought into the idea that books were unalterable. I remember lying on the grass for hours  with an eraser, cleaning up my used copy of Herodotus's Histories, not wanting someone else's notes on his Greek or his content, offended that this previous owner had presumed to write on the book!

But in reality, we've been talking back to books for as long as... well, actually, for as long as farming and economies of scale gave us the free time to do so. The root of "scholar" and "school" means...

..."leisure," "free time"! And a scholar or scholiast originally referred to an interpreter or commentator on texts (in Greek; for a nice synchronicity we just looked at the Latin "comment"). For someone who takes scholarship and data too seriously, remembering that it was originally considered a leisure activity is a good corrective.

There are Biblical texts as well as passages from Greek and Roman authors that wouldn't exist if they weren't quoted in someone's commentary. (And see how it flipped there, from the comments written on the book to the comments becoming a book in their own right, quoting the original.) Same with Sanskrit texts, which often come prepackaged with at least two commentaries. And of course, the Jewish exegetical tradition is legendary.

But now,  consider the Kindle. With the highlighter tool, we can talk directly to the book, and we can see what everyone else said too. We can judge ourselves and others based on what we found striking--are we just like everyone else? Is everyone else following the crowd, or am I missing something?

My younger self can't wield an eraser against the Kindle scholiasts but has the choice either to judge them as Philistines for defacing the text, or to hide the highlights and bury her head in the sand, or to embrace the age-old conversation and jumping in.

Which is what I'm doing right now, of course.

Nowadays, though, the book can talk back. In a certain way, having the highlights show in Kindle is already a kind of talkback, because the audience's response has become part of how the book is presented. It's on the visual display, and so it's part of the experience of the book. Once again, the Internet makes concrete, in a virtual way (I guess that's "virtually concrete") something that's always been the case: our tastes and responses are influenced by those in our circles, and those circles can be very big.

Without mutual influence, there would be no such thing as fashion, no such thing as bestsellers or financial booms (or busts), no such thing as epidemics, no such thing as religion.

But now, we can see influence in action.

Which is great, I think, because it reminds me to ask myself "Do I really like this, or am I just agreeing with people I admire? Do I really like this, or am I just reacting against people I don't admire?"

And so the book becomes a mirror, reflecting the lines of reaction of whole societies of readers. 

Another way books are now reflective is technically called "responsiveness." Alongside the different feels of  hardback, paperback, audible versions of a book, more and more people are choosing the electronic version on Kindle, Nook, tablet, and increasingly, on their phones. 

This means that a book, this blog, or actually any website, will potentially be viewed on anything from a 3in cellphone screen all the way up to a 42in monitor. I don't know enough about computers to explain how to do that, but I do know enough about proportions and visual layouts to understand that creating a book or website design that will be readable and functional through such a range of sizes is a serious challenge, and is extremely important.

Businesses are addressing this, recognizing that the majority of online sales are now made from mobile devices, but writers, bloggers, book people, need to be very aware of it also.

One of the things that made me fall in love with Joomla as my web platform was how beautifully it creates this responsiveness. My mentor and webmaster counsels me to avoid complicated presentations and let the inbuilt CSS (cascading style sheets) take care of the scaling and the nuances of paragraphing. If I think something doesn't look right, nobody else sees what I see, because everyone's screen is different! 

What a great metaphor for life and communication in general! And I like the idea that my blog's responsiveness comes from "cascading style." Maybe I need more of that in my life.

Finally, going back to the book: many books in my childhood home were published by Everyman's Library. Each volume had this inscription on the front page:

Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide,
in thy most need to go by thy side.

My kid self puzzled over who Everyman was, understanding that the book was addressing a reader, pretty sure Everyman wasn't me; and she noted the irony that these books generally stayed on the shelf and didn't go anywhere. 

Today, with the book on your phone, tablet, e-Reader of whatever brand, laptop, big computer... Perhaps now is the time that that little verse really rings true.

About the Author

Ela Harrison

Ela is a wordsmith and herb lover who has lived in many places and currently resides in Tucson, AZ.

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