Thursday, June 02, 2005

I hate paper

I do a lot of reading, I mean I probably read 1000 pages every week whether it's a book or readin the news online. One of the things I read is web comics and one of its most prominent figures is Scott McCloud. I recognize what he does and applaud him but I also understand the cynicism expressed by Tycho about how web comics are not all about breaking the boundaries impossed by books in the physical world. Don't get me wrong, I think ideas like infinite canvas are great, but for me reading everything online is more of a lifestyle then an experience.

I can't stand to read anything in print. Having grown up in the information age it just deosn't make since to chop down some trees to read something only to throw it away. Why does everyone over 30 at work insist on handing me the agenda or product requirements in hard form. I'm just going to throw it away because it's not searchable or easily portable. The same applies to newspapers. Why the hell would I buy a subscription to have it delivered to my house wasting the gas of the car to deliver it and the tree to print it when I can turn on my computer which is always turned on.

All in all I don't see any reason to own anything in hard version unless you're the type of person who likes to look at stacks of. For me I like DVD's and books. Both of these I could easly keep on my computer but it's nice to look at them stacked on a bookshelf. Believe though that once they come up with disposable screens for books those huge stacks are going the way of the office memo. To sum it all up, I hate paper.

3 comments:

free verse designs said...

How can you mean this? Books are beautiful. No amount of "geeknology" (term coined just this second by me)can ever truly replace the heart of where literature was born. At least, not for me.

The look, the feel, the smell of book in your hands. Nothing quite like it. And for the writer, the process: emotion-thought-hand-pen-paper.. and the sight of the words written in your hand. Too therapuetic to be universally overtaken by chicken-pecking on keyboard during corporate-world lunch breaks.

Long live paper!

free verse designs said...

Again, for "em-pha-sis":

Long live paper!

free verse designs said...

PS... I still stand by this ;)