Daily Thoughts 4/2/2010

Reading and Writing Room on the A-Deck aboard Titanic.1912

Daily Thoughts 4/3/2010

I finished reading A Better Pencil today. It is an overview of the different technologies of writing covering pencils, clay tablets, typewriters, blogs, word processing, and other forms of communication across time. I will write some more about it tomorrow.

I took some time to go to the park today to walk around and look at the geese, the pond, the turtles, and the willow trees. It was relaxing sitting on the benches and walking around. Today was a very nice day to relax.

I felt like watching some nonsense today, so I watched Chariots of the Gods on dvd by Erich Von Damiken. It seems utterly silly today. There are better explanations for Easter Island, building the Pyramids, and Troy than they had when Erich von Daniken was writing his book. Jared Diamond's book, Collapse does an excellent job of explaining Easter Island.

Some people claim that Erich Von Daniken created his ideas from the fantastic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft which is rather entertaining. Still it was interesting seeing the various sites which he visited.

We do not get as many requests for books on pseudoscience, cryptozoology, and aliens as we used to. There are also a lot less requests for tea reading, esp, and astrology. People seem to be caught up in technology far more than they are in imaginary places. There are also a lot fewer requests for books on mythology and monsters. It is sad in a way. People have lost their sense of wonder. Science fiction is not as popular as well.

Maybe it has something to do with the loss of interest in the high frontier as well. People seem to be very focused on making money, learning about technology, and surviving. The every day things. It may seem odd that I would link this together. But, there is a turning inward from more abstract goals in the United States. A real loss of a sense of wonder. The United States has pulled way back on its space program while the Russian program keeps on moving ahead.

We are not buying that many books on space as well. There are still requests for books on the Apollo program. I am not seeing many new books being published either. Mainly people are interested in more immediate technologies, especially alternative energy and electronics.

Daily Thoughts 4/1/2010

The keyboard of a writing ball, seen from above. Rasmus Malling-Hansen inveted this writingmachine in 1865. Also called the Hansen writing ball.

Daily Thoughts 4/1/2010

I read some more of A Better Pencil on the way to see the dentist this morning. There is quite a bit of interesting material. Dennis Baron describes the experience of writing in clay tablets telling us that no tablet comes out the same and that they are often quite hard to read. He describes his early experiences using Wordstar one of the first word processors as well.

I especially like Dennis Baron's commentary on how as early as Gutenberg, people chose the author and publisher over the format of the writing. It did not matter so much that a book was printed on papyrus, vellum, or paper, the content was what was important to people. What Gutenberg did was make the content more available to people. The main detraction was that vellum and papyrus lasted over a thousand years leaving a more permanent record. Even in the 15th century "content was king."

This idea still has relevance to us today. It is the content that matters. The package is more of a convenience and a preference of tools than a necessity. There are benefits to printed works on paper as well as electronic works. I think there will be less paper books, but those that are printed will be better laid out, have higher quality paper, as well as better illustration to compete with digital books. They also will be printed more quickly, be more easily recyclable, and be easier to get. At least, this is my hope. Ebooks will make many more books available to people. This is especially true for books that are creative commons or no longer under copyright. Both the ebook market and the print on demand market are the two fastest growing segment of the publishing world.

I had a chance to stop by the library after my dental visit where I work to pick up two more books, Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran, and The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick which is a fantasy novel.