08.06.2011

Books are Safe

Thoughts on publications as institutions.

I laugh inside every time I hear someone say so matter-of-factly that print is dead and books are dying. It's a narrow deliberation. It doesn't consider that a book might be more than pages and ink and bindings. It doesn't consider the value that physical books have as a small part of what makes up a publication.

Books have always been more than that which you can hold in your hand and that physical thing is only a part of what makes up a book. In fact, that one part is safe because even as digital distribution becomes more popular we're not necessarily replacing it with something that is better. We're expanding on the institution that makes up a publication entirely. That a book can be read on a digital device only builds on the entirety of what a publication is made of; the digital device gives us the opportunity to share and expand on the contents of a publication in a way that we've never seen before. What would be dangerous is if we didn't take that opportunity and instead insist that a book in its digital form must mimic its physical form so much as possible. This thinking could ruin hell bent traditional publishers but, fortunately, it poses no threat to the advantages of the smell, taste, or touch of a book you can hold in your hands. It holds no threat to the physical record.

In the past, when we've celebrated a book we've hardly ever celebrated it's physical form. We don't establish that a book is great because its type is pretty or because its pages smell nice. We celebrate the ideas and thoughts it records. We talk about them and expand on them and argue about them and build common ground based on them. We make them more than ink and glue. That binded stack of paper that you can hold in your hands is just a snapshot - a moment in time - of what really institutes a publication in its entirety. And it is this institution, I think, that keeps the physical book safe. In fact, I'd wager that the institution and the possibilities that digital mediums have to offer create a fresh and frugal opportunity for print publication.

The institution that comprises a publication keeps the physical book safe because it demands a record of that institutions evolution. We demand that record and I think we will for a long time. Whether it's because we want to preserve the smell and touch of a book and binding or it's because we want to solidify the thoughts and ideas that a publication has matured to by way of network and community - digital or not - the book and binding will survive.

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