The Realm of the Real Pt. 1

My cat has a lion haircut, and every time I see her out of the corner of my eye I mistake her for a velvety pillow.

I must not fear. Fear is the Mind-Killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass through and over me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

That’s the “Litany of Fear”, from Frank Herbert’s Dune. Paul Atreides recites it in his mind while staring into the swallowing black of the horrible hand-sized box.

I’m reading this book a second time for Book Quest (you’ll all know what that is by the end of the year, I hope) and the experience is different. It’s been about five years, so of course, it takes a different meaning, but this readthrough seems so much more engaging to me because instead of a digital reader, I’m reading the book. One of the new editions with a sexy orange/blue matte cover and over 1000 pages with a digestible text size.

What’s up with that? Why am I more engaged by flipping through pages than pushing a little button? What I read it on wasn’t even very digital feeling, it was a humble old kindle with the Gameboy Pocket screen.

I guess first of all there’s the sensory experience: Feeling the pages and the cover, the weight in your hands, the discolored pages, the smell, even the sounds it makes as it tumbles through the world is different for every book. Where as on an e-reader, I can switch the font to serif and the variety ends. (I LOVE my dirty old Kindle)

All that on top of the fact that I can highlight, mark, dogear and annotate to my heart’s content without worrying about a hardware failure for when I forget it’s in my backpack and drop it on the floor too hard. It doesn’t end at books, either, all of my notes and journals aside from this blog are written in long hand, on top of a litany of other analog activities.

Does this mean anything? I think I’ll sleep on it and come back tomorrow. Oh yes, this Brain Teeth Blog Posting has a Part Two!

-Rob