Growing up with two older brothers, my mother had always attempted to avoid the extra payments for books needed for my classes, so she gave me their previously annotated books when I needed them for my own classes. In the beginning of the year when we were buying books, I wanted to use my brother's annotated copy of The Great Gatsby, but there were far too many annotations covering the words, making it nearly impossible to read the book. So I bought my own copy, and forgot about the one that my brother had thrown all of his thoughts into years ago.
Today I looked up at my bookshelf and found the old copy again, now curious of how his thoughts circulated in the beginning chapters of the book, and read his annotations surrounding the chapters we've read so far in class. His ideas were so profound to me, his feelings expressed in each and every word he wrote in the margin. Our similar thoughts and ideas astounded me, and really led me to believe that my brother and I were more similar than I could have ever imagined.
I never really understood the power of words and annotations in books. Whenever my teachers would complain that they lent their annotated copy of a book to a friend and never got it back, I never understood how truly heartbreaking this would be. Even looking back at books I read last year, it's intriguing to see how I look at these books differently now, and how, with knowledge, comes even more mature and developed ideas.
This is why, a technology is becoming more and more advanced, I begin to wonder if society faces a problem in the absence of written word in hard copies of books, and with the rising numbers of Nooks and Kindles, this is becoming an ancient beauty.
Another theme I see with the increase in digital book sales is laziness, as Americans can't even go to the bookstore to pick up for a book, we can't even wait the time for a book to be shipped; we need a device that will download it in less than a minute right in front of our face. In an article called Technology is Making Us Lazy, Sherilynn Macale said, "Inventions like the Kindle are doing so well that they are actually putting stores like Borders out of business and forcing physical book stores to adopt to the emerging trend in digital book reading." This isn't even with books though, this is with everything! Technology is making all information easier to access, but the question is, is this a good thing? Or will this eventually have negative repercussions due to the aspect of laziness that comes with it?
Trish, Fine job blogging here this term (though only 5 posts?). I like the personal connection here, though you might have offered a concrete example of a marginal note contrasting one of your sibs. Not sure about "laziness" but technology is certainly changing our relationships with books and with fellow readers.
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