On the Foibles of Technology

If anyone out there follows this blog on a regular basis, you've likely noticed that your beloved past-time has been somewhat less delightful of late.  It's not, I assure you, for lack of reading, but rather for lack of cooperation on the part of more advanced technologies.

I worked this summer as an administrator at one of the country's largest fine arts summer camps.  I worked an average of 15 hours a day and absolutely loved every minute of it.  This was not, however, conducive to posting reviews of the books I read by flashlight each evening.  Internet access is hard to come by in the midst of picturesque wilderness.  Go figure.  I kept writing the reviews, keeping them stashed as a document on my flash drive, waiting for the opportune moment to snag a WiFi signal.  This past week, I finally got that opportunity, only to discover that my flash drive has gone the way of the word "tirled".... which is to say, of course, it's obsolete.  Defunct.  Kaput.  No longer functional or useful in any way.  Actually, that's not fair to tirled, which is a verb meaning to rotate or twirl, or, alternately, to make a noise by such motion.  Tirled can still be used, though it's likely that no one (except your fellow blog followers) will know what it means.  My flash drive won't even make a decent paperweight.

Now I face the odious task of trying to remember which books I read (and listened to!) this summer and precisely how I felt about all of them.  It's odious only because I feel that now I'll be doing all these books and authors a disservice, trying to recapture the feelings they evoked without holding the book in my hands.  So many of them were borrowed and have since been returned, and though I don't need to re-read them to provide my opinion, I like to write my opinions down with the book sitting next to me, the very sight of it helping to spark memories of the best, or worst, traits of the story.

Here I could take the opportunity to segue into the merits of digital book formats and the relative pros and cons of paper versus digital.  Let me just sum it up here: people will read what they like to read how they like to read it.  I've found that a combination of both paper and pixels works for me, my lifestyle, and my budget, and while I'm certain that there are purists on both sides, the introduction of new reading technology is a matter of personal preference.  There's no right or wrong way to read a book, which is one of the reasons I've started reviewing the audiobooks I listen to as well.  Technology is great, and so is tradition.  Maybe I'll keep that in mind the next time I'm away from my WiFi tether and keep a paper copy of all my reviews!