It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a…Book! What’s a Book?

Writing a blog, you never know where inspiration will come from. At least I don’t. Just this morning I saw this photo, posted by a Facebook friend in Poland. What a visual statement about our times!

All five of the people seated are reading, but what’s the guy on the right using? For people of my generation, that’s a silly question. But in centuries to come, might sociologists, anthropologists – and even educators – be discussing the relative merits of that antiquated communication device, that thing called the “book”?

Imagine the conversation: “The book was a simple tool, really. It had no on-off switch, required no batteries, nor could it be recharged. When you were finished reading you…well, you put it down, often never to pick it up again, and you picked up another…book!” “Really? How quaint. What primitive times those were!”

If you were to look in my family room, you’d see I’ve placed great value on simple, non-electronic instruments known as books. Even though I do much of my reading these days on computers, a tablet (in my case, an iPad), and now a smart phone, I’ll never lose my deep affection for real books. Part of it’s sensory: They have a distinctive feel, the paper and ink, the gloss on the cover, the heft, especially of classic literary tomes. Then there’s the smell, even of musty books that have been around for a long time; it gives them character. And the sound, the rustle of pages as they turn, the satisfied “thump” books make when you close them.

No question, digital books and other publications on tablets and smart phones are convenient, and add no additional weight after being downloaded. I recall many times lugging books in a briefcase to keep me company while traveling.

But there’s something about a book, holding it, carrying it, opening it time and again as you advance along the journey the author has created for you. Somehow, turning pages as you proceed toward your destination – the last page – allows you to bond with the book, sometimes resulting in a cherished, lifelong friendship.

As time passes, I realize, I’ll be a member of a shrinking minority. Increasingly, people will know books as something you retrieve with the touch of a screen, and read with the deft flip of a fingertip. No matter – as long as people continue to read, I guess it doesn’t matter what media are used for accessing the books.

And I hope that, despite increasingly sophisticated technology, people will always be drawn to that timeless, most treasured book of all, the Bible. Whether in paper or visible digitally, I’m convinced it’s the one resource for experiencing life as God intended.

After all, we’re told, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). No matter whether it’s read in paper form or on some technological medium – just as long as it’s read.

Travel and Technology

I don’t travel as much as I once did. Actually, when I think of “road warriors” who habitually hit the road – or rise in the friendly skies – on Mondays every week, not returning until the following Fridays, I never traveled that much. But I recall a time, in the early ‘80s, when I had to fly to three different cities in successive weeks.

En route to my destination on the third week of that stretch, I remember having a disconcerting and disorienting thought: “Now where am I going?” No wonder musicians, after hopping from city to city, night after night, occasionally suffer mental lapses and greet their audiences with something like, “It’s great to be here in…uh…oh, yeah… Chattanooga!”

On a recent trip to Denver it became abundantly clear how much things have changed over the three decades or so that I have been an active participant in airplane travel. To start, if you travel very much, you soon discover a jet is little more than a glorified bus. (No offense to my friends at Arrow Stage Lines.) Planes travel higher and faster, but in many respects they lack the comforts and conveniences of modern motorcoaches.

Case in point: Just before takeoff from my connecting city of New Orleans, the flight attendant announced all electronic devices had to be turned off. That meant the young woman sitting across the aisle from me had to “turn off” her book, contained in a Kindle electronic reader. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I continued reading my book. You see, mine had no on-off switch – just black letters on real paper. While her book was in momentary hibernation, mine continued telling its story.

On an earlier flight I had noticed a young businessman next to me also forced to endure technological slumber, shutting down his iPhone, which meant holding e-mails, voice mails and texts at abeyance until we landed. All around me, laptop computers had to be dimmed while our jet began to soar aloft.

I cringed to envision the wheels of industry slowing to a crawl as its captains were transported from the bayous to the Rockies. Imagine high-tech umbilical cords being abruptly severed, only to be reattached upon landing.

How ever did we exist, much less thrive, without cell phones, notebook computers, and electronic books? Was there really “civilization” back then, those “olden days”? I guess we’ll have to leave that for anthropologists of years still to come to determine.