Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Week 16 Prompt


Week 16 Prompt


Both of our readings this week talk about the culture of reading and the future of the book.  So I have two questions for you as readers, pulling on your own experiences and all of the readings we have done over the semester:  First, how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically?  ( ) , talk a little about what you see in the future for reading, books, or publishing- say 20 years from now.  Will we read more or less, will our reading become more interactive?  What will happen to traditional publishing?  This is a very free form question, feel free to wildly extrapolate or calmly state facts, as suits your mood.

“…how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically?”

When I was younger, I remember going on a weekly basis to our small public library with my mother.  We would leave the library with a stack of books after each visit.  I would go to my section of the library (children’s) and she would go to hers (adults only).  The staff knew us by name and there was no fear of someone walking off with me.  I felt secure and safe there. 

At home we had a library in our home where I would read my books as well as my mother’s there.  Actually I had a book practically in every room of the house.  I use to carry a dictionary and notebook with me.  If I didn’t understand a word, I would write it down with the sentence, page number, author, and title of book.  In retrospect, I guess I was doing some form of annotation without even realizing it.  Anyway, I would discuss the word with the mom (most of the time or just with an adult like my dad) and the book.  Actually my parents would ask me what I read which helped me to articulate what I liked and disliked about a book.  I use to read numerous books at a time.

It came to a point in my life that I outgrew the children’s section of the library and wanted to go to the adult side of the library with my mom.  I need to digress for a moment to say that we only (at that time) had two sections- adults only and children’s.  If we would have had a teen’s section, I probably would have gone there before moving to the adults section in the library.  Well, I believe I was the first child to be allowed to check out so called adult books at my public library.  I had a strong connection to this library throughout my life no matter where I moved because of my positive experience there.

In the 21st century, I am still in love with the written word.  I still read a physical book but I love technology and the options it has created so I have tried out ebooks on Apple products and the different versions of Kindle.  I have used the library’s website to request books as well.  I have also tried listening to a book (audio books) but I keep on getting distracted or I couldn’t hear it because I didn’t have headphones. 

I have a library in my house.  I still go to the library and pass on the tradition with my children by taking them.  I don’t leave them alone (as yet).   At this point, I still mainly read hard copy like I did as a child with multiple books throughout the house but I am still open to trying other formats in the near future again because I am truly hoping that one of them will stick like my books have stuck all of these years but so far that format is the only reliable one I have used.

“…future for reading, books, or publishing…”
Technology advancement will continue to create different devices to use the electronic format because of the popularity of these different mediums.  They are user friendly and relatively inexpensive.  Also new reader options will be installed on the new versions of IPad, Kindle and so forth.  The brick and mortar library will still be here in twenty years but I think automatic libraries will be seen more frequently.  Publishing- I think self-publishing will become more prevalent with it moving to social media where an author will create a channel and invite others to read and review her/his book.  The reviewers won’t be paid and will go to amazon and Goodreads for instance and discuss the book (review it).  I believe that the publishing companies might even join them by creating a department specifically for Self- Publishers.  In this department, the staff will seek out those authors that have channels or even Facebook pages about their stories and sign them on but the contract won’t be a tradition one but instead will allow them the freedom they want

3 comments:

  1. Lisa,

    I like how you really came up with a specific idea for how publishers will stay involved. I struggled a bit thinking about that and I think you've predicted a likely direction for publishers to head into!

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  2. I don't remember having a young adult section either. I think as an adult, I enjoy reading young adult literature because I never read it as a teen.

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  3. Wonderful final response! Full points!Also, I have noted all of your other prompt responses. Good job catching up!

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