September 15, 2009  When I look at Ballet I don't see what those who love Ballet see. Consequently I would never be found in the position of making important decisions affecting the production or direction of Ballet. Such reasoning has not commended itself to James Tracy, the Headmaster of the Cushing Academy in Massachusetts, a private college preparatory institution of some 144 years. Tracy has spearheaded an initiative to discard the entire Cushing Academy library and replace the books with three large flat screen TV's and 18 ebook readers. "Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine." (Read the A Library Without Books article in the Boston Globe for details.) Unsurprisingly this action has inspired unmitigated horror among people in the book world. Josie Leavitt, for example wrote a very fine essay on the subject entitled The Death of a Library. Tracy's position on books is that "When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books." Fine, but then have a yard sale to dispose of whatever books are in the Tracy home. The issue here is not that Tracy personally has no feeling for books, but rather that he has enforced his sensibility on an entire academic community, much of which, as the article indicates, does not share it. Tracy's statement that "This is the future. All those who fail to get ahead of this curve, embrace its possibilities, and try to optimize its potential for humane and humanizing contingencies, will face certain reduction to irrelevance within ten years" would only pass from the lips of someone who has mistaken being totalitarian for being a visionary. The real problem is that people let him do it. Book technologies are not an either or situation, unless you are of a totalitarian mindset. Digital and print books are no more mutually exclusive than are walking, bicycles, and automobiles. When it comes to reading books experience is the central factor, concerning which efficency is only a component. This is not the case when it comes to searching for and cataloging information, however collecting information and absorbing it are two very different uses of language should never be confused. People hostile and insensitive to the area of their appointment are not a rarity, consider James Watt's tenure as Secretary of the Interior for example. This sort of inversion is always dangerous. Tracy should be running a Starbucks not a school. Any book lover will be horrified by Tracy's actions, not because book lovers are luddites, but because they are sensible to the complex interrelation of tactile experience, ownership, and durability, with the human imaginative experience, not to mention the role which our traditional publishing medium plays in the filtering process. If ever there was a cautionary tale it is the tale of the Cushing Academy Library. Note to selves: if such a movement is underfoot in our community, let us speak out against it. Here they are! Our weekly picks for the two best: two hardcover, two paperback, and two children's books. The very best new arrivals to leap out of the box and onto our shelves this week. Call or email us if you want more information on any of these titles, or to have us hold you a copy. Or stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. Thanks as always for sharing your reading with us! |
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Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
By Krakauer, Jon 2009-09 - Doubleday Books 9780385522267 - Hardcover See Other Formats List Price $27.95 - Your Price: $22.36
Karakaeur delayed publication of Where Men Win Glory for a year as he wasn't satisfied with it. He hasn't missed yet and this investigation into "The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" is going straight home to crown the vertiginous heights of the Brechner nightstand. ...More |
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The Lost Symbol
By Brown, Dan 2009-09 - Doubleday Books 9780385504225 - Hardcover See Other Formats List Price $29.95 - Your Price: $23.96
The new Robert Langdon is out today. The manuscript of this The Da Vinci Code sequel has been kept almost completely under wraps, but Random House did slip a copy to the New York Times. Here's a link to Janet Maslin's Review ...More |
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The Sibley Guide to Trees
By Sibley, David Allen 2009-09 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780375415197 - Hardcover See Other Formats List Price $39.95 - Your Price: $31.96
It seems a fair certainty that people who like wild birds will also like trees. I mean shepherds becoming like sheep and all that. Thus it's not much of a surprise that bird artist and identification specialist David Sibley has turned his talent to trees. Needless to say, it's just exquisite. ...More |
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The Tanners
By Walser, Robert 2009-08 - New Directions Publishing Corporation 9780811215893 - Paperback See Other Formats List Price $15.95 - Your Price: $12.76
We all have a mental list of authors we've been meaning to read but haven't yet. Walser is high up on mine. He was a Swiss writer who worked as a butler and a bank teller, writing light, funny and quirky novels and stories before being "misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic and hospitalized in an asylum where he died." This first English translation of one of Walser's most highly regarded novels. Hmmmn. Only one thing to do... ...More |
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Firefighter Ted
By Beaty, Andrea 2009-09 - Margaret K. McElderry Books 9781416928218 - Hardcover See Other Formats List Price $15.99 - Your Price: $12.79
Does everyone love Firefighter Ted? The answer to that isn't definitive, I suppose, since not everyone has read this laugh out loud funny picture book yet. Thus far everyone here loves it, and so has everyone we've shown it too, so the answer appears to be yes. Still, we probably need a larger control group to be sure, so stop by and read about Ted's latest adventure for yourself. ...More |
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All the World
By Scanlon, Elizabeth Garton 2009-09 - Beach Lane Books 9781416985808 - Hardcover See Other Formats List Price $17.99 - Your Price: $14.39
Sure Frazee's illustrations are so great that this book would be fun to flip though even if the text were a list of anonymous scrabble scores, but Scanlon's treatment of wonder and wondering has a warmth and a directness that makes All The World a grand pleasure indeed. ...More |
