Literary month

Another Literary Month has just dawned. This is the month of the year that we are encouraged to read, discover new books and authors and rekindle our love for the written word. It is also the month in which the Colombo International Book Fair is held at the sprawling grounds and halls of the BMICH. This event has consistently attracted millions of book lovers for the past decade. Bookworms look forward to this mammoth event all year long and September feels like heaven to them.

I attended several Sinhala and English book launches recently, in addition to the launch of DVDs of two movies based on the novels of Martin Wickramasinghe, the doyen of Sinhala literature. A book launch always nurtures the mind as you gain insights from knowledgeable speakers and helps to enhance your thirst for knowledge. We will see plenty of new books during the Book Fair and there is no doubt that the good ones among them will be snapped up by eager buyers. A good book is always an amazing thing.

The printed word was indeed one of the most amazing inventions ever, perhaps on par with the wheel. It enabled the ordinary masses to access knowledge that was restricted to few academics and monarchs. For the past 500 years, we have been able to expand the horizons of our knowledge thanks to the proliferation of books, magazines and newspapers. Some of the most revolutionary ideas espoused by great thinkers, scientists, religious leaders and world leaders have been preserved for posterity thanks to the magical combination of ink and paper.

But paper is under threat from several quarters. The first ‘threat’ is the growing realisation that wood pulp, from which paper is made, is a finite resource. Hence the frequently-heard advice to cut down on the non-essential use of paper. The premise is that we can save a number of trees if we reduce the consumption of paper. Although wood pulp is now primarily harvested from so-called sustainable forests (which are regrown), one feels rather sorry for the trees that are cut down to print books and other material.

Friendliness

One answer is using recycled paper. In fact, most books printed around the world now carry the FSC logo of the Forest Stewardship Council, which is one way of verifying that the paper is either recycled and/or from a sustainable forest. Some printers even give the make-up of the paper they use, so that we can decide on their level of environment friendliness. If you are a book lover who also loves the environment, just leaf through the first few pages to check whether a book you intend to buy is environmental-friendly. That will enable you to read with a clear environmental conscience.

The other major threat is the rise of the e-book. In one stroke, they eliminate the use of paper, because the books are totally electronic. They also eliminate the costs and environmental concerns associated with packaging, transporting and delivering books and magazines. Just a few seconds ago, I downloaded E L James’ worldwide bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey to my Amazon Kindle Touch in just 60 seconds. There was no need to go to the bookstore and pick up a copy - all I need was a 3G signal. It is magical - I can be anywhere in the world and just pull a book out of the ether to my Kindle, Samsung SIII, iPad or PC. Besides, my Kindle can store 3,000 books and I cannot put more than a few books in my travel bag.

In fact, e-books are now outselling so-called ‘dead tree’ books at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other e-book retailers. It is the second biggest revolution in the publishing industry without a doubt, the first being the invention of the printing press itself. We can hardly guess what e-books and e-magazines will be like even in just 10 years time due to the rapid progress in computing power, display technology, digital audio-video compression techniques and of course, wireless transmission.

This brings us to the question of books vs e-books. What really matters is not the medium, but the message.

Both physical and electronic books essentially do the same thing - they are repositories of printed words. In other words, it does not matter whether you read e-books or physical books, as long as you read. Children may like to read electronic books, which sometimes include animations and sounds. In that case, they should not be discouraged. On the other hand, be it e-books or paper books, children should be encouraged to read from a very young age.

Some raise doubts as to whether books will survive the digital age. Despite the existence of MP3, CDs and even LP records still survive. Likewise, physical books will co-exist side by side with their e-book counterparts for a long time to come. Book lovers will always want to ‘feel’ the books and actually leaf through printed pages, which is a far more satisfying experience than ‘reading’ what is basically a computer display. As an author once said, one can go to bed with a good book but one does not go to bed with a good computer.

Download

And with today’s technology, you don’t even need to ‘read’ a book per se. You can listen to them. If you are really busy, audiobooks can come to your rescue. You can either download them online or buy them in the form of CDs and listen to them while jogging, working, travelling or simply relaxing. My Kindle Touch even has a neat feature whereby it converts ‘text to speech’ - if you feel lazy to read, just let your e-book reader do it for you, in a rather robotic voice. Granted, it is not really reading in the strictest sense of the word, but it essentially amounts to the same thing.

In whatever form you do it, reading is a richly rewarding experience. It lets your imagination run riot, conjuring up images of the past and the future and even other, alien worlds. In this way, it is an interactive experience not unlike a PC. And if you can read more than one language, it opens another window to the world.

For those who do not read regularly, the Literary Month provides an ideal opportunity to rediscover the joys of reading, with most booksellers offering generous discounts. Young or old, there are millions of books out there on an infinite variety of subjects to choose from. Now is the ideal time to pick up a book or e-book and immerse yourself in a new and exciting voyage of discovery.