Thrings

@ ThringsLaw

www . thrings . com

Happy New Year folks – I hope 2017 brings you all health , happiness and prosperity .

As the New Year swept in , I was reflecting on what to write about this month and decided against the usual lookback on 2016 or the general discussion about resolutions for the coming year .

Instead I thought I ’ d touch on a subject which , I accept , could well attract cries of ‘ Luddite ’, ‘ technophobe ’ and ‘ dinosaur ’. (“ Nothing new there , John ”, I hear you say .)

I suspect that , like me , many of you received books in your Christmas stocking . Books ! Remember them ? I love books . I enjoy the journeys they take you on , I appreciate the lives you can live through someone else ’ s eyes , I soak up the wisdom , the facts and I love the silliness . In short , I love the content , most of the time . But that ’ s not the point .

When I say I love books , I also mean the actual physical book itself . I take comfort from it . The cover . The smell . The feel of the paper . The fonts . The crease you create down its spine as you travel across its pages . Turning those pages . I like the weight of a book and I enjoy its company . For me , the book I ’ m

reading is a close friend . I said at the start that I might come across as a dinosaur . Why ? Because I just don ’ t get the Kindle / tablet way of life , namely the taking away of words from the page and placing them perfectly on to a screen .

I understand . It makes complete sense . Why would you lug around a weighty , pulp-laden tome , when you can simply slip a sleek and shiny machine into your bag . It ’ s a machine that isn ’ t just one book – it ’ s got thousands of books , all in one place , all instantly accessible , and all ready lit . I get it .

My wife loves her Kindle , probably couldn ’ t live without it , but for me it ’ s missing something . It ’ s missing something intangible yet crucial . It lacks soul . It lacks history . It will never have the story that runs parallel to its paper-based counterpart . Whose book is it , who else has held it , where has it travelled , how did it get that coffee stain , why are the pages creased in certain places ? The list goes on . A physical book has lived a little life of its own .

The electronic book has all the same words and it has the same story , but it hasn ’ t got

the romance and it hasn ’ t got the heart …… not for me at least . The electronic book is too easy , too clean , it ’ s sterile and it ’ s anodyne .

What do you think ? Am I just stuck in the past , unable to embrace change , or do you agree ?

And it ’ s not just books . What ’ s really interesting for me is the change in how more of us are holding our music collections . I ’ ve always been a little worried about my music library being a line of digital binary code and programming . Yes it ’ s there , but what happens if one day it isn ’ t ?

I enjoy owning CDs , just as I enjoyed owning cassettes and vinyl records before them . I ’ m very interested to see that vinyl is making a comeback , but why ? It ’ s an old technology . Some will argue that the sound isn ’ t as pure and it ’ s susceptible to wearing out …… but it ’ s back and it ’ s growing . Why ? History . Physicality . Romance . Soul . That ’ s why .

And on that note ….. long live the LP , long live the book … and long live the dinosaur .

John Davies e : jdavies @ thrings . com t : 01793 412634