Feb 26, 2009

The Reader

Well. So I've officially seen my one Oscar-nominee per year. Speaking of Oscars, it has come to my attention that the Dukes of Hazzard did not win any. Could somebody get on that? It had everything - a bar fight AND controversial material about the North vs South divide in the Civil War. It at least deserves a Pulitzer.

Anyway. I've been reading a lot about e-book readers lately. It really seems likely that they're the next big thing, and honestly, I like them. I didn't at first - I first saw one right around the first of the year in Chicago, and I thought it was neat but I didn't take it seriously. But the idea has grown on me. I do love physical books, and I would still want them, but I would never actually exchange money for a $30 new hardcover book. With all these readers, you can get free books, cheap books, and even with cheap books you know you're directly supporting the author with a big percentage of the sale. I think that's pretty cool.

But seeing The Reader...man, that movie captures the heart and soul of why paper books will never go away, and why nobody needs to be afraid they will. Everyone has those books, where it's just Franny and Zooey, or Alice in Wonderland, or whatever, but there's this one specific copy that means more to you than any photograph or memento ever could. You hold it and shivers go through you, and you open it up and you're a completely different person. You read it when you were feeling lonely when you were little, you read it out loud to your best friend or your favorite lover, you carry it with you no matter how many times you move and would weep at even the thought of leaving it behind. No electronic copy of anything is ever going to do that. You're not going to stroke your Sony Reader screen when you pull up a book you downloaded for your honeymoon.

That's all... I loved the movie, it was too long but it was beautiful and tricky and emotional and I'm quite glad I saw it.

1 comment:

Esi said...

Yes, it's a nice movie!