More On Books and Reading

From Lapham's Quarterly Blog Called Roundtable Written by Shaj Mathew Posted  Dec. 14, 2011

Predicting Their Own Demise

 

,

 

bookstores,

 

fire,

 

the future

Borders bookstores around the country have all but shuttered. Magazine newsstand sales have dropped. And Steve Jobs had put it bluntly: “people don’t read anymore.” The good news? The literary world has dealt with these worries long before. Novelists have been composing their elegies for the book since the middle of the nineteenth century. Concerned for the future of critical thought and skepticism, authors have been embedding their fears of a diminished literary culture into their dystopian works. As a result, the book itself has become an artifact, a chronicler of writerly anxiety about the future of reading.

Jules Verne, who inaugurated the tradition of science fiction with Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, articulated perhaps the first of these concerns about the future of literature. In Paris in the Twentieth Century, a lost manuscript written in 1863 but published only in 1994, Verne feared that by next century, the poetry of his age would be forgotten, instead supplanted by the antiseptic jargon of science. As the book’s protagonist Michel navigates the year 1960, this becomes quite clear. Searching for the works of Hugo and Balzac to no avail at a bookstore, he bemoans how poorly his favorite authors have aged. “So all that fame had lasted less than a 100 years! Les Orientales, Les Méditations, La Comédie Humaine—forgotten, lost, unknown!” To Michel’s dismay, math and science have infected contemporary literature; popular titles include Decarbonated Odes, Poetic Parallelogram, and Electric Harmonies. Aghast, Michel decries the dominance of “science and industry here, just as at school, and nothing for art!” Representing an artless future in which none of the books dear to Verne have endured, Paris in the Twentieth Century evoked a writer’s trepidation with respect to longevity: Will future societies appreciate the value of the classics?

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 made more grandiose claims about society’s hostility to literature. Books in this novel’s universe are illegal and burned on site. Why? “A book is a loaded gun,” explains Captain Beatty, overseer of government-sanctioned book burnings. Yet, as Bradbury would later add, “you don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Intellectual thought in this culture is anathema, prized only by a cadre of “book people” who memorize historic texts. A cursory glance at the authors that the book people preserve—Plato, Aristophanes, Gandhi, Gautama Buddha, Confucius—suggests that Bradbury agreed with Verne: he believed in the edifying power of the classics and feared for a society that fails to heed them.

Gary Shteyngart, author of last year’s Super Sad True Love Story, had a more fundamental worry: in the future, people will not be able to read, period. In the novel’s super sad universe, books are only glossed over and scanned for information—never savored during periods of extended concentration. Lenny Abramov, a crusty remnant of a literate era, is the only member of this society who can read and think critically. Yet one day, when Lenny realizes that Eunice, his much younger girlfriend, can’t understand anything he reads to her, he vows to stop reading. “We don’t have to read anymore. We don’t have to read ever again. I promise,” Lenny says. “It’s a luxury. A stupid luxury.” For Eunice and her peers, books are redolent of “wet socks” and nothing more. But for Shteyngart, books are our only hope against anti-intellectualism.


Writing in three different centuries, these authors, taken together, remind us that debates over the future of reading are nothing new. They remind us of the value of the liberal arts, the art of thinking deeply. Perhaps they may have indulged in some hyperbole—Verne’s scientific texts like Poetic Parallelogramhave not taken over the bestseller lists—but by documenting their fears, these writers capture the intellectual concerns of different eras. After all, as Bradbury once said, “I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.”

The Tyranny of the Online Life or Welcome to Pavlov's Circus

The online world as we now know it has come to have a profound impact on how we lead our lives. Marshall McLuhan certainly was presient when he proclaimed the " medium as the message" not necessarily the content. What McLuhan was getting at was that the medium would become more important than the content when it comes to influencing how we may think and act. So with its ease of use and conveniences the computer and all its digital off spring supposed slaves to our wanton lust for more information, and connectivity has us twitching and salivating like Pavlov's dogs at the mere muffled personalized ring tone inside our jacket pocket. Grasping wildly at our clothes we must obey its command and retrieve that server of a digital feast that has now become the master of our domain. Our dependence on this medium has had its defenders as well as it detractors. In his book "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains" Nicolas Carr raises a number of questions as to the impact this technology is having on culture. Mostly a critique of the consequences associated with online use his book presents an informative starting point for a debate on the future of reading and of books themselves. Carr's description of his experience with computers certainly resonated with my own history of computer usage. I used my first desk top in 1985 when the organization that I worked for at the time purchased a Sanyo MBC 555-2. It had two floppy drives and Wordstar 3.30 as its word processing program. I used it primarily for letters, developing agendas for meeting etc.. Oh yes I became infatuated with a text based game called Zork. Of course I only played it after hours and during lunch breaks. When I left the organization to pursue graduate studies I bought the system from the organization since they'd become enmeshed in the upgrading frenzy and it was no longer fast enough or have enough memory but I knew that it would come in handy for my academic work. It took me a few years to become fully immersed into the wily ways of the computer. I would write out most of my assignments in long hand-that's using a pen or pencil and writing on paper for those of you who have forgotten or never have used long hand- and my wife would transcribe my scribblings into nice readable text for professors to mark up with unreadable long hand comments usually in red pencil(that's a wooden stick hollowed out to contain a thin rod of lead with a nib at the end that makes marks when pressed down on paper some of the leads come in different colours. At the end lived a small piece rubber like material we called an eraser we used that to delete unwanted lead marks). I owe my successful completion of my Master Thesis to that Sanyo MBC 555-2 and more importantly to my wife who had to endure untold hours of deciphering my awful hand written notes and essays. So it was with some trepidation and an ultimatum from my dear wife that I plunged into the world of computer literacy. From then on it has been a whirlwind of technological improvements and costly upgrades while I fell increasingly under the spell of the online digerati. Like Carr I too sense that something has changed in my behaviour in the last few years. While it was easy for me to sit down and read a book for hours on end now I find that my concentration is of short duration. I become easily distracted often drifting off in mid conversation onto other topics before finishing the first or checking messages on my cell phone or iPad. What seems even more disturbing is that others around me are doing the same thing.  Clipped sentences with your coffee mates punctuated by text messages to your cyber space friends while downloading some songs from iTunes. Has this lead to less civility in our society is a question we need to deal with or is this just a new set of social interactions created by new technologies from which we humans continue to evolve? Have we become slaves of our own making? Perhaps a couple of re-worked quotes by Karl Marx are needed at this point. With my apologies to Marx. The web "is the opium of the masses". Users "of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your" digital chains.
 Isn't it interesting to note that drug addicts and internet surfers are both called users. So let me finish off by referencing part of the introduction to an MC5 concert in 1969 " you have to decide whether you are going to be the problem or whether you are going to be the solution".  Perhaps we need a 12 step program for those addicted to the digital world. " Hi my name's Bob and I'm a webaholic". Well, I better go check my e-mail now.

A Quick Update

This past month has been a busy one for our wandering tomes. A few made it to Peru and climbed the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Some are on their way to South East Asia and as usual a number of them decided to stay close to home here in Calgary. Keep your eyes open and check the "Where are they now" page for their whereabouts. Let me know if you adopt one of our nomadic books as the weather is turning colder and they will need a warm place to stay for the winter.

Revisiting the Present From 40 Years Ago

When I first started this project way back in January of this year I thought I could simply scour through my boxes of books looking for potential candidates to set free into the world. What I didn't realize was how attached I had become to most of my books. Selecting books for the project became a culling process fraught with guilt and awakened memories of days gone by as I would pick up a book and some memory would jump out a me while I was gently fanning through the pages. Some books were marked up by notes made for some long forgotten reason by a pencil lead now faded into an obscure meandering barely readable in the margin of the discoloured page. It has been enlightening to reacquaint myself with who I was as I unpacked boxes or pulled volumes from dusty shelves resurrecting long forgotten memories from when those books were read and why I purchased them in the first place. If the books one reads is a partial indicator of who one is or was, an analysis of one's library would certainly give that person pause to reflect on who he was in a historical context. So it has been with me as I continue  through the various aspects of my personal history by giving up my past for adoption. Some of these books I just simply can't give up, while others I have left out on their own were duplicates of some of my favourites and then there are some I felt that I needed to read again. I have a core group of books that I am constantly rereading as a matter of course. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about picking up a book, looking at it and thinking that this book needs to be re-read to see if it's still relevant to my personal history. One such book is "The Greening of America" by Charles A. Reich. This book literally fell into my hands as I was rummaging around in my basement. I was looking to orphan some more books when I nudged a precariously leaning stack of books from which the top one slid off its dusty perch and landed into my awaiting hands. Instantly recognizing the title and remembering its popularity when it was published in 1970 I decided that I had to read it again. For those of you unfamiliar with the book lets just say that it is not about the environment. As I see it he uses the title as a metaphor to describe the process by which America would shed itself of its plastic and drab concrete shell it had created and blossom into a vibrant utopia through a new generation that was emerging during the cultural revolution taking place in the 60's and 70's. I'll let Reich explain:" I was thinking of the blossoming of many different kinds of people, and many kinds of cultural pursuits,.... I wasn't really thinking of the way it's now thought of: everything becoming uniformly green in the ecological sense." You see I was a member of that generation. Full of idealism but hopelessly naive we saw the world as getting better but the dream faded quickly. What seems to be missing today Reich said in an interview in 2010 is "that people are not in any way experimenting with a different way to live, a different way to feel, a different way to be."  What I found interesting when re-reading "The Greening of America" is Reich's description of what ails America. He writes in Chapter III " The presumed causes of Americas troubles can be summed up simply: the evils of unlimited competition, and abuses by those with economic power."(p.43) His critique of American culture is no different than what the protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement are saying today as they rage against the economic disparities middle class America is currently experiencing. What troubled us 40 years ago were feelings of alienation and loss of self as the Corporate State gained more power , dominating, exploiting nature and man and ultimately destroying both. Although what troubles the youth of today may seem quite different, in the sense that they are mostly focused on the material. "I can't find a job, I can't support a family". Whether you're concerned with a lack of attachment to society in the 60's or the material emptiness of today, you're ultimately exasperated with the same system that has created both sets of negative feelings. Where as "The Greening of America" provided a hopeful message for the future Reich's vision faded as it was seen as a fantasy that could not be attained. Still one may argue that we have the freedom to pursue all kinds of different things, music, art, styles of living, what ever we choose. The problem is is that these choices have become commodified, bought and sold in an open market where personal attachment is valued by how much it costs or whether or not it is affordable, not by the intrinsic well being needed for a fulfilling life. Which further serves to separate us from others, society, and our selves.
So here I am re-reading a text that had so much to say about the culture of the 60' and 70's but yet is so relevant to todays cultural critique.  We continue to conform to the myth of consumerism until drowning in debt. We today now bow to the tyranny of the digital cyber space as we ignore those around us for temporary gigabyte pleasures. Will we see a cultural movement although  fleeting as it was rise again
supported by books like Reich's and others or have we become too fragmented a society unable to bring itself together to create meaningful long term positive change. Perhaps 40 years hence we will re-read the texts of today to find those answers.

Can A Book Change Your Life

Sometimes you just want to say "well ok it's just a coincidence". Other times maybe not. So this is what happened.  Returning home from a 24 hour golf day out of town in the Red Deer area just north and east of Calgary on Sunday morning I pick up the previous days local paper to catch up on the news. I find an article that I like called "Why That Book Changed Your Life" here is the link. Why That Book Changed Your Life. As I said finding the article of interest I placed it on my desk to read in depth later. Some time later I checked the Hobo Tomes e-mail box for any news. This what I found was there: "Found "Sweet Thursday" by John Steinbeck at Confederation Park in Calgary, AB on or around August 10, 2011.  Felt like I won the lottery!

Love the book, love the project!  Keep up the great work and I will let you know where/when I release the book into the wild.

Thanks for a special day!" And then later last night this arrived:  

"Just released it after a fine read on a long holiday!  Sweet Thursday was left at a bus stop on Rideau Street & Waller in Ottawa, Ontario at Midnight on August 28, 2011.  Very much enjoyed what is my first Steinbeck novel but certainly not the last.  I don't believe in coincidence and the timing of finding this book was absolutely priceless for an aspiring writer.  Thanks again". Whether or not finding and reading this book will be life changing for this person only this person can answer but it's great to have had a small part in making it happen. Just another positive impact reading can have on our lives.

This is the second time I've strayed from the lengthy blog I have been working on to address some interesting stuff. I'll get it posted soon. I need to escort some wandering books out west to Vancouver at the end of the week so I may not get the blog finished. Keep your eyes open for new reading experiences and maybe you to can have a life changing episode.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Another month or so drifts by and a number of books have made there way out into the world to some far away places and some more near to home. Check out "Where Are They Now" for the list and locations. We are now over one hundred wandering tomes looking for temporary sanctuary in hands of those who love to read. The response to my plea for those who find our friends to e-mail their whereabouts to me has been underwhelming to say the least. When I first started this project back in January of this year I hoped to get a 10-15% response rate. As of today I have received only 3 e-mails which is far below my expectations. Although in speaking with someone who has been involved with a similar project for over 5 years they informed me that they had not one response in all the time spend in that program. So this lack of contact about the whereabouts of these hundred books or so leads to number of questions. Are the books being picked up? I would say most definitely. I will often hang around the area that I have left books to see what happens and most often the book is picked up with minutes of being left on its own. In one case I watched as on person picked up three books I had left in close proximity to each other. Are the instructions on the sticker too vague or unclear? I've had people review the instructions and the feedback I have gotten is that the the directions are fine, although in English and some books have been left in countries where English is not the dominant language. Are the books being read? Since the major goal of this project is simply to get people engaged in reading I can only hope that since the response rate is so low that people are picking up the book and either leave them laying around at home until they find time to read it. Which may explain the lack of responses. People haven't had time to sit down and read the book then pass it on and let me know. At least the books are getting into peoples hands. What happens after that I have no control over. I'm sure there are other reasons for such a low contact rate but not to be discouraged we will continue to send out books on a regular basis. I now have a number of people who are assisting me in this endeavour by relocating books to other countries as they travel the globe. So keep your eyes on the "Where Are They Now" link as there will be some hobo tomes ending up in some very unique places within the next few months. Later next week a bunch of the gang have indicated that they will embark on another trip to Vancouver to escape the upcoming cold weather that will engulf us here in Calgary sometime in the fall. So if you're travelling along the TransCanada Highway during the September long weekend you may come across one of our wayward waifs looking for a new home. Let me know if you do.

Sitting by the fan enjoying the breeze

Nothing like searing heat to push one into placing a long, long overdue post.  There has been lots of books moving out on their own for the past few weeks. Just check the Where Are They Now link for the latest in travel destinations of our wandering tomes. Over the next few weeks a number of books will find themselves new homes in some very diverse locals. The Columbia Valley is about to experience an influx of twenty to thirty books scattered from the towns of  Golden to Cranbrook British Columbia during the next three weeks. If you're in the area keep your eyes open for our travelling buddies. The Big Island of Hawaii particularly the Kona area is about to get some new residents as at least three or more books are about to embark on an escapade in the sun. The Calgary Folk Fest will have some unexpected guests on July 21st as a number of books have expressed interest in attending the opening nights activities. If you're heading down to the Fest that night look around for books waiting to be adopted.  There'll be another post shortly which has a vague link to the subject area of this site but maybe not.

Finding Fun In The Sun But Not For All.

Not to be outdone by their fellow travellers who made their way to Vancouver nine tramping tomes secreted themselves in luggage bound for Maui on April 30th. Landing safely at Kahului airport our wandering waifs disembarked at eleven in the morning to be greeted by a bright sunny eighty-two degree day as palm trees aided by the late morning trade winds waved a welcoming aloha. Within less than a day one of our nine would be on its way back to the mainland and headed for a new home. Early on the morning of May 1st, Eat, Prey, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was adopted by a newly wed just finishing her honeymoon at the Maui Marriott in Wailea and whisked back to Boston later that day. Hardly enough time for a pinocalada by the pool or a dip in the ocean. Shouldn't have stopped for that early morning cup of Starbucks where it was found enjoying a latte at the time of adoption. Maybe it'll get to see game seven  between the Bruins and the Lightening. The others faired much better. Fanny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger was last seen lingering around the same Starbucks at the Maui Marriott Resort in Wailea. Three of our sun worshippers made it off the island and on to another island off the coast of Maui. W;t (not a typo) by Margaret Edison was seen on a table that was holding a large Buddha at the Four Seasons Resort on the island of Lanai. Comfort To The Enemy by Elmore Leonard liked the ferry ride from Lahaina to Lanai so much that staying on the boat until someone decided took him home was the only option. The club house at The Challenge at Manele golf course on Lanai was in such a beautiful setting that Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell decided to hang around the lobby and enjoy the scenery. Speaking of lobbies both For One More Day by Mitch Albom and Galore by Michael Crummy were seen sipping Mai Tai's and watching the black swans and parrots in the lobby garden area of the Kaanapali Westin Resort. Just a short stroll down the seaside walkway The Silver Spike by Glen Cook was munching on a pineapple dog and coconut milkshake at the Haagen Daz in Whalers Village. Not to be out done for a culinary feast A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly lined up for lunch at the Cane and Taro Restaurant at the other end of the village. When last heard from all were enjoying the sun looking no worse for wear and fitting into the island life thank you very much. While back in the real world two very envious tramps made their way down to the Good Earth Cafe on 11street SW in Calgary on Saturday. Trying To Save Piggy Sneed by John Irving and Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman with long pale faces sit slumped on the window ledge where they can only dream of an exotic island paradise for them to explore. So for now all they can do is sit and watch the traffic go buy on this warm sunny Saturday afternoon.

Quietly Slipping Away

Talk among the travelers has it that two of the tomes slipped away from the group during a stop in Salmon Arm B.C.. They were last seen enjoying a latte in The Pink Cherry Cafe on Sunday April 24th. They go by the names Gulliver's Travels and Dear Undercover Economist. If you happen to find one or both of them please report their location to Hobotomes@Shaw.ca. Late breaking news. Six more of the group have defected. Since arriving in Vancouver in the late afternoon yesterday and after getting a good nights rest several of the books conspired to find places to stay. Those left behind said that after watching the Canucks lose to the Hawks Sunday night and force a game seven in Vancouver on Tuesday night that they were determined to watch the game at a local sports bar. Two of the wayward books were last seen in the Boulevard Cafe on the campus of The University of British Columbia. They were seen at about 10am asking for directions to the nearest pub.Their names are The Undercover Economist and The Unconscious Civilization. Later today at about 4:30 pm The Flounder, Discarded Science, and The Logic of Life quietly broke ranks and joined the rest of the rain soaked Vancouverites looking for some respite from the April showers. They were spotted slowly making their way into The Beanery Coffee House also on the University of British Columbia's campus in a student housing complex. It appeared as though they were trying to conceal their identities by huddling together underneath an umbrella. If you happen upon any of them report their whereabout's immediately.

Diaspora of Books

An exodus of 13 transient books will take place tomorrow morning.  A group of books tired and weary of Calgary's long snowy winter hid themselves inside a motor vehicle scheduled to start making its way to Vancouver Sunday morning at about 5am. Their plan is to quietly disembark one at a time or maybe in twos whenever the driver stops for gas or something to eat and find new homes to be adopted into. They will scatter themselves along the TransCanada Highway at various towns and rest stops looking for temporary places to stay until their journey continues again. Three or four of them indicated at the organizational meeting that they planned on going all the way to Vancouver just in case the Canucks made it to the second round of the playoffs and maybe take in a game. If you happen to come across any of the wandering vagabonds look for the sticker on their cover or on the inside of their jacket for details on what to do with your new found friend.

Hobo Tomes on the loose

Another three books made there way out into the great unknown yesterday. Check the Vendome Cafe in Hillhurst as to there whereabouts.

More books on the lamb

Three more books will make their escape into the great unknown this morning at the Purple Perk on 4th street sw Calgary. Look for them at about 11am. They'll be the ones with the owl on the front or inside the cover.

Awesome looks for a new home

Two books will be dropped off at the Vendome Cafe sometime this afternoon. They are The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha and Slow Death By Rubber Duck by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. Don't forget to e-mail me when you pick these up. Thanks.

My Commonplace Book But Not Really

There's nothing like a good old fashioned cold complete with sniffles, sneezing, runny nose, sore body parts and mild headaches to keep ones procrastination quota at its upper limit. Needless to say I successfully avoided just about all manner of  real human contact and dare I say my attempts to avoid the cyber crowd where there was no danger of passing along my unwanted communal discomfort were reasonably fruitful albeit sporadic in as much as one can attempt to ignore those annoying reminders that there is someone waiting at my digital door like some desperate politician in the last few days before the election knowing there's no hope but trying desperately to garner the requisite number of votes to get his deposit back. So with health restored and a federal election in the offing which will surely bring on those nagging bits of mind numbing rhetorical double speak that so often litter the well worn path we call the election trail I will forge ahead into the yawning vortex of digital density and extract from my notes something to add to this seething cauldron of smouldering cyber babble that threatens to darken every cloud and eventually to unleash a downpour of meaningless 140 character forgotten messages upon our over stimulated central processing units. So does anybody bother to take note or keep notes on all this electronic spew? Which brings me, sort of, to the point of this long delayed piece. Throughout the ages Western intellectuals have had a rich tradition of gathering the memorable thoughts, ideas, inspirational passages from each other and transcribing them into  personal journals for referencing later. This practice was called "commonplacing" and the tomes housing all these quotes and observations were called "commonplace" books.  Historically, a commonplace book was a written document or more precisely a series of either transcribed reproductions of quotes and ideas that were important to the reader. Sort of like a scrapbook of interesting citations, quotes and ideas for the collector to refer to later. I must admit that I had not heard of such a thing until stumbling upon a discussion of the subject by Steven Johnson in his recently published book "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History Of Innovation". Johnson describes how such great thinkers such as John Locke kept detailed notes and even devised elaborate systems for indexing the books entries. As one advocate that Johnson quotes, that maintaining the books enabled one to "lay up a fund of knowledge, from which we may at all times select what is useful in the pursuits of life". Johnson's discussion in his book and a subsequent reading of a lecture he gave at Columbia University convinced me that somewhere in the clutter and chaos that quite accurately characterizes the physical surroundings in which I find myself reflecting on the vicissitudinous of everyday life and occasionally commenting on it that somewhere in there lies a comonplace book. You see ever since I can remember I have been commonplacing well sort of. I would put little sticky notes in the pages of books where passages would be circled or starred in pencil  vowing to get back to it later when the time was right to use that perfect quote or idea for some now long forgotten article or inclusion in the great novel always forthcoming but never appearing. Stacks of aged and yellowing newspaper clippings added to almost every weekend stored for just that exact time when needed to enhance that incomplete thought languish under the window next to my desk. When I attended University and later graduate school I maintained filing cabinets full of  academic journal articles, texts and class notes used for writing papers and my thesis then later storing them in my garage in cardboard boxes damp and musty from sitting on the concrete floor just in case I may need them some day. Then while working I began gathering again articles, newspaper clippings and such filling up files and corners of my office occasionally passing one on to other staff if I felt it would interest them all the while I continued to read and place little coloured sticky notes in the pages where interesting things were said because you never know when you may need that ideal quote for that book you're going to write someday really soon. Today a few years removed from the corporate world I have most of the books still holding the little reminders some faded some new and still brightly coloured as I continue my own version of commonplacing.  I sit here looking around for the next book to set free for the Hobo Tomes Project my eyes are met by discarded book jackets of tomes already set loose, piles of  new and old newspaper articles and an army of books with little coloured tags hanging from their pages like long forgotten medals some with more than others indicating  recognition for a job well done for heroic effort in enhancing my knowledge base. But yet all those colours haunt me like some repetitive nightmare coming at me night after night demanding that I organize, index and file them away for safe keeping calling out time and time again for their own commonplace book but I am happy here in my own organized chaos. Maybe one day I will I promise I will maybe even use all these new apps from the web to categorize and systematize but then what of all those gluey bits of coloured paper there'll be no room for them in my digital commonplace book. So I think I'll just keep things the way they are for now surrounded by my own version of a commonplace book but not really.

Latest Tramps Head To Hong Kong

Three more books have hit the international circuit. One in a McDonalds in Hong Kong and two others somewhere in the same city. Two more were left at the Purple Perk today during the noon hour. Check the Where Are They Now link for locations of books.

Keeping The Mind Invigorated Through Reading

In the March issue of The Calgary Journal the Focus section deals with the advantages of reading also touching on the positive impact reading has on literacy.  There's a nice article on Bookcrossing which I have referred to in an earlier blog . The link can be found under resources.

Project Update: It's now been just over two months since I initiated The Hobo Tomes Project. There are 26 books out there tramping around the US and Canada.  So far I have only 1 person contact me to let me know that they have adopted a book. Follow up on most of the locations where books were left indicate that the books have been taken in by someone. If you have one of these books please contact me at the e-mail address on the sticker. Six books are heading off to Japan and other countries in that area next week. Also next week 3 more tomes will be off to sunny Mexico to fun in the sun. If you have any feedback please enter it in the comment box below the post. I'm just finishing up a pretty interesting book called "A History Of Reading" by Alberto Manguel. It's a good historical analysis of what it means and how we came to be  readers of words. This is one book I won't part with anytime soon. The chapter called "Metaphors of Reading" was one of my favourites.

One of the reasons I started this blog centred around this nagging feeling that something wasn't right about  how information was being disseminated throughout society. It seems to me that we and the social groups we belong to are increasingly becoming dependent on visual sets of cues with little or no written words  of explanation.  I find this particularly prominent within the digital world where e-mails messages are full of symbols such as smiley faces to indicate happiness, acronyms for short phrase LOL, where facebook is a giant photo album where one picture can invoke an entire short story of one's life. Let alone youtube where users up load videos of themselves exposing their darkest secrets or hoping to be discovered and where fifteen minutes of fame is just around the digital corner. Let's not forget Twitter where 140 characters is all you're aloud to get your point across. No longer is it necessary or even acceptable to eloquently express oneself to others for fear of infringing too long on their precious time. Because it is time and our supposed lack thereof that drives us to demand quick images that are easier to interpret and ask for shorter sentences supposedly packed with information so as not to delay or slow us  from our next task. What does this all mean for the act of reading? Will we eventually as a society move away from reading as an act of learning and leisure?  Something to invigorate our minds with untold interpretations of the same words by so many others and where these differing opinions enter into a dialogue from which new and exciting ideas emerge. Can this occur within the context of the digital world which seems to be ever so much progressively dominating our cultural milieu. As much as I see these various digital forms as necessary and worthwhile tools  I can't help getting that nagging feeling every time I use one of these tools that it's taking away, possibly forever, my ability to dedicate the needed time for reading. From this I can't help wandering what the future of reading will be.

I would like to invite everyone who reads this post to engage in dialogue on the "future of reading". You can join the conversation on The Hobo Tomes facebook page. Just enter the discussion section where I will post the question or if you want to post a comment you can do that here underneath this post.

 

Do You Have An Idea?

I'm involved with another project that just had its organizing meeting on March 4th. It's called Awesome Calgary. Check out our site at awesomecalgary.org. We give away money for creative ideas that will contribute the overall good of the Calgary community. Send us your ideas by following the application process set out on the site. I will have another blog post later today and I will also post my first discussion question in the discussion section of The Hobo Tomes Project Facebook page also later today.

Three More Travellers

Three books were left at the Kaffa Coffee and Salsa House located in the Marda Loop area Calgary Alberta. The time was about 2:30 pm today Sunday Feb. 29, 2011. Let me know if you decide to adopt any of our wayward wanderers.

It's all about the noise

I have changed the look of the blog again. The list of books has been moved into the page titled "Where are they now". This page will list all the books that are out roaming the world and where they were last seen. I will update their locations as I get that information. In the near future I'm hoping to include a map showing where all the books are currently located. The second page I've added is the "Quotations" in which you will find inspirational quotes about reading. Feel free to send me any quotes you would like to include on that page. Send your contributions to the Hobo Tomes e-mail address HoboTomes@shaw.ca.

In my Feb. 15th, 2011 blog I spoke about how we live in an environment in which we are constantly being distracted by images and sounds vying for our attention. Our social milieu is one of endless interruptions limiting us to short bursts of concentration followed by long periods of sensory stimulation geared to have us engage in some form of consumption and making us feel inadequate if we don't. This became all to apparent one day as I stopped to take notice of all the "noise" that was surrounding me while I engaged in my daily workout at the local gym. I arrived as I usually do at about 7:45 am proceeded to change and head up to the exercise area. On my way I stop to fill my water bottle and put my headphones from my ipod into my ears. I was also carrying a book since it was Tuesday and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I spend an hour  on the elliptical machine and with nothing else to do but move my legs and arms back and forth I set my book in front of me on the shelf designed for this and read for an hour to escape the monotony of the situation. An activity which is supposed to make me healthy, energetic and by recent newspaper accounts slow the aging process. Funny how although I have been doing this now for over six years my age still increases with every passing year and now the government has got into the act by reminding me just how old I am by insisting that I register for the Canada Pension Plan. You would think that they would knock off a couple of years for good exercising behaviour like they do for the criminals housed in our hotels of detention. So as I mount the elliptical apparatus ipod at the ready to drown out the ever present local radio station playing over the loud speakers, book clutched to my bosom I resign my self to the fact that for the next hour I will joyfully immerse my intellect in the well of words, soak my psyche with literary largess while the guy on my left loudly grunts with every stride and the lady on my right moves so fast that when I look over her way I see nothing but a human blur so fast I almost swoon. Did I mention that these machines have televisions which I immediately turn on to the business channel to watch the stock quotes as they move by at the bottom of the screen in an endless loop. Now I'm ready ipod on music playing, television set to business the channel grunty guy grunting blur lady blurring local radio station coming through during the quiet moments between songs I set the elliptical to sixty minutes open my book move my arms and legs back and forth and start reading taking my hand off the apparatus only to turn pages. The cacophony of sound and images constantly competing for my consideration unstoppable for the entire sixty minutes but yet I continue to read until the end. I finally extricate my self from from my false sense of isolation clean the machine congratulate my self for reading thirty or so pages only to realize when I get home that I don't remember a thing from the book and I'll have to read them all over again. But, hey the stock market was up, I watched the highlights from the previous nights hockey games, over heard numerous conversations, got some exercise so not all was lost especially since I stopped on the way home to pick some things I really needed.

Atlantic Canada welcomes some wayward books

Two tomes have found their way to Nova Scotia. The Natural by Bernard Malamud can be found lounging around the T.A.N. Coffee Shop in Wolfville and The Authenticity Hoax by Andrew Potter is enjoying the scenery at Just Us Coffee Shop also in Wolfville Nova Scotia. Idiot Proof by Francis Wheen was seen waiting for a flight at the Ottawa International Airport in the Air Canada lounge.

More Hobo Tomes about to hit the streets

Yesterday, The Confession by John Grisham was left at the Good Earth Cafe on 11th Street SW in Calgary Alberta. Two more books will be set free tomorrow at the Purple Perk on 4th Street SW in Calgary at about noon and two more will be released in Vancouver within the next couple of days. These will most likely be left in the student union building on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Don't forget to e-mail me the details if you happen to find one of our wandering tomes. I will update the list shortly.

Our first adoption

I'm pleased to announce that The Reversal by Michael Connelly was adopted from the Oolong Tea House in Calgary Canada on Feb. 9, 2011. I'm looking forward to hearing about its adventures.
A couple of pieces of information I wanted to pass on. This first bit is more directed at those people who take a more spiritual path to reading. Although I not inclined to do so I found this book of particular interest in its approach to reading and engaging the written word. The book is "In Bed with the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics." by Daniel Coleman. The major theme as I see it centres around our concern for living in a social milieu of constant distractions and that we need some special "quiet time" in order to reconnect with ourselves in a more meaningful way. Since reading requires time and is reflective and also requires the reader to be an active participant with the words reading can be seen as antithetical to modern consumerist society where we live in constant distraction impatiently consuming while the bombardment of media images surrounds us most of our waking hours. Reading takes us away from this struggle to have us engage in the material world so it has become as Coleman describes as "counter-cultural" to the society that is evolving today. I find this notion interesting in that it clashes with the idea that we read simply to escape from the outside and slip into a fantasy world for a few hours in order to shut out the pressures of our daily lives. Reading when seen as "counter-cultural" implies an act of rebellion against the accepted norm of  corporate sponsored consumption. An active as opposed to a passive activity. If you have any thoughts on this please post them.
The second thing I wanted to bring up was the Bibliotherapy movement which apparently has been around for some time. Basically, the premise is that reading can assist us to repair and rejuvenate our bodies as well as our minds. Prescribed reading of specific texts in response to certain conditions or situations has become popular among physicians, teachers, and psychologists. "Reading, writing and revelation: How the written word helps refresh body mind and soul." by Ursula Sautter was published in the October 2010 edition of Ode magazine. Bibliotherapy has many forms from reading to block out pain to guided self-help therapy for people suffering from mind depression, phobias, or other anxiety disorders. You can read the article if you go to odemagazine.com look in the archives for this edition.
It's interesting to explore the many facets of reading which I hope will generate dialogue in the future.

Simplexity on the fly

I heard from one of my emissaries that Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger  was left near the Jacksonville Florida airport. It was adopted a couple of hours later. The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely was orphaned at Higher Grounds coffee shop in  the Kensington area of Calgary on Sat. Feb. 5. No word as to its whereabouts as of yet.  One month into the project and there are a total of 14 books out for adoption in Calgary and three cities in the USA. So far no one has contacted me to update the whereabouts of these orphaned texts.
I have started to put together a Facebook page for the project. You can look for it at The Hobo Tomes Project on Facebook.

Finding Orphaned Books

Starting today I will let readers know when and where some of the books will be left to be found. A book by Laura Penny, Your Call is Important to Us will be dropped off today or tomorrow at the Purple Perk cafe on 4th. street sw in  Calgary. Look for it among the stack of books at the north wall above the newspapers located on the shelf between the benches. Another book, How To Live, by Henry Alford will be dropped off at the Bullet Cappuccino Bar, also in Calgary on Northmount Drive and 10th street nw. Look  just to the right of the front door as you enter. Check to make sure there is a sticker with the owl reading a book. Some books will have the sticker inside the cover. So before adopting our wayward publication check for the sticker.

New Features to the blog

You will notice that I have added two new features to the blog. The first is Hobo Tomes Resources which is a number of links you can go to for information about various topics followed and discussed in this blog. If you have any links you would like put into the resource centre please e-mail them to me at HoboTomes@shaw.ca. For that matter if you have comments, questions or ideas you can e-mail them to me at the same address or use the comment box by clicking the bar underneath the blog and adding your ideas.  Secondly, I have begun to list the books that are out there travelling the world. I hope to get some stories and information soon about some of my vagabond books.
Recently I was on a two and a half hour flight to warm weather and golf when I noticed a fair number of my fellow travellers were using e-readers, Kindles, I-Pads etc.. I was given an I-Pad for christmas but I have yet to use it for reading a book. I still prefer the old school method of actually holding the book in my hands and turning the pages rather than moving my finger across the screen to turn the page. Two things stood out for me. First was the number of what I would call older people or people of age who were using these electronic devices. People of say approximately 50 plus in years were engaged with these things. I counted 10 grey haired individuals in my general vicinity who were busily running their fingers over the screen, tapping buttons, generally keeping the pain of arthritis away by moving their fingers about every few seconds. As I watched my fellow passengers enrapt with their 6 to 9 inch screens it unnerved me  to see how fleeting are relationships with books was becoming. We simply download read and delete. No bookshelf to store the bulky reminders of stories once read. Nothing to jog our fading memories of events that occurred while spending a holiday abroad. Every time I run across one of my tattered copies of  the three Lord of the Rings books I'm reminded of a trip I took to New Zealand during 1975-76. Frodo Baggins and his friends accompanied me all over the north and south islands of New Zealand providing comfort and solace as I sat by the side of the road waiting for my next ride to somewhere. Again this morning I was reminded of this tenuous relationship that is emerging with books when I came upon a quote that really has no relevance to this but I changed by deleting a couple of words and adding others to give some meaning to this topic. So with apologies to Washington Irving and all his descendants here it is :


"How idle a boast,after all, is the immortality of a book! Time is ever silently turning over his pages; we are too much engrossed by the story of the present to think of the character and anecdotes that gave interest to the past, and each book is a volume thrown aside to be speedily forgotten."

The year was 1825. If you have any thoughts on this please e-mail or comment.

The Second Edition of Hobo Tomes Jan. 12, 2011

After a brief holiday and some  research into providing more info for the reader I'm happy to report that there are now 10 books out there in the world at large fending for themselves. A small contribution compared to a web site I was told about today. It's called bookcrossing.com. Check it out if your interested. They claim to have over 850,000 people registered for the web site world wide. To be honest it's everything I don't want this blog to become. A commercial enterprise to be sure but let's not forget the goal of these sites is to encourage people to read so if it meets that goal then so be it. But that's not the way this blog is going to go if I can help it.
As I mentioned there are now 10 books out floating around various places in the US and Canada. I will reveal the names of the books and where they are located once the specific information becomes available to me. For now I can say that 4 books are in the Palm Springs area of California. I hope who ever finds these will follow the instructions on the sticker.
I will be completing my profile within the next couple of days. I also have started a spreadsheet to keep track of the books out there.
I ran across an interesting article today in the Globe and Mail which I would like to share with you. It led me to a web site dedicated to the National Reading Campaign. Here are the sites: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/national-book-count-aims-to-show-that-books-count/article1866480/,http://nationalreadingcampaign.ca/ ,http://nationalreadingcampaign.ca/web-resources/
Some great information and provocative ideas from these articles and resources. Have a look and when I get the discussion section of the blog up and running we can then generate some dialogue on the issues. I hope this is a good start to building a community of concerned people who want to be engaged in preserving the art of reading.