Well here it is the beginning of another year of The Hobo Tomes Project. Actually it's already past the first month of the second year but who's counting. What is there to be learned from the first year of the project? The popular media and the digital dingbat digerati continue to forecast the end of real books, libraries, and bookstores. The facts don't bare out their prophesies. Books continue to be bought from sellers and borrowed from libraries. Although big chains such as Borders continue to have problems all sorts of independent book sellers are starting up niche stores to fill the gap left by the closure of these chains. Libraries are reinventing themselves as nodes of cultural and community gathering spaces centred around a commitment to enhancing the reading experience. So, no the reading of books and deep thinking that goes with it is not passé regardless of those twits who tweet on Twitter that seem to think that communicating in half sentences mixed with silly symbols over the internet is somehow a movement up the intellectual food chain. Quaint they are but bereft of intellectual depth they have become while grasping on to the only tool that defines their reality they anxiously await the next digital "ding" that separates them from the world around them.
In the past year I'm happy to report that over 140 books have been left in public spaces in just about every continent on earth. I still have some 30 titles to up load to the "Where are they now" link which will bring the total to 170. I certainly would not have achieved this number without the help of friends and relatives who were kind enough to pack a few books into their luggage and deposit our wayward words in different places around the globe. I still do not receive many e-mails from those who find and adopt the books which is disappointing but at least the books are out there somewhere. It certainly would add to the project if I had more stories about the books travels to put into this blog. Frankly, I'm not that surprised by the lack of responses. One possible explanation is the degree of cynicism emerging about the consumerist world we have created. We are inundated by thousands of messages daily trying to influence our consumptive behaviour so when we come upon a book with a sticker implying that it's free just e-mail a response we naturally think of it as just another marketing gimmick by someone trying to get our e-mail address to sell us more stuff so we either walk away or take it home but don't respond. No one said this community building was going to be easy but we'll see what this next year brings us. Once I can establish a core group of readers and start generating dialogue around topics of mutual concern then I hope the community will begin to evolve. Until then the travelling tomes will make their way out into the world at large to generate some deep thinking and pleasure as they go. Any comments or e-mails would be greatly appreciated. It's all about the sharing of ideas.
