Hooray for the printed word

  Hooray for Stephen King.  It’s about time somebody spoke up for the written word.  And when I say the written word, I’m not talking about Nooks or downloadable books that you can customer order like a friggin pizza.  Stephen King, god bless him, has elected NOT to release his latest novel in any digital form.  That’s right.  If you want Stephen King’s latest work, you’ll have to go to a bookstore and pick it up off of the shelf and purchase it.  That’s music to my ears and I absolutely applaud your stance Mister King.  To me, there is nothing more sacred than a leaving breathing book.  I’m actually on record as saying that I will never download a book and I will never use a kindle.   When there are no more bricks and mortar bookstores in existence, then maybe, just maybe, I’ll begrudgingly adapt to the new technologies in terms of the books I purchase.  Still, as good as Stephen King’s stance is and as much hope as it gives me that maybe certain pleasures are still sacred, I fear that it’s all in vain.  The fickle winds of an uncertain economy have already had a rather jarring effect on the print media.  The days are coming when the current model that the Chicago Tribune uses will be a reality; IE, paying for the headlines you read via the internet.  Maybe I’m holding on to the past because the printed word in its original form is the last cherished entity of my childhood and my adolescence.  But I’m not unaware.  Like the movie houses I grew up with and the neighborhood of my youth, everything will eventually turn over and the guideposts of my existence will be paved over by the steamrollers of both time and progress.  I dread the day when I’ll be watching the news and some newscaster will be bemoaning the loss of the last physical bookstore.  But for now….. Here’s to books and here’s to newspaper.  Here’s to reading as we know it; an art form that seems to be staring down extinction in its present and most greatest form.