I just listened to a panel on CBC Radio: “The Future of the Book.” An hour of people across the writing and publishing spectrum in a race to the bottom detailing the impending tyranny of digital reading and the electronic reader. Everyone had a hard fact and a study to back up the dark days ahead scenario but it all amounted to the same refrain: Privacy, profits, privacy, profits, over and over again. Got the point the first time. What I didn’t hear any discussion about was how the ideas that come out of ANY kind of reading, like in music, can fuel imaginations and bring some (any?) kind of change. What a bunch of grumblers. More reading & writing at all costs I say.
Or maybe I’m the complainer…
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