Audio Books vs. Kindles/Nooks vs. Book Books

It’s noth­ing if not an unfair match-up. Unprece­dented even. The ver­sus tag might be bet­ter left off, but so be it.

Let’s begin at the reverse with ‘BOOK BOOKS’

I’m not a “book whore.” And that last is not my term. A ter­ri­bly tal­ented young lady, who I knew for the bet­ter part of my time at University of the Vir­gin Islands (UVI), declared that she was to a book club group I attended. No one bat­ted an eyelash–not pro­fes­sors or stu­dents, and so I pre­tended I under­stood how some­one got to be that way.

I’ve loved books for a life­time, maybe even from the womb.  A per­sonal marker: my Aun­tie D tak­ing me to the library in New York to get my first library card.  After that, I was hemmed up like un-expectant moth­ers dur­ing their 6-week reprieve. Done in. Caught up again.
I am a hoarder of books. I have slept with books. Unlike the self­same shoe habit, the for­mer hap­pens by acci­dent, since I main­tain a revolv­ing stack of books by my bed­side, all demand­ing atten­tion before sleep claims me. I don’t hap­pen to care whether there is a cover, or if there are pages that I have to attach and reat­tach again and again. The fact is: It’s love and I have already made the firm deci­sion to trea­sure it.

Anaïs Nin might be mor­ti­fied if she saw the state of A Spy in the House of Love. I’ve read and reread it too many times to count, but it was in awful shape when I got it and it remains well loved among the liv­ing and most treasured.

Which brings me to a point that I find strange: I do not love or enjoy the smell of books. There is noth­ing appeal­ing about a new or old book smell.

I do not sniff my books. They serve a more tac­tile func­tion. I like the feel of books.  As a child, I liked to read up-close and then drag my index fin­ger under each line when the mood struck. I do this even as now as an adult book lover. My smudged fin­ger­prints here and there could prob­a­bly tell their own story.

What of an aural buzz via audio books?

I’ve lis­tened to one audio book in my life—Ladies Who Launch: Embrac­ing Entre­pre­neur­ship & Cre­ativ­ity as a Lifestyle. I con­sid­ered it an achieve­ment, although it was not some­thing, that I would nec­es­sar­ily revisit or attempt to curl up with.

Hav­ing curled up and fallen asleep to music in my ears, I’m won­der­ing what gives here. I don’t dis­like audio books, but there is sim­ply no love to be lost or found here. I would and have quickly passed that sec­tion in my local library and book­store again and again. Even for the chal­lenge and plea­sure of lis­ten­ing to the whole KJV, I promise you there is still lit­tle to no appeal.

Hon­estly, I think it comes down to inter­tex­u­al­ity or this idea of hav­ing an ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tion with the author(s) and the words on the page–without the obvi­ous fil­ter of a third party voice.

Would my opin­ion be dif­fer­ent if it were recorded in the author’s voice? Prob­a­bly not, as he/she would still feel like an intru­sion on that “imag­i­nary” con­ver­sa­tion or on any flights of fancy my imag­i­na­tion would like to take.

What’s with the New Media demands by the Kin­dles and Nooks…?

The Kin­dles and Nooks have come court­ing. And they’re good. Per­sis­tent. Can’t turn on my life, or a cor­ner with­out being reminded about how acces­si­ble the wide world of pub­lish­ing has become. And I pause here to give my due respect, because that last fact of access is much the same rea­son I appre­ci­ate the very exis­tence of the paper­back novel.

Some­one even went to the trou­ble to make it more per­mis­si­ble and advan­ta­geous to enjoy your New Media with­out any loss of that (essen­tial) book smell.

I won’t pre­tend at this point. Some­times I want to jump into this New Media love­fest, head first, with my eyes wide shut. How­ever, there is almost always the lin­ger­ing fric­tion of cost vs. emo­tional value vs. purist ten­den­cies vs. what­ever I please.

Right now I am remind­ing myself that one tech­no­log­i­cal gain doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily cre­ate loss or pre­med­i­tate loss. But it is so easy to for­get.  Per­haps that is why even as I write I am long­ing for the Strand, or that book­store off Strand Street, or even the guy with the fold­away table on 68th and Lex where I bought the musti­est (I didn’t have to smell it to know) Hem­ing­way known to man or woman.

I am a book worm and even a bit (more) of a bibliophile.

Some­one once said the words to me: ‘I need to feel your weight on me.’ Preg­nable moment there. I’m a lit­tle sheep­ish now in mem­ory, but I like the impli­ca­tion of those words and they fit here. I need to feel the weight of words bound up in a “book book,” and I need that weight to be felt through these fin­gers and in these hands.

Do you have a favorite medium or mem­ory of reading?

ABOUT THE WRITER

Hi there, I’m Tynisha Leon, founder and Editor-in-Chief of DASHEEN mag­a­zine — the online des­ti­na­tion where cul­ture feeds imag­i­na­tion! I am a cul­tural war­rior first and fore­most; and for me that sim­ply means that I am a light bearer for all things intrin­si­cally cul­tural and Caribbean. If you seek to inno­vate, pro­mote and/or con­tribute to posi­tioning a Caribbean peo­ple and gen­er­a­tion most pos­i­tively then link me! Bless!