Week 16

My reading as a child and now…

When I was young I read feverously, I have a feeling many of us who are spending good money to become librarians could say the same. For me, it was R.L. Stine’s Goosebump series, they engrossed me in slightly spooky worlds that entertained me and made me love the act of reading. I found that the interaction between the words on the page and the images conjured in my head were more vivid and lasting than any video game, movie, or television show I had experienced. I also learned that when I was at a store with my mother, she might be reluctant to buy me a toy, but I don’t believe she ever told me I couldn’t leave with a book. I distinctly remember that by the time I was in the 6^th grade I had read and loved T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, I still love that book so much that I even used it as an example for something in this class. I’m not sure how much I understood of the subtext as a young reader, but I remember that the book program between my elementary school and Pizza Hut credited me enough point to get a whole personal pan peperoni pizza on that book alone! I can’t explain why I remember that, but as I grew older the love of books never left, as my ability to understand context and history grew so did my love of books. By my 3^rd year of high school I knew I wanted words and books to be my life (at that time I wanted to be an English teacher), I took every class that was based on books. During my undergrad degree I majored in English with a minor in Classical studies, I was disillusioned on teaching by then, but I wanted to make my life around words. As most English students can probably relate to, I’ve forgotten how many books I’ve read and forgotten a lot of books I have read. As an adult, reading is still important to me, I find the same interaction with books now that I remember loving as a child. To answer the question shortly, I don’t think my reading habits have changed since I was a child, just my capacity to experience books deeper.

Reading in the Future

I think the largest change that awaits books specifically deals with corporate publishers. Looking at the rise of Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu and other like services used by ‘cable-cutters’, the decline of the music industry’s major record labels influence, and the culture of content creation on platforms like Youtube and Twitch, it seems books will enjoy a indie publisher boom very soon. I think all the things I just listed are a response to the digital era, but I think it shows that there is a culture of people who like to seek creative content that is not tainted by mass media influence. This is a personal and subjective feeling, and I’ll grant I haven’t watched a television show on a major network during its actual run-time in nearly 10 years. The internet has allowed self-publishing of all kinds of content to be easy and lucrative without as much necessary middle-men taking money away from your bottom line as a content producer. I don’t anticipate this changing the kinds of books that are written or read, but an increase in selection and availability of books. I also think libraries would be wise to find ways to promote and grow the indie publisher scene so they can be a part of my anticipated resurgence.