| Illiteracy, as we know it, is one of the most profound | | | | genres will continue to curl up on their armchairs like |
| problems our social, cultural, and even political | | | | they've always done. |
| stratosphere has ever faced. Less and less children | | | | But there is a searing twist to some of these oldest of |
| nowadays are enthusiastic enough to pick up a | | | | leisurely (and business-friendly) habits. Some who |
| simplistically manufactured stock of paper that opens | | | | regularly prefer to read without those exceptionally |
| them up to a world in which they can intricately and | | | | annoying Net ads across the screen of the full-text |
| artistically interpret their own ideas upon. Moreover, the | | | | pages on, say, Google can't help but now register |
| only people now willing to read in great numbers are | | | | online for copies of their favorite "non-digital" books. |
| very mature adults. Not surprisingly, this only increases | | | | The greatest twist is that these books are now |
| the world's all-important youth reading deficit. The | | | | digitalized, and they're still willing to pick up the |
| saddest news of all, though, is that this grandly | | | | socio-cultural slack they've been enduring for all their |
| fundamental problem will only continue to accelerate at | | | | lives. Online books are nothing new, but those |
| an adrenal pace in the not-so-distant post-modern | | | | tech-savvy enough in their day jobs as accountants, |
| future. | | | | managers, journalists, and, most noticeably enough, |
| But there is some hope. In order to effectively adapt to | | | | librarians, see the benefits as well as the challenges |
| an ever-changing world of techno-cultural habits, some | | | | involved. However, what happens when they transfer |
| of today's biggest Internet and software providers are | | | | their oldest treasures to a format more capable of |
| beginning to digitalize some of the world's oldest literary | | | | producing stunningly flashy graphic images, razor-sharp |
| works. Yet, the problem that comes along with this | | | | sound bites, and sometimes morally and socially |
| change is the fact that purism should play a significant | | | | inappropriate MySpace-like "seminars"? There are |
| role. | | | | definitely no easy answers to this provocative |
| Most great stories can never make a successful leap | | | | question, yet many are just starting to cope. |
| into the digital age. Since many people are immediately | | | | What it all comes down to is this: the Net may totally |
| thrust into worlds in their collective imagination, albeit | | | | "liberate" the world from the most potent taboos of |
| "real" or "surreal," it is still highly likely that they may not | | | | the publishing microcosm, or it may just not, as it |
| have the imminent audacity to read on such a | | | | always has. The ultimate truth is that we just don't |
| photogenically sensitive LCD screen. Therefore, it is | | | | know what the future holds for those who love, and |
| probably best to say that such explosively avid | | | | those who malnourish, the portable thing we call the |
| readers of the classics and the most popular works of | | | | printed book. |
| culinary arts, poetry, mystery, and all too many other | | | | |