So True!

This is from Shelf Awareness today:

NBA Judge: Books Are 'Joyful Things to Behold'


"I am holding books in my hands, in my lap, all day long--joyful things
to behold, to hold onto--hefty and crisp. Even the uncorrected galleys
have weight--the smell of paper and words.... One day I look at the pile
and imagine they are all electronic books. Electronic books are
eligible; it's possible I could be reading on a Kindle or a Nook or the
poetically named Sony PRS-700. All this reading could be on a gray
screen; I could be clicking buttons instead of turning pages. In the
bookless future a few of these books predict, there would be no boxes,
no piles....

"I would, of course, have gone mad, thrown the little plastic thing out
the window long ago. The real glory of all these books is simply that
they exist. They will endure in the world as solid things. I love the
piles--the teetering, heavy, uneven piles, the cumbersome crowding of
books thick and thin. These are piles of piled-up things, sculptured
objects taking up room. No gray screen can honor the way font shape and
space are designed to convey thought. Books inhabit the world in a way
not unlike the way you and I do."

--Sallie Tisdale in her Oregonian
http://news.shelf-awareness.com/ct.jsp?uz3642037Biz10129359
article,"Duty as a judge for the National Book Awards requires a bit of
juggling."