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Given the dust-ups in the publishing world in recent weeks, and the general malaise of the economy, may I suggest buying books for the holiday? No, this is not only a commercial pitch for my stuff (though if you're interested, you can buy my books here, or here, or here ) but for books in general.
Give someone a copy of that book that meant so much to you, or changed your way of thinking. Give someone a copy of the book that kept you up all night, or that still sings in your head after all these years. A book, taken care of, will last a lifetime...
I was thinking of that last trait today as I was backing up my own writing... and thinking of how the USB memory stick is now THE way to archive stuff, and yet how impermanent it's likely to be. If I'd archived my stuff "for the ages" back 20 years ago, I'd've put it on a floppy diskette, in MS Word format (maybe Mac v. 3 or so). Now, two decades forward, I don't have a disk drive on my machine (or in my house, for that matter), and none of the current versions of Word could read that format even if I could get a drive that would recognize the diskette.
Yet all the books of mine from back then are on the shelf, perfectly readable. Heck, there are books out there that are hundreds of years old and still readable. I have a few on my shelf that are over a century old...
So go buy a book for someone. Do your part for the economy. A book's not likely to become obsolete, or be 'this year's fad' or to fail to work six months later...
Give someone a copy of that book that meant so much to you, or changed your way of thinking. Give someone a copy of the book that kept you up all night, or that still sings in your head after all these years. A book, taken care of, will last a lifetime...
I was thinking of that last trait today as I was backing up my own writing... and thinking of how the USB memory stick is now THE way to archive stuff, and yet how impermanent it's likely to be. If I'd archived my stuff "for the ages" back 20 years ago, I'd've put it on a floppy diskette, in MS Word format (maybe Mac v. 3 or so). Now, two decades forward, I don't have a disk drive on my machine (or in my house, for that matter), and none of the current versions of Word could read that format even if I could get a drive that would recognize the diskette.
Yet all the books of mine from back then are on the shelf, perfectly readable. Heck, there are books out there that are hundreds of years old and still readable. I have a few on my shelf that are over a century old...
So go buy a book for someone. Do your part for the economy. A book's not likely to become obsolete, or be 'this year's fad' or to fail to work six months later...