Clash of values
I just finished reading two books this week. It generally takes me forever to read a book, but I finished both of these very quickly. (Yes, I commonly read more than one book at a time…I am a Gemini, after all, and prone to boredom.)
Anyway, I think it would be difficult to find two books articulating such opposing values. The first was “Hit Men“, by Fredric Dannen, and the second was, at a friend’s recommendation, “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom.
Hit Men is a thoroughly engrossing, surprisingly candid assessment of the American music industry in the ’70s and ’80s. It details the industry’s most ridiculous personalities, investigates the role of organized crime and illustrates how payola has changed, but never really gone away. Anyone who disagrees with my stand against the RIAA in the Napster battle needs to read this. If you read it and still think the current system is good for the artist, I will be extremely surprised. It’s about time I got around to reading this book.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a much quieter book. It shares the aphorisms of Morrie Schwartz, a professor at Brandeis University, who had a knack for touching people. He lost a bout with ALS (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and the story is written by one of his former students, who spends every Tuesday of the last few months of Morrie’s life with him. Apparently he received a fair amount of media attention here in the States, but it somehow completely passed me by (generally I just flip on the TV to watch a show I like or animals eating each other). Even though this book was a little too touchy-feely for a cynic like me, Morrie’s words will remind you about the things in life that really matter.
Books are so…analog. I want e-books, damnit. I read a completely asinine story recently (forgot the URL) about how several online retailers and publishing companies had bet on e-books, and they have failed to deliver profits. The author was concluding that e-books weren’t viable.
Dumbass.
What e-books lack is a delivery mechanism. Computer screens don’t cut it. We need a portable device that can connect via USB (eventually it will just connect wirelessly from anywhere) that is as thin as possible (no larger than a school notebook), and has a flat, matte display so you can read from it without your eyes crossing.
It should be able to display encrypted and non-encrypted PDF files, and you should be able to zoom in on the text (for old people, say). Then you could just download Tuesdays with Morrie or the morning paper or even a Web site…any PDF file, and take it with you, to read on the subway. Oh, and it needs to run on a couple of AAA batteries for about as long as a Walkman can, and if it runs out of power, it needs to retain the information stored inside.
Hey, Apple: make that. I want one. Books suck.