It occurred to me that my bookshelf tells a person who I am. It has my philosophy books, in addition to other courses whose books were deigned significant, as well as my favorite works. Yet in the age of digital media the representativeness of my bookshelf is decreasing. Bookshelves are a type of indicator to everyone, friends new and old, of what kind of person you are – how are they going to discover you if you don’t have anything there?
Sure I could show off my mega library of digital content, my downloaded games (books and movies too) are equally a testament to my personality, but it doesn’t have the same oomph for at least two reasons. The ease in which a person looks at a bookshelf is vastly superior to combining the myriad digital content sources. I have downloaded games on no fewer than 4 systems; my xbox, ps3, wii and computers. Are my potential-friends forced to nose about each and every one of these just to discover what I have played? The issue with digital books is similarly frustrating.
I suppose that’s the purpose of the achievement system for xbox live, it shows everyone what you’ve played, and not just what you own. That leads me to the second concern. I have over 800 books downloaded on my Sony PRS-500. Despite my best and sincerest attempts, I haven’t read every book. There comes an over inflated sense of achievement by having the largest library. Most collectors haven’t watched every single video they possess, enjoyed each song. They don’t want to. It’s just a giant game of who has the most impressive collection. It doesn’t matter if the prized horde of junk is of poor quality or every single Britney Spears track, it makes the wrong kind of statement about who they are.
There isn’t a grand solution to this predicament, far from it. Maybe there should be a blending of both bookshelves, digital and analog. When you buy a book you should get the digital rights to it as well, I’d pay an extra 5 dollars for the convenience. The movie industry is making a decent go at DVDs with itunes or windows media compatible versions included. Since I am very much like the average consumer, when it comes to converting dead-tree from of media as they are of the poorly encrypted DVD, I would gladly pay that fee. People who want to have the digital form for convenience would still buy books,and have a proper digital reflection. By doing this we would still retain our bookshelf means of expression while having access to what may feel is a great way to read content.
