I visit Barnes and Noble in Clarendon at least every other weekend. I can spend hours picking up titles and thumbing through them with my friends or sisters. It's rare that I ever read through an entire page though, and much less likely that I actually take a book home. When I do buy a book, I tend to give up on it and move to something else after 100 pages or so.
On Saturday, I was determined to change that. I charged past the fiction and history sections that usually eat up so much of my time, and starting looking through the science shelves I never noticed before.
I saw The Digital Divide and was reminded of philosophy class, so I decided to sit down near a window and actually take the time to read through some of it. It's been awhile since I've read like this. I read articles on the internet, I read the chapters we're assigned for school and more, and I force myself to read around 10 pages of any book before going to sleep. But sitting by myself in the sun, there was a feeling of calm I don't usually experience. I didn't feel obligated to anything, and I didn't have to think of anything else. I didn't even have to worry about whether the book would be good or bad- it was just the simple act of reading.
The irony of The Digital Divide is that you don't need it. It's a collection of essays discussing the impact technological advances have on us, yet every one of these essays are readily available on the internet. So even though I knew I wanted to buy a book, it wasn't going to be that one. I looked at another book by Bauerlein (this one completely his own), The Dumbest Generation, but the title alone was enough to dissuade me. Looking up at the three shelves, I felt a sinking feeling. There was at least ten books that seemed interesting at first glance (one, coincidentally titled, How We Decide). But how do I know which one is worth devoting time and effort to? I couldn't read through all the books in a single shelf, I wasn't even going to get through the all the titles in a single shelf. With so much thought and effort put into one book, so much information at my fingertips, how would I know where to start?
I left empty-handed, again.
On Sunday, I was hanging out with a friend in Falls Church when we noticed Hole in Wall Books. It looked so quirky and fun that we dropped our plans for lunch and went inside. There were books everywhere. You couldn't see much of the wall. Shelves lined every inch of it, all jam-packed. Books were piled on tables and on the floor. It was exciting. There was none of the organization found in Barnes and Noble. Books from different decades, some costing less than a dollar, were all crammed together in different nooks. I figured I could buy some old 35 cent book with a funny title, go home, and discover a completely random and unknown idea.
I don't know why I didn't.
Does "information overload" exist not only on the internet, but in bookstores as well? I love walking around in them, knowing that there are different ideas, characters and stories existing in every one of the millions of pages. At the same time, I'm filled with a sense of hopelessness. There's so much that I want to know, and I will only ever be able to take in a fraction of the information in one single bookstore. It's so intimidating that I usually leave without even trying.
Anne, I can completely relate to the bookstore crisis. Whenever I do get the chance to look in a bookstore, I could stay for hours and hours and hours on end just browsing around (mostly in the literature and history sections). But, whenever I do buy a book, I tend to ask myself at least 10 times whether I'm really tempted to read it, or just sound smarter for having it.
ReplyDeleteI have more books than I can count (actually, not true, I have 299 and still counting!) and not enough time to make it through all. I like sitting down for at least 3 hours to read a book I'm really interested in.
As for book/info overload, heck yeah it exists! But that's the beauty about it, there's endless possibility, it's how our world turns. Every second you learn something new is the same as every second that our Earth spins on its axis, a second of change/transformation (for the better, hopefully).
Anne, I know exactly how you feel! As I was reading your post, I just kept nodding my head because I've definitely "been there, done that." Walking through the shelves with countless numbers of books surrounding me is often overwhelming (unlike when I was little and always headed straight for the bottom shelf containing the entire series of Magic Tree House books). It used to be so easy! I've noticed that as I've gotten older, my interests prohibit me from ever feeling completely satisfied with a purchase, because I always question my choice. This past July, while I was in Paris I made a point of going to Shakespeare & Company, a famous bookstore. You walk in and it smells like old books...the best smell in the whole world! Anyways, tall, wooden book shelves stretch to the ceiling and there's an assortment of books...it's so unorganized that you find yourself skimming over titles side-by-side that couldn't be more unrelated. On one shelf I specifically remember seeing Romeo & Juliet next to a book by James Franco! But like you said, it was just so exciting and breath-taking to see so many amazing books in one place! However, I think my reaction was the opposite of yours--instead of leaving with nothing, I tried my best to leave with as much as I could. I left with four books. I can see the guilt fact though that Karen mentions, because four months later I am still only 3/4 done with one of them. The accumulation of knowledge requires time and dedication. I am taking it one book at a time, even if it takes me 4-5 months just to finish one. Sometimes the satisfaction of finishing a book (and knowing that it was all of your own doing) can be the best feeling of all.
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