From an interview with Joe Queenan, author of One for the Books
Q.
One of your book’s biggest themes is the
superiority of books to
e-readers. Are you optimistic about the future
of books on paper? And do
you consider this book more of an early
eulogy or a rallying cry?
A.
The book is
elegiac. Books, I think, are dead. You cannot fight the zeitgeist and
you cannot fight corporations. The genius of corporations is that they
force you to make decisions about how you will live your life and then
beguile you into thinking that it was all your choice. Compact discs are
not superior to vinyl. E-readers are not superior to books. Lite beer
is not the great leap forward. A society that replaces seven-tier
wedding cakes with lo-fat cupcakes is a society that deserves to be put
to the sword. But you can’t fight City Hall. I also believe that
everything that happens to you as you grow older makes it easier to die,
because the world you once lived in, and presumably loved, is gone. As I
have said before, when Keith Richards goes, I’m going too. Same deal
with books.
