Digital 'Books' just aren't the same

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 07 September 2010 13:49

“There is much more emotional attachment to the paper book than there is to the CD or the DVD…. It is not logical, it’s visceral.”
—Mike Shatzkin, The Idea Logical Company

A few years back when I worked in the computer industry, I attended a trade show where the CEO of the presenting hardware company gave a speech on all the great things to come in technology.

In particular, he became very excited talking about a digital screen that would display a child­ren’s book. He explained how it would work and, after a dramatic pause, said, “Just think…if your baby is laying in his crib, you could set up the screen and read him a bedtime story from the other room!”

I remember mostly silence after that and a few questioning...

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Marveling at the alternative options

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 24 August 2010 16:14

“Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay. It’s okay if no one believes like you, all experiences unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you...and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, and the community is not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it.” —Tanya Davis, “How To Be Alone.”

 

ttraversiamo.

I can copy and paste it, but I’m not sure I can say it. I don’t speak Italian, but the phrase means “let’s cross over.” “Eat Pray Love” fans will recognize it. The memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, more recently made into a movie, introduced this phrase as Gilbert’s “word.”

Everyone...

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No regrets about aiming for a target

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:42

“Stop torturing yourself, man…live in the now!” —Garth, from “Wayne’s World”

 

Losing control of a situation isn’t funny, but the way we tell ourselves we ever actually had control of it can be. I didn’t ask to know that. It's not too often I consciously think, “I need to be put in my place today.” I’m just sayin’….

But here I am, at 3:48 a.m., quoting Wayne’s World of all things and scrounging for a safe, satisfying answer to, “What else could possibly happen today?” You’ve been there, right?

Through a Facebook friend of a Facebook friend, I was turned on to a blogger, Jennifer Lawler, and an essay she wrote called “For Jessica.”

You know how song after song on the radio melt into a...

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Tell me, does that make me crazy?

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 27 July 2010 15:40

“…Even your emotions have an echo in that much space. And when you’re out there without care, yeah I was out of touch. But it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough. I just knew too much. Does that make me crazy? ...Possibly… Ha ha ha bless your soul. You really think you’re in control… I think you’re crazy… just like me. —Gnarls Barkley “Crazy”

Truth or Dare has been a popular game at our house. It used to be fun because my kids weren’t interested in any kind of truth I might pull out, beyond “Do you like pickles?” And I wasn’t intimated by their dares. I have no problem kissing a rock or spinning around in a circle until I fall.

But times change pretty quickly. I have made the mistake of choosing truth...

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