The Printed Word

I am a huge {understatement} fan of the printed word. I have been an avid reader since I was a wee little thing, I’ve interned in a bookstore, and I majored in English Literature and Creative Writing. When walking around my beautiful college campus for the last time, I only got really emotional…as in I sobbed…when I went to walk around my dear library by myself. It was deserted for summer and I went from spot to spot that I’d spent lifetimes studying in. Then I wrote a little note and hid it away.

I love real books—paper and ink, yellowed pages, crumbling covers. (New ones are quite nice too.) I am of that group of true bibliophiles who likes to smell a good book like it’s a fine wine. Have you ever seen Gilmore Girls? When Rory prompts the prospective student she’s hosting at Yale to smell the books—that’s me.

I have been famously career-clueless for years now. I waited it out during college, expecting a revelation to hit at any moment. Freshman and Sophomore years passed and it was no big deal, quite fine really that I didn’t know what came next. Junior year I panicked. I did career-counseling, took endless career/personality tests, researched and prayed. Senior year I settled in to a sort of comfortable peace with the fact that I was officially aimless and clueless about my future. I did a PR/Marketing internship in a local independent bookstore that I adored and really loved it, but wasn’t sure that was the field for me. Actually, what most of my career journey has been is figuring out which careers aren’t for me. I don’t want a high-competition job; I’d much rather a collaborative community environment where I’m doing some good.

The one thing that’s consistent when I explore career possibilities is that they always end up involving books, in one way or another. So you can imagine how disheartening it is these days to have everyone and their publisher harp on about how the printed word is dying. Books are on their way out, they say. Soon everything will be digital, online.

Sigh.

For one thing, I don’t believe it. I refuse to. The truth is, I have a Nook. It was a birthday gift from my sister before I came to Spain. It’s been very practical to have a device to carry around dozens of books on when I’m traveling and had to pack up my life in 2 suitcases for 9 months. The fact was, I just couldn’t bring a whole bookshelf. (Plus I don’t have access to books in English here.) But I will always prefer and love real books more. Once I am back in Colorado I will head back to my library and frequent my favorite book store (Tattered Cover) again. I know I am not alone in my love for the feel of a real book in my hand, the words on a page versus a screen, so I refuse to believe books will go extinct.

I recently had a breakthrough in my career journey. It was a revelation by God, really. While meditating the answer popped into my head—books & reading. These were the things I am passionate about. I also like working with children and the community although I do not want to teach. I began googling and when I found “the answer” it felt so right and a peace settled over me (followed quickly by giddy excitement) that I hadn’t felt in 5 years of searching. I am now planning to study for the GRE and apply to Grad School to get a Masters in Library Science, with a Children & Youth specialization.

As I begin to research my new potential career, it is rough to find page after page of discouraging remarks about the lack of jobs and the possibility that they will soon disappear altogether. But I know what I want to do and I have to have faith that our culture won’t altogether abandon the printed word and the sacred places that house it. Even when our books move online, won’t we still need an advocate to introduce our children to the love of reading? Won’t we still want our children to experience the feel of paper printed with bold words and bright illustrations in little hands?

And for all of this talk of books going extinct in lieu of the internet, I have one final observation to offer: If books are going south, then why do popular bloggers and internet sites “make it big” when they are offered a book deal? Answer me that. If it’s more sophisticated or practical to be online, why is the publishing industry interested in taking material that is free and available online, and turning it into the printed word?

Well, I for one, can’t wait to see Hyperbole and a Half printed up as a book.

Long live the printed word. Long live the readers who cherish it.