Comments on: Only The Dinosaurs Are Extinct https://booksquare.com/only-the-dinosaurs-are-extinct/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&%23038;utm_campaign=only-the-dinosaurs-are-extinct Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:26:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Brian Guerin https://booksquare.com/only-the-dinosaurs-are-extinct/#comment-165872 Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:26:05 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2007/05/30/2411/#comment-165872 Well, the novel may not have been killed off by the internet, but the increase in availability of alternative media probably is weakening it. While people are still writing, publishing, and buying novels, there is significant evidence (albeit anecdotal) to suggest that reading, in particular reading that requires concentration, is becoming a fringe hobby. In ‘The Gutenburg Elegies’, author and university lecturer Sven Birketts reports on the increasing difficulty with which successive classes of his students have been reading their texts. He attributes this (correctly, I believe) to the ubiquity of the screen and its effect on the attention span. Maybe only the dinosaurs are extinct, but there aren’t a whole lot of coelacanths either.

]]> By: Diana Hunter https://booksquare.com/only-the-dinosaurs-are-extinct/#comment-165851 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:19:11 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2007/05/30/2411/#comment-165851 Hear, hear!

I second the motion for more durable laptop keyboards!

Diana (moving her Starbucks hot chocolate a bit further away from her precious link to the world)

]]> By: Kassia Krozser https://booksquare.com/only-the-dinosaurs-are-extinct/#comment-165848 Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:11:33 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2007/05/30/2411/#comment-165848 Oh, go ahead and be boring …

I have a good friend whom I rank among the top tier of the smartest people I know. Not a reader. He really gets into audiobooks — and is possibly the person who really changed my thinking on what makes a book a book.

And, I haven’t tried knitting while reading, but that’s probably because my current project requires a high degree of concentration and I’ve been known to lose myself in what I “reading”.

]]> By: Isabel Swift https://booksquare.com/only-the-dinosaurs-are-extinct/#comment-165844 Thu, 31 May 2007 05:53:01 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2007/05/30/2411/#comment-165844 Let me just be boring and note that I totally agree with Kassia. I realize that change can be frightening to some, but it still surprises me to see closemindedness or irrationality. New things rarely replace originals, they just add new dimentions and new opportunities. Physical books won’t go away–they’re wonderful. But I love being able to knit, look out the train window and listen to a story…on my phone. And no matter what the media and the medium, it’s ALL about the story.

]]>