DIY Life

It wasn't so long ago that well-meaning parents, scholars, and knee jerk social engineers were pointing at the dawning of the computer age and claiming that computers were going to usher in increased illiteracy. These people had visions of video screens full of pictures which were activated by keystrokes, and they foretold the rapid demise of the written word. In bold defiance of that warped assertion, I kindly write this blog post.

These days, any person with a computer available to them has many virtual libraries right at their finger tips. These painstakingly assembled databases are growing daily and are providing hungry readers with every type of literature you could imagine. From pulp romance to legal text books and everything in between, it's now more readily available to the average reader than ever before. Let me provide you a few good examples:

ReadPrint.com has an ever-growing selection of classic literature which can be easily searched by author's name, directly from their home page. The site features no flashy advertising or unneeded graphics. Just go in, look around, and grab a book, or click on one, as the case may be.

The Online Books Page is a labor of love for John Mark Ockerbloom, and features over 25,000 online books. The subject categories are as vast as your imagination and the site has additional features to keep your curious eyes interested. You can even help with the project or request a special upload!

Bartleby.com is a very interesting online library with a focus towards more intellectual writings. The site is excellent for student research and it features categories for reference, verse, fiction and nonfiction. Bartleby seems to have the corner on the market for early American literature.

So you see, we haven't lost all our books after all and I don't think the act of reading is going away any time soon. Perhaps we'll see some decline in the actual physical publishing of books but I think it's safe to say that the written word isn't going to fade away any time soon.

That should make some bloggers I know very happy.