What would you do if there were no more books to read?

[Smblomker]

Lets say the the governments decided to burn every book there is in the world. Would it be the worst thing in the world anyone can do?
I know for me it would be. Because books give me a reason to escape the real world. Without books it would become sort of boring. This is just a question don't go postal on me.

[asach01]

Not the worst thing in the world, but it would be pretty devastating. I don't think I'd ever get to the stage where I'd be satisfied with only e-books. Nothing like the feeling of a well-thumbed favorite to transport you to another place.

[dcmerkle]

If it was a matter of just the printed word that disappeared from the world and I was really desperate for it, there's still directions off a cake box, assembling things, ingredients, cardboard boxes, etc. The printed word is all over. Come to think of it, I'd be pretty desperate to read a cereal box....lol

DCMerkle

[Fran]

I don't even want to think about that .... it would be my worst nightmare

[Bighuey]

That would definetly suck.

[Gannon]

I would have to hide and stockpile my whole library somewhere. Maybe I could start up a rebel library.

[Teesie]

I would write. My imagination would make my head explode, and therefore, I would have to write to get it all out. Maybe I could sell my books on the low, low, but SHhhhhhhhhhhh, you didn't get that book from me HahaHahaHaha......

[Maud Fitch]

With so many websites, reading forums and literary blogs I'm sure it wouldn't take long before there was an upsurge of illegal books. Probably made on home computers using Publisher. Rather like making gin in the bathtub during Prohibition, books would be swapped, bartered, used to bribe people and pages from historic volumes handed out like illicit food coupons (to help dcmerkle) and rehab clinics would spring up in every library. Unlawful book clubs would get raided and sellers thrown in prison (watch out Teesie) and authors willing to join the rebel alliance (run by Gannon) would take on code names. Twitter would take on a whole new subculture, once put together, tweets would read like a novel. A secret sign would appear on Facebook which indicated whether or not you were a Literate. Persecution would be rife and many people would die to protect their family's one and only banned book. In the dictionary (if they survived classed as non-fiction) there would read an entry "Bookism: those who discriminate against people who turn pages in a book; see entry for book".

You have the makings of a novel right there!

[Ben_Robson]

Or you could form a collective in the woods, where everyone learns a book by heart and passes it on from generation to generation... sound familiar?

You can burn books, but you can't burn imagination, creativity, ideas...

[Fran]

With so many websites, reading forums and literary blogs I'm sure it wouldn't take long before there was an upsurge of illegal books. Probably made on home computers using Publisher. Rather like making gin in the bathtub during Prohibition, books would be swapped, bartered, used to bribe people and pages from historic volumes handed out like illicit food coupons (to help dcmerkle) and rehab clinics would spring up in every library. Unlawful book clubs would get raided and sellers thrown in prison (watch out Teesie) and authors willing to join the rebel alliance (run by Gannon) would take on code names. Twitter would take on a whole new subculture, once put together, tweets would read like a novel. A secret sign would appear on Facebook which indicated whether or not you were a Literate. Persecution would be rife and many people would die to protect their family's one and only banned book. In the dictionary (if they survived classed as non-fiction) there would read an entry "Bookism: those who discriminate against people who turn pages in a book; see entry for book".

You have the makings of a novel right there!

@Maud .... I detect the imprint of Jasper

[Maud Fitch]

@ Maud .... I detect the imprint of Jasper.

Gosh, yes, Fran. It was like I was channelling him or something. Couldn't help myself!

[Fran]

@ Maud .... I detect the imprint of Jasper.

Gosh, yes, Fran. It was like I was channelling him or something. Couldn't help myself!

@Maud
You've been taken over .... have you read Shades of Grey ... came across a mention of it yesterday

[Maud Fitch]

@ Maud .... I detect the imprint of Jasper.

Gosh, yes, Fran. It was like I was channelling him or something. Couldn't help myself!

@ Maud. You've been taken over .... have you read Shades of Grey ... came across a mention of it yesterday.

Yes, and it’s something completely different! Shades of Grey, book 1The Road To High Saffron, is a planned trilogy with book 2 Painting by Numbers due next year. How to describe it? The protagonist Eddie Russett lives in a world dominated and segregated by colour. Of course, being Jasper Fforde, not just any old racist black vs white colour; it's primary colours, the colours the villagers see when they are born. People are graded in the hierarchy of life by their visuals, e.g. colour. It denotes where they work, their position on the social scale, where they sit at the table, where they live, who they speak to, all by what colour they can see. Believe it or not, it is an adventure tale with a touch of romance, Eddie (a Red) falls for a Grey girl named Jane. As usual, the Ffordian touches are odd. The grass is topped up with green paint and the flowers have to be tinted, etc, and there’s this weird place where people – and spoons – have been mysteriously disappearing to for years. Let me say, I found it a difficult read and the ending, well, it’s bitter sweet. Some say it’s dystopian but I lean towards idiosyncratic.

See, if books disappeared, we'd live in a boring world!

[Smblomker]

Wow, didn't think I'd get to many replies to this. Yeah, it really wouldn't happen. To much can be said by the written language. People need a way of sharing it with others. To completely ban books would stop a lot of things including certain places on the net.
Being that I blog the books that I read I would be quite upset to have book get burned or banned. And there have been some books banned from libraries in some towns. I think that we are given free will and that we should choose what we read. I'm not sure, but has there ever been a book that has caused problems?

[Fran]

Wow, didn't think I'd get to many replies to this. Yeah, it really wouldn't happen. To much can be said by the written language. People need a way of sharing it with others. To completely ban books would stop a lot of things including certain places on the net.
Being that I blog the books that I read I would be quite upset to have book get burned or banned. And there have been some books banned from libraries in some towns. I think that we are given free will and that we should choose what we read. I'm not sure, but has there ever been a book that has caused problems?

Ah ...... Satanic Verses or Mein Kampf come to mind!.
I still don't agree with books being banned though.