There’s a meme going around the blogosphere lately encouraging people to read printed works. I gather that it started a few days ago on the East Side Bride blog which had a post declaring a pledge to read the printed word; this was then reported on LISnews where I read about it. On one level, I like the idea since reading books tends to be a different kind of reading experience compared to online reading. Yet as a technophile and as someone studied book history and print culture, it does seem odd. Sure, I’ll read news articles on my iPhone but whenever I have a longer journey, by train or plane, printed books are still preferred.

Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), wrote a famous letter in praise of scribes but these ideas were circulated using the printing press.

On a different level, this strikes me as somewhat similar a famous letter penned by Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516) called, “In Praise of Scribes” (De Laude Scriptorum) praising the scribal production of books over printing. Yet this widely disseminated letter was printed to enable to it to be spread more quickly. So, the printed word meme can be seen as part of a longer tradition of efforts to protest in favour of older communication technologies using newer means. This is a common trend that one can observe over time. Clean breaks between different communications technologies are rare; older methods continue to persist long after new means are invented. That said, new communications technologies are new and often have dramatic effects. For the effects of printing, Elizabeth Eisenstein’s book (The printing revolution in early modern Europe) remains a classic; for the effects of the Internet and related technologies, I like Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody.

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