(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 8 December 2011, Durban, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 11.22.6)
We find that people read less or do not read at all. Public libraries are feeling the impact and may soon close down. How are people going to read Srila Prabhupada’s books when people are moving away from Srila Prabhupada’s books and moving towards digital information?
But what was also found was that many people, when they read a book of some value in an electronic form, then afterwards they buy the hard copy because a book is still something better than an electronic device. Even if you can jump to page number this and that (electronically) when you see a book, you hold it in your hand, you just leaf through it and stop here and there, you have the two whole pages. I know that you also have it on your iPad but it’s just as heavy as your book.
People will return to books and don’t forget that books will stay. Books are not just here for the people of today but the books are also here for their children and their grandchildren. The books are being planted in homes for people that are not yet born. The books are durable. So by no means should books be replaced by digital means. Today it’s there and tomorrow it just disappeared in the ether, gone, has it happened to your hard-drive yet? So all your gigabytes in moment just disappeared! So in that way, a book is durable.
