Does anybody read anymore?

Times were, our collection at the library was weeded, at most, twice a year, but it seems that lately, weeding is becoming a weekly practice. Particularly hard hit is the adult non-fiction, with dozens of books becoming regular casualties of lack of reading on the part of our patrons. When I have protested how many books are being discarded of late, the word back that I have gotten is, "Well, no one reads that stuff anymore anyway.....". It's very disconcerting that this is the case. Our library's budget is going to be cut by a half million dollars this year due to state budget shortfalls, so it's not like we're going to replace the books we discard, and if we do any replacement of materials, it will be DVD's and CD's, since you can buy two or three of them for the cost of every book, so it's considered far more economical to buy audio visual material over printed material. People don't want to take the time to read books anymore because patrons tell me it's far too mentally taxing and time consuming, but in the time it takes to perch their butts in front of a TV set for hour upon hour watching movies they could be reading a good book. Unfortunately, the printed word seems to be headed for extinction, sooner rather than later. At the rate we're losing our book collection, there won't be much left of it before long, and that's very sad, when you think that we're discarding books that are less than a year old on which we spent $20-$30 or more per title. It's enough to make me want to take home books that I know are going to be discarded that I want to read. In particular, our biography section is being gradually whittled down to a mere few titles, and that's a pity, because there are lots of really good and recent biographies that I would personally love to read, but our patrons are eschewing them in favor of audio visual substitutes. I foresee a day when we'll, at most, maybe carry a few dozen biographies in our collection at most, because we're not replacing our books anymore with newer ones. It saddens me a great deal to see the decline of the book as a medium, because I can't see curling up in front of a computer or a Palm Pilot to read a book or listening to it on CD. It just isn't the same. But e-books and Books on CD are rapidly becoming the way that information and entertainment is dispensed, so....the book is on its gradual route to becoming a dodo, forever extinct. How very sad for someone like me who grew up a book lover to see libraries gradually ceasing to be the repositories of books and instead becoming multi-media entertainment centers. Sign o' the times, I guess. Pity what kind of society we're becoming when the written word is allowed to become an endangered species.

SPEAKING OF BOOKS
I am currently reading "A. Lincoln: A Biography" by Ronald C. White, Jr. It is an excellent book that seems mostly to focus on how Lincoln developed his moral grounding despite his relative lack of formal education. I'm probably about a third of the way through it, so I can't really write a review of it yet, but I would highly recommend it nonetheless based on what I have read so far. This book came into the library where I work and I immediately snagged it for a February read, since this month marks the bicentennial anniversary of Lincoln's birth. I am also intrigued at how President Obama seems to have derived a lot of his inspiration from Lincoln, since they both hail from Illinois, so in a way, I am reading this to get a better picture of how Obama thinks. I have had a lifelong fascination with Lincoln as it is and this book makes a welcome addition to the many books written about him. This year, I am sure, will see a bumper crop of Lincoln books to mark the bicentennial of his birth, so I am expecting that we'll get in a few of them, which this time next year will doubtless end up in the discard pile, this one included, since people aren't reading anymore. When libraries cease to buy books, the publishing industry has got to feel the pinch. Even bookstores like Borders are feeling the sharp effects of the economic downturn lately, since books tend to be expensive and people are turning more and more to the library to get the books they want to read, if they read at all. I hope that they take the time to read some of the newer books on Lincoln, as they doubtless have newer information and research about this fascinating man. That is another reason that I wanted to read this book - any new information that has previously been undiscovered would be in a newer volume like this. Most of us know the barest facts (and myths) about Lincoln from our school days, but it's interesting to get a more human picture and a better take on just who he was. A complicated man, to be sure, but someone with an obvious deep moral grounding that makes him one of history's more interesting characters to read about. One thing I found particularly fascinating was that one of his original ancestors, Samuel Lincoln, helped to build and worshipped at Old Ship Unitarian Church in Hingham, MA. I always suspected that Lincoln had some Unitarian roots in there somewhere, as he never really seemed to take to any formal religion, despite his regular reading of the Bible. He did attend church on occasion but never professed any one faith, a very Unitarian thing to do. In his day, his lack of formal religiosity did prove controversial, because even then, politicians were expected to be good Christians and church goers, something that seems to persist even to this day despite the supposed separation of church and state. So if you're looking for a good read about Lincoln, and if, like me, you still like to sit on the sofa and hold a hard copy book and read it, then this book comes highly recommended from me. And please - go to your public library and start checking out some books, because the less we as a people read, the more the written word will become extinct in our time. And that would prove to be a shame if books became the stuff of the past and museums instead of in today's libraries.