Item 54: A DVD for the Little Brown Handbook

I love language, research, writing and reading. I enjoy using books to check on facts. I have several old grammar textbooks one of which I found at the curb left over from a garage sale. It was free! It's a teacher's edition of a freshman english textbook from Lancaster Catholic High School. Copyright 1962.

Dave and I have an old (vintage 1980's) set of World Book Encyclopedias in the house which we still use. We have the internet at our fingertips. We could Google (conjugating to google: I google, you google, he/she it googles...)any topic and have answers within seconds. But we like books. Quite often, typically while we're preparing or eating a meal, our conversation takes a turn and a question arises. We need info so one of us walks into the family room, pulls a book off the shelf and finds the answer.

It's quite enjoyable to hold a book. To skim through it, catch a whiff of the aroma from the paper and find other tidbits of information as you look for the fact you need or want. I remember an old Andy Rooney essay on 60 minutes from long ago. The title of his piece was: 'Things I learned while looking up other things'. That resonates with me because I too have learned many things while looking up other things. I remember sprawling out on the floor in the stacks of the library, books spread around me, reading all sorts of interesting information about things that didn't have anything to do with my research. I'd get so engrossed in those other topics I'd have to remind myself to get back on track.

When you use Google or Wikipedia, you typically don't learn other things while looking up that one thing you need. If you type in a word, you're given the definition of that word. You don't stumble upon other interesting words while looking (in actuality waiting) for your word.

Kids these days (I love to say that) rely upon technology for everything. I think they're missing out on some of life's most simple pleasures. Using a book is one of them. If you have to conduct the research yourself, using your brain as the search engine, you're forced to use critical thinking skills. If someone or something else does the research for you, what have you learned?

I use search engines. I use computers everyday for work and for pleasure. I use podcasts to re-learn the beautiful French language I learned long ago. I have an eBook reader. Actually I have two: a Kindle and an iPad. But I still love books and paper. Hence the giving away of this DVD. I have the Little Brown Handbook in book form and am not interested in the digital version.