Ideas, not books

I have never been a huge fan of books. To me they always were large, tedious lumps of paper. Only occassionally becoming interesting; and then like the eponymous history lesson they would go back to being dry and boring again.

I am sure there are lots of people like me, who just can't seem to kep their mind focussed enough on a page of print. It is as Norman Lewis puts it, a very common and sorry state.

But before all of you who are, good, voracious readers; start getting too smug about this, let me bring something in; a realization that indicates that the great book divide might be about to end. And the reason for it to end will be the very invention that is enabling you to read this right now.

In the book "How to read better and faster", Norman Lewis talks about the habits of people who already are good, quick readers. In one particularly interesting para he says and I quote: "(...)in school, the brightest students are not the always the best...the work is too boring for them, they dawdle and daydream, and consequently stop paying attention."

Aha... now.  I am not necessarily claiming to be 'bright', but I would admit that I am a bit of a dilletante. I flit from idea to idea very quickly and nothing manages to hold my interest for a long time. I have met quite a few people like that and all of them seem to have the same problem; they can never seem to complete books. 

A few months ago I contracted a disease which some may call 'wikipediasis'. Just for fun, I would open an article in wikipedia (I know you gotta fulfill a level of nerdiness to do that); say on Rolls Royce. 

I read it a bit, and I encounter a link to the word 'left-hand drive'. I click on that, which takes me to an other article that tells me what countries drive on the left and what drive on the right. 

One line in that article says, 'most countries that drive on the left do so due to British colonial influence.' I click on the cross reference for 'colonial', which leads me to colonialism, where a link leads me to the british rule in India, which leads me to an article on Kashmir, which leads to 'Lord Mountbatten', which leads me to the history of the Irish Republican Army.

Thing is though, that the internet; and essentially knowledge sites like the once popular howstuffworks to Wikipedia and to its newest rival, knol; are turning the whole idea of reading on its head.

Economics and conventional wisdom govern that a book has to have a central theme; a unifying thread running through. All ideas, however radical will always point to one single point. People who don't like reading books have always (and rarely ever knowingly) had a problem with this. The one story, the one opinion does not hold their attention for very long. 

But with the internet, what you are reading can change itself and keep pace with how quickly you are thinking, and very often drive it. Its is like having all human knowledge, in one very long, but magically thin book.

Of course there are people who will scoff at the idea. But I am vaguely sure that this is the beginning of a very fundamental change in the way we educate ourselves.  

I think we will again see see universal geniuses sprouting up in the next few generations. 

And can I say soemthing brave here?

I think the book's days are numbered.