Too long spent looking at a screen, reading reading. Why don't younger people (makes me sound old - well today I FEEL old) like to read BOOKS - massive generalization I know but even those close to me who love to read have gravitated towards the digital book and screen, discarding their paper books as too cumbersome, taking up too much space, irrelevant - 'not as handy'. Why do they seem to prefer to read from a screen - the surface of which makes your eyes whirl and burns into the brain? And trawling through the net the content that can be accessed is so often surface compared with books. I presume this will change in time - more depth will be included as books become artefacts. The feel of a book lost to the glare of the screen. Flat, backlit, mostly untouchable, for your eyes only. It wouldn't be so bad if knowing this we knew that trees weren't still being the subject of slash and burn.
As I get up to pour myself a port and lemonade (something my Mum might drink when she was young - though not often being almost teetotal/tea-total - before the days of mass coffee drinking) my eyes blurring with the afterimage of the text on the screen it occurred to me that I don't get that from books. The afterimage I get from books is cerebral not retinal. Am off to bed with my book and head-lamp.
