The Original

I love my Kindle e-reader. Right now it contains the Bible, a dictionary, three blogs I follow (including my own), and six novels (only one of which I'm reading; the other five are so I never run out). However, I also love hard-copy books, because in this matter, I'm a bit of a traditionalist, so I'm also reading a hardback novel, and two soft-cover books.

But, just as digital music is replacing CDs which replaced cassettes which replaced vinyl, and streaming video is replacing DVDs which replaced VHS videotapes, will the digital publishing evolution replace paperback books, which have pretty much replaced hard cover books?

Amazon thinks so. For the first time, digital downloads to the Kindle have outgrown hard copy book sales.

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A new monk has arrived at the monastery. He is assigned to a group of monks copying the old texts to new parchment by hand. He notices, however, that they are making a copy of a copy, and are not using the original text. He wonders about this and finally goes to see the Abbot. He points out that if there was a mistake when the very first copy was made, that mistake would then have been passed on to all of the other copies.

The Abbot replies, "We have been copying texts this way for over four centuries, but you make a good point, my son." So the Abbot finally decides to check on this and goes down into the cellars with one of the current copies to check it against the original.

Hours go by and no one has seen him or heard from him. Finally, one of the other monks sets off in search of the Abbot and climbs down into the cellar. Softly, from one of the farthest chambers, the monk can hear sobbing. He makes his way into the room and there, by candlelight, sits the Abbot, crying mournfully over one of the original scrolls.

"What's wrong?" the monk inquires.

The old Abbot sobs and says, "The word is 'celebrate!' "

[Pastor Tim's Pearly Gates]

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WISDOM for YOUR WEEK: "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." (Joshua 1:8)

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Mark's Musings dips its quill on an RSS Feed, scratches out words a Facebook Note, creates a copy on the Amazon Kindle and rolls up into your Inbox via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.