Big Book, Big Bad

The third century B.C. Greek poet Callimachus famously wrote, μεγα βιβλιον, μεγα κακον...big book, big bad.  His ridicule of long-winded poets came to mind today when my Latin 3/4 classes were in the Information Center doing research on ancient Greek culture.  Our IC staff does a great job of pulling together print resources and placing them on a cart, but our students also have access to the computers.  This year, however, the IC was filled with classes, so the computers were not accessible to us.  Lee Toussant presented us with a stack of Nooks to use as an alternative.

Although a couple of print books were used in one of the classes, this was only for a few minutes.  Soon everyone was on an electronic device.  As the pictures show, some had their own laptops, tablets, or phones.  The rest used the Nooks.  All these devices connected to the Internet through the school's wi-fi.

Now, I love everything to do with human language.  I love reading and writing, speaking and singing, along with collecting fountain pens.  I enjoy the click of a keyboard and the wonderful, mechanical function of a ribbon typewriter.  From teaching students how to carve wooden styli, make wax tablets, or write in Carolingian Minuscule to produce illuminated manuscripts, I savor everything that has to do with language.

Not surprisingly, then, I enjoy books.  Almost every room in our home is lined with books.  Yet I have also read numerous books on my iPad, my iPhone, and my Nook Simple Touch.  I have gotten past my initial concerns about not being able to write in an e-book (I highlight and annotate a lot, both fiction and non-fiction), for all these devices allow annotation with ease.

And this brings us back to Callimachus.  Watching my students today, I could not see a reason for bulky reference books.  They could obtain all the information I wanted them to find more easily with their electronic resources.  They had access to pictures of Greek pottery and architecture that would have required multiple print books in the past.  While I can still make an argument for a volume of poetry in a slender, leather-bound format, I am not sure I can make the argument for the printed reference book.  The tablet is simply a better option for speed, ease of access, and access to both a broader and deeper base of information.  Callimachus was right.  μεγα βιβλιον, μεγα κακον.