“HEY, DO YOU KNOW YOUR JOKEBOOK IS ON KINDLE?”
Last night at the restaurant where I work (www.farmhouseinn.com) a former busgirl dined with her mother. Kate, 22, a student at Chico State University grew up in a wired world and texting etc. is second-nature to her: it is something natural and normal for her generation. After "Hiyas" and "Whazzups" she said, "Hey do you know your jokebook is on Kindle?"
"Actually Kate," I wanted to say, "I spent six weeks trying to format and upload the sonuvabitch. It was one of the most frustrating projects I've ever undertaken--and I have eight freaking children. It kept getting rejected and when it finally loaded it looked like crap. I ended up paying someone to format it for me."
That's what I wanted to say.
But I didn't. I asked where she saw it. A friend had downloaded it and asked Kate if she really knew the author of all these filthy and tasteless jokes. "Yes," said Kate. "And he also writes children's books."
The electronic wizardry that is an e-book, like all technology, is invisible to the user. I don't have to know about the interactions of speed, momentum, and traction for my anti-lock brakes to work.
I stomp; I stop.
The same is true for the new e-book technology: when all is said and done it's words on the page. It is not a gimmick or a fad.
It's another babystep in the journey of human language and communication: another skip&jump forward in the inexorable and ineluctable progress of civilization. From papyrus, to codex, to manuscript, to wood block presses, to moveable type, to linotype to electronic publishing.
No one loves books more than me, but I'm excited about all this e-stuff. Not only for the marketing opportunities it affords me but because this crowd of folks on earth right now (you and me included) might be known as the gang that saved the forests and improved the scope and utility of human communication.
JOKE OF THE DAY
A man is so frustrated with women that he falls to his knees and says, “Lord?”
A voice booms, “YES, MY SON?”
“I don’t understand women. Why did you make them so beautiful and beguiling?”
“SO THAT YOU WOULD LOVE THEM, MY SON.”
“But why did you make them a perfect shape that’s so incredible to hold?”
“SO THAT YOU WOULD LOVE THEM, MY SON.”
“Yes, but why did you make them so stupid?”
“SO THAT THEY WOULD LOVE YOU, MY SON.”
Check out "A Man Walks Into a Bar..." at : www.amazon.com/dp/
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