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READING TO KIDS AND DIGITAL DISINTEGRATION

I had a nice compliment the other day. A Dear Jim; But that said, I still would guess that a printed
customer came whom I hadn’t seen for a few I am checking every entry (and usually correcting page, even when printed on modern printers
years, but who had been coming in for decades. and adding to them) as I work my way through my using guaranteed-to-fade ink, would outlast
He always bought children’s series books like The book of pen names. I got to “Cheviot” last night, and many—if not most—word processing programs,
Happy Hollisters, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. I while I have loads of stuff on the author (he wrote a and flash drives. Even if files saved on CDs or
would see him for a while, then I wouldn’t see couple of dozen books and thousands of articles), I DVDs last for decades, it is not clear that the
him, then I’d see him again for a while, etc. And can’t find out just where he used the name. I emailed software that can read them will still be available.
during those periods when he came he would the fellow who gave it to me, who couldn’t remember Jim
actively buy those type of books. the facts that he had sent to me, and said that the file
This all made sense finally, when he explained that the information was in was long gone—he said Dear Jim;
that at first he was buying the books to read to his 6 computers ago. All of this marvelous electronic stuff My vote for the backup standard is clay tablets,
children. This was a nighttime ritual when he read will be the ruin of us. left in a desert cave.
to his kids each night and needed to buy more The Willis diaries exist because they were written Ken
books from whichever series they liked to keep up on paper and stuck in the back of a cupboard, and
with the demand. Sometimes if he fell asleep your printed version will endure for centuries. If Ken is probably right about that. By the way,
during the reading, his oldest was instructed to Willis had “Tweeted” it, it would have vanished and the Willis diaries he mentioned was one of my
finish the night’s reading. been forgotten. Give me paper any day. projects. The Willisses lived near Trappe, MD,
Ken and for three generations (1847 to 1951) wrote
Ken Callahan runs Callahan and Co. daily entries in one of the most interesting diaries
Booksellers which specializes in hunting, fishing that I have ever seen—sixty one handwritten note
and sporting and natural history books. Ken also books containing probably over two million
writes sporting bibliographies in his spare time. words. The family kindly loaned them to me and
I started out just making notes on local history for
Dear Ken, my own use; then, as the entries became more
Absolutely! Years before I got a computer, I detailed and interesting, I started out copying
paid a friend to make a subject guide to a large some of them in full. For reasons of time and
number of genealogical magazines I bought. He space, I concentrated on the “good” stuff, but
saved it on one of those big floppy discs which the deleted much repetitious material. Even so, my
printer used when he printed it. I guarded that transcript, which came out last year titled
Anyway. So at first he was buying the books to floppy disc like it was the Hope diamond because 100 Years of Change on the Eastern Shore contained
read to his kids. Then when they got a little older, I knew I’d need it next time I wanted more copies over 240,000 words of the probably over 2
he was buying books so that each of them could made. And some years later when I did, I took the million word original.
have their own sets. Then after some years, when floppy back to the printer who had made copies And Ken is correct, if all of that had been
he turned up in my shop again, this time it was to for me originally, he laughed out loud when he stored in over 100 years of computer files, it
buy sets of the books for his grandkids. saw that old floppy disc. By that time it was totally certainly would have been lost. As it was, after I
He said his children really didn’t appreciate obsolete. What saved me was that I had saved one finished with it, the originals were donated to the
this daily nighttime reading until they were grown of the copies he printed on paper. So, all that was Maryland Room of the Talbot Co. Free Library in
and had children of their own and wanted to necessary was that the paper copy be scanned. Easton, MD, where they will be safe for the next
relive that experience with them. Without the paper copy the whole thing would century and more.
He said that they wanted the real books, too, have had to be redone. Originally published March, 2017
not audio books or e-books because real books Someone recently was arguing for some sort
made for a friendlier experience. Even his grand of back up standard because types of files are
kids thought so now. updated so frequently that older ones quickly
I would think that parents reading books to become unreadable.
their kids each night was perhaps one of the best Good idea!
things that a parent could ever do, for any number But I just read that most of the inks used in
of reasons. One would be introducing the desktop printer ink cartridges are subject to fading
children to interesting and entertaining children’s when left in direct sunlight. So there’s no telling
literature which would also stimulate their minds. how long they will last when kept in the dark. I
But possibly even better than that, by doing would have expected that the black ink they use
this parents would not just be spending time would have been made from carbon which is
with their children, but they would be sharing long-lasting and inexpensive, but apparently that
themselves with their children through the story. is not the case. I guess in hindsight, I should not
So much more involved than just passively be surprised.
watching TV with them. And the parent need not
let on until much later that they’d read the story
before and knew what the ending was! James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he
decided that it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to get a “real” job. For a born
I think one of my earliest memories is of my collector like Jim, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about 30,000
father reading to me. second hand and rare books on the shelves, and just about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted
at P.O. Box 154; Trappe, MD. 21673; 410-476-3838; e-mail: unicornbookshop@verizon.net;
website: www.unicornbookshop.com.

42 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles