Manifested Worth of the Book in Transitive Form: Or more simply, wtf eBooks!

I remember as a small child sitting on a couch that practically swallowed me whole, with a book on my lap thinking to myself, as soon as I can figure out how to read letters, I am going to read this book and NOT ask Mummy.  

Yes folks. Mummy. Not 'Mom' or its more horrifying counterpoint 'Mommy,' but simply Mummy. 

But I digress. What I wanted more than anything, more than I wanted to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or My Little Pony (I had an eclectic taste even then), I wanted to know how to read. I felt, at such a tender age, that the ability to read granted a worlds worth of wisdom. And I was partially right. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the first book I 'read' on my own was "Where the Wild Things Are". I had all the answers, I knew everything! Books were magic. 

In the last decade, how I read has drastically changed, and this is in no small part due to the rise of the Web 2.0 world, full of electronic gadgets, e-readers, tablets, iPad's. I was dismissive when Amazon first released the Kindle, reasoning that no one would ever want to read something as sacred as a book through an electronic interface. Oh... so my father downloaded the Bible to read on his laptop even though he has a... real one? He's just weird! Online newspapers? Screens are totally not conducive to seeing page content in an effective and attractive manner. And eBook will never catch on. 

Except then I got a kobo. For those of you who are not Canadian, a kobo is the Canadian version of the Kindle, and it is actually legit a better device than its counterpart. It's smaller, has more memory, better battery life, and is more compatible with different types of eBook files or documents. It is a Copyright Pirates wet dream come true. 

I love my kobo. It is small. It fits into my itty bitty ever so fashionable purse. I have the entire Harry Potter series, all the Game of Thrones books, my trashy romance novels a la Kim Harrison, and at least forty Classics. 

Actually, this is my thing. The Classic's.  Books that have been out of copyright and the publishing industry has been making an absolute fortune on because people want a bloody physical copy of Charles Dickens, or Ovid, or Old English Gent who writes boring prose (Not Shakespeare, I lurve him), and people have really had no recourse but to pay for titles that have been marked up 200% because these titles are cash cows. And now, they are all available for free download through store websites, as well as alternative depositories such as the Project Gutenberg site. 

Even better, the majority of libraries these days offer an assortment of ebook titles that they have purchased from their book vendors. There are problems attached to this form of book lending though, with vendors trying to limit the amount of times a digital book can be lent out before the library is forced to renew their purchase on the title. I have issues that libraries are, or will be, forced to repeatedly buy an eBook from a publisher because they have limited the amount of times it can be 'borrowed,' because part of the appeal of digital books is that they do not face the same wear and tear as physical books. In the Children's Department, we often bought the same title 5-8 times a year because it had been stolen, destroyed by a child, or was falling apart because it had circulated so heavily that the glue holding the pages in was exhausted and just gave up. Ebooks have the potential to remain in circulation forever. And in that sense... I understand the publishers wanting to build in required need to renew a contract on title use. But, when you buy a book, a physical book, that book is yours barring destruction of the copy, or you need to make room on your shelf for newer acquirements. 

Which brings me to my next pet peeve about digital books. The cost of them. 

Ebooks require virtually no labour to create copies for purchase and download after it has been translated into digital format. I understand that the publishing industry is for profit, and that books regularly cost a good hunk of change. I do not understand why ebooks are sold at the same, or comparable cost, to their physical counterparts. I do no get it. It drives me mental. A few short years ago, ebooks were sold for 99 cents. Now, if they cost 10% less than a 'real' book, it is considered a good deal. This is, in part, due to having created a demand, the companies are now able to charge more. However, this is driving the dark underside of the digital world, the world of pirating. 

You can find almost every title online for no cost, or, an incredibly cheap subscription price to a website that hosts various titles. It sounds ridiculous to complain about the cost of an ebook, considering that most ebook devices cost at least $100, similar to an ipod or multimedia player. And once bought, you own that digital title at least until you delete it off your device (and sometimes longer because the company you bought it from has it on file that you own it now), so how do they make money off of you?

So now I am torn. I understand that in this digital world, content is money. Information is money. Access is money. And yet, I find myself uttering the trope of the internet is meant to be free! But equally, publishing is a business, a big business, and authors deserve to be rewarded for their creations more-so even than the music industry ever did (they don't actually create anything new, or have original thought, even if they do make music that I rock out to all day long. Chair dancing anyone? Anyone?). 

Now to address my original premise, that reading holds magic. It does, regardless if it is through an electronic device or bound in paper and cardboard. But perhaps what has been lost is the feeling that a book has a manifested monetary worth. Books are straddling two words, and I am not scared that they will cease to be, more that I am interested to see what their next transformative experience will create. 

X-Ring... c'est what?

It's been a very long time folks, and for this, I apologize. New job, new house mates, new activities. Not yet the new year, but I've already resolved to remedy my lack of recent content updates. First things first, I am no longer a Children's Librarian. What?! I know. Big changes in Risque land.

So, while this post is not about books and or literature, it is of a matter rather near and dear to my heart, as well as my right hand.

My X-Ring.

For those of you not in the know, and I realize that this could potentially be a large number of yiz, an X-Ring is a ring that is received by fourth year undergraduate students at the venerable Saint Francis Xavier University. It is, as you would say, kind of a big deal. I'm not going to say that the X-Ring has achieved an iconic status and is possibly (probably) worshipped by the few and proud students who attend STFX, but the reality is, is that to receive the X-Ring is a really big deal. Student's receive it every year on December 3rd, and people start counting down days to X-Ring as early as Frosh week in their first year. It marks a particular level of achievement, success, and participation within a community that really makes your experience at STFX feel like you have a large, slightly obnoxious at times, family. It is also a majorly needed boost for many fourth years to just go and study for those derned exams already so you can turn that ring AROUND. But... that's another thing altogether.

Anywho, why am I even talking about some ring that the majority of this world's population couldn't give two cents about?

Todd Pettigrew wrote a rather, let us call it, dismissive blog post in his MacLeans blog, the Hour Hand, titled simply, "Time for this year's edition of X-idol".

He starts is with the dubious endorsement of,

There’s a lot I like about St. Francis Xavier University. Its pleasant campus, the small town charm of Antigonish, its rich history. But the ridiculous obsession that the university and its alumni have with their university ring…

Whoah. Ridiculous obsession? I will admit that we are possibly slightly obsessed with our rings. But ridiculous? Bah I say!

Pettigrew goes on to note, in a totally geeky way I might add, student's 'tude to counting down the days until they proudly slide that ring onto their finger.

Graduates await the ceremony like kids awaiting Christmas, and like so many Gollums out of Tolkein, they count the days til they can get their hands on the precious, the precious. 

One Ring to Rule them all. 

Why yes, yes we do. Students will put up a daily countdown in their windows proudly displaying that they have Six Hundred and Twelve days until X-Ring, Ninety-Five days till X-Ring, FOUR freaking days until X-Ring man! You get cards in your mailbox from your neighbours congratulating you on your approaching X-Ring date once you hit the single digits.

Todd goes on to further belittle a ring, that might I add, he does not have, as he is a proud faculty member of UNB and did not attend STFX as a student. Ever.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the school, and I’m sure lots of fine people go there, have gone there, and are there right now. But the whole ring thing is,in my view, downright unseemly.

Let’s leave aside the fact that the ring itself, stamped simply with a big black X like a branded steer or a carton of dirty magazines, is just plain ugly (though I freely admit that my own university’s ring is uglier). And let’s also overlook the aura of self-congratulatory creepiness by which the university promotes the ring ceremony like it’s the initiation rite of a secret cult: the ring, they say, is “the unmistakable emblem that links you to fellow Xaverians around the world for the rest of your life.”
Actually, it does. I have met an incredibly random segment of the population in terms of race, gender and age with whom I would probably never strike up a conversation with in normal circumstances because they have this ring on their hands. Many STFX graduates are able to make job connections through strong alumni ties, which is fostered in part by the shared recognition of their rings.

Let me give you an example which occurred during my brief time as a Children's Librarian. A family wandered into the library and asked to use the computers. While we were setting them up, I noticed that all four adults had a certain ring on their hands. No sillies, it was not the wedding bands that caught my eye, it was the X-Ring! This family had driven all they way down from Nova Scotia to visit family, and after all admiring our pretty pretty rings, we talked shop and I sent them on their merry way confident that they would have a great time visiting some local attractions. They will be getting a Christmas card from me this year. This is one of many such sighting, and is no less significant than the bar tender who went to Dal, or the hopelessly turned around businessman who could not find the financial district. All served as a reminder of community.

To be frank, I am uncertain how the community that comes together over a symbolic form of togetherness is any different from the communities fostered at any other university through the sales of university gear, sports events, and Home Coming. I have a sister that is rabid about the University of South Carolina's football team. She has all the gear, clothing that is red and black, and can doubtlessly perform several Gamecock cheers at a moments notice.

Perhaps my confusion over this article is based on the simple fact that I am no stranger to the significance of school solidarity which American's are much better at generating than Canadians. Every kid in my high school, or at least it seemed to me at the time, got very expensive class rings complete with diamonds, little logo's commemorating their involvement in teams and groups, alongside letter jackets, hoodies, and keychains. I didn't understand why it was so important to teenagers to commemorate where they attended the "best years of their lives," however after attending University during my formative years, I understand now retroactively.

Saint Francis Xavier was and is a fabulous university that gave me so many wonderful experiences, fabulous friendships, and provides me with ongoing alumni involvement. I have since completed a Masters at another wonderful institution, which I also feel a connection too. But every time I look down, and see that glint of gold, and the bold black shininess of the onyx X, I am reminded of a wonderful four years, and a community that I will always be a part of.

So Todd, I ask you this: how can you belittle an experience that is so wonderful for so many people? You don't have to understand why or how us X-graduates feel this way, but you should celebrate our successes, just as we do.

PS: Congrad's all you X-ers that received your ring this past weekend! We're all so proud of you.