This week’s un-lecture/ symposium was really insightful. I enjoyed the questions from my class being answered and thought the range of topics covered was extremely interesting and gave everyone something to think about.

From clearing up confusion about hypertext to discussing the death of the book, many topics were given to us to consider and to develop knowledge by exploring some of the ideas put forward.

One of the main ideas that stuck with me was the death of the book.

When Adrian first brought up the idea that the death of the book was indeed occurring I almost didn’t want to listen as the idea made me sad and almost scared me. One of my favourite things to do is to sit in front the fire with a cup of tea and to read a physical book. However when he separated the book as a physical thing and literature was when I began to agree with and come to terms with prospect of the death of the book.

He used the example of a mechanic flipping through a grease-covered manual compared to using a database on a computer or tablet. Obviously would be much more practical and efficient to use the latter. This is the same when it comes to a student carrying round kilos of texts book as apposed to having exactly the content that they need on a laptop or tablet.

These are the cases where I am totally fine with the concept of ‘the death of the book’. It is the possibility, and likelihood, of literature, as in novels, being no longer printed in the book format that somewhat bothers me. As I said reading a physical book is one of my favourite things to do, as is collecting books. However I don’t think I have to worry about this anytime soon, books, when it comes to novels and literature, are not going out of fashion in the near future.