Vinyls And Paperbacks: A Comparison

If you were born before 1985, you probably had a vinyl collection.

In an age of digital media like online music, it is now incredibly rare to own a vinyl collection, much less a vinyl player. Remember the days when you saved up your allowance for weeks just to be able to buy a new record by your favourite artist? Remember when you had to listen to the whole album to get to your favourite song? Remember when you had shelves stacked with vinyls? Remember when you had to clean them so they wouldn’t get ruined?

Now think about the present. If you’re reading this blog, that means you’re on a website about books, which probably means you like to read. I know you’ve splurged on books before. Think back to when you were a kid, saving your allowance to be able to buy the latest paperback by your favourite author. Sound familiar? 

With so many people turning to using E-Readers and going away from physical copies, will books suffer the same fate that vinyls did?

“Get a Kindle, it’s easier. It costs less, you get the book immediately, and you can change the formatting to please yourself. It doesn’t even take up much space, you can take all of your books wherever you go. No having to choose between them anymore.”

What happened to borrowing books from libraries or from your friends, or dog-earing your pages, or annotating the margins and making it truly your own? What happened to the feel of the pages under your fingers? What happened to the smell of a new book? What happened to rebinding your copies into the special editions you never got? What happened to hunting for the spine that matches the rest of your series?

Books are still very alive today, but vinyls? They’re pretty much only found in your family attic. I have never seen a vinyl played in real life, I’ve never touched a typewriter, I’ve never had to wait for days and pay to get my pictures developed. Every letter I’ve ever gotten from my father, I cherish. Sure, our modern versions of these things are more convenient, but all of the things I’ve mentioned? They weren’t just playing music, or typing a story, or taking a picture, they were experiences, experiences that weren’t isolated to just one person. Like writing a letter; It’s not a type it quickly and click send, it’s an intention. You write it, you pack it, you mail it. It’s a process with so many steps, which makes it all the more meaningful in our current society to receive one.

Sure, you couldn’t change the playback speed on vinyls, or make your own playlists, or share the songs to anyone with one click, and from the lense of the modern generations, all of this could be seen as inconvenient, and maybe even useless. But what happens when you grow up and your great-grandchildren can’t imagine going to a building full of cut and bound trees to do your research? What happens when physical books fade out like vinyls are? What happens when the excuses to experience something with someone else fade out in favour of efficiency?  Do we adapt to it, like we did with everything else? What happens in a future when everything is digitized? Will we still remember to touch grass?

When does favour of efficiency turn into isolation?

If you were born before 2060, you probably had a home library.