Germany’s federal commissioner for culture and media, Wolfram Weimer, was heavily criticized recentlyĀ when he rejected the expansion of the German National Library in favor of digital archiving. Although the former journalist has since indicated that the expansion might proceed, his initial decision has sparked debate about the role of books in a digital world.
Today, we are bombarded with text and information. Podcasts,Ā social mediaĀ posts, comments, emails, the latest online news ā€” everything is immediately available, any time and anywhere. Yet something important is lost amid the digital clutter: The act of deeply engaging with a thought.
Unlike the distractions of digital media, a physical book demands attention. It has weight, is larger than a smartphone, does not have to be powered,Ā and its pages cannot be dismissively swiped away.
‘A pleasure for the senses’
Author and cultural scholar Frank Berzbach describes the special relationship between people and books, which he sees as a mindful alternative to digital media.
“They are a delight to hold, a treat for the senses ā€¦ we respond to them with an aesthetic sensation,” he writes of books in his essay, “The Art of Reading.”Ā
What exactly is this sensation and what fascinates us about books? It’s not just the story to be found within their pages, but the whole package.
It’s comparable to a vinyl record: carefully removing it from its sleeve, placing it on the turntable, gently lowering the needle and hearing the soft crackle before the first notes sound.
Holding a real book in your hands is also an exclusive pleasure because it offers a moment to pause, to enjoy that rare commodity: time.
“In an age of calculated TV plotlines and endless gaming, reading a 19th-century classic novel is revolutionary,ā€¯ writes Berzbach in his essay.
The idea of savoring a novel like Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” can be incongruous on a digital device. The beauty of the language, the vocabulary and sentence structure requires a conscious, thoughtful approach to reading.
The same applies to nonfiction books that are carefully and thoroughly researched. When consumed as a hardcover book there is no algorithm to intervene, no feed to distract, no push notification to interrupt.
Libraries as spiritual places
The backlash against Weimer’s initial preference for a digital as opposed to a physical library indicates a yearning to maintain these meditativeĀ public spaces.
When you enter one of these temples of books, a special silence surrounds you. You hear only soft murmurs, whispers, the rustling of pages. You are immersed in a world where time seems to stand still.
And together with others leafing through old and new books or magazines, you form a small, close-knit community with those who believe they can find more answers here than on the internet. In this sense, libraries can be seen as spiritual spaces.
You can take this experience home to your own bookshelf, the place that has helped develop our own unique ideas. From well-worn paperbacks to rare antiquarian finds, these are the books that we’ve read multiple times or still haven’t quite finished; all of which have shaped us along the way.
Perhaps that is the biggest difference from the digital world: A physical book does not disappear into a digital folder but remains on the shelf.
And at some point, you reach for it again ā€” out of curiosity, longingĀ or simply because it’s there.
Berzbach has a simple phrase for this identity that’s formed through consumingĀ literature: “Those who live with books always have a home.”
This article was originally written in German.