The Book is Back! | Long Live Glover & his Humour

Reader’s Digest | November 2023

This month’s Reader’s Digest has a lovely article by Richard Glover, on ‘The Triumph of the Book’.

I absolutely enjoyed reading it.

Says Glover -

“E-books may come with a suite of navigational tools, but it turns out that the best navigational devices are your forefinger and thumb. You can use them to flip the pages forward and backward”.

“A large, well-stocked book shelf is more meaningful. It’s a map of your life as a reader”,

he adds!

Well, Glover’s got this amazing sense of humour, and a lovely perspective to life that is reflected in his talks (as ABC Radio Presenter) and in his writings as well.

At places he reminds you of P. G. Wodehouse, one of our greatest humourists of all time!

He has authored 13 books, which includes the all-time famous Desperate Husbands!

‘Even the titles of his books are stunners and head-turners - quite catchy and absolutely crazy, with a huge tinge of humour laced all over them’,

says Scupin Richard, an ardent fan of Glover.

Sample a few of his catchy book titles –

Grin And Bear It: A Survivor’s Guide To Marriage, Kids, Family Holidays, Home Renovations, The English And Other Horrors

The P-Plate Parent

Laughing Stock: One Man’s Battle With Sex, Work And A Son Called Batboy

The Joy Of Blokes: A Survivor’s Guide To The Men In Your Life, How To Meet Them, How To Love Them, How To Eat Their Cooking

The Dag’s Dictionary: A Humorous Book Of Words That Should Exist, But Don’t

Desperate Husbands

The Mud House: Four Friends, One Block Of Land, No Power Tools

Why Men Are Necessary And Other News From Nowhere

George Clooney’s Haircut And Other Cries For Help

Coming back to the article on Books - 

Well, this particular article on ‘The Triumph of the Book’ too has its extravagant quota of humour laced all over the lines, which keeps you hooked from start to finish.

Here’s giving you a few excerpts from the article –

The book is back. Or so the Herald tells me. Educational experts have discovered that children retain more information when they read things using a hard-copy book, when compared to a digital device.

One Sydney school, Reddam House, has responded by ditching its e-readers and restocking with printed books. Apparently, the students are enthusiastic. They discovered, according to a teacher, that “the ease of navigation” was superior when using a Traditional Book.

I love the way we now judge printed books using the language of the digital world. E-books come with a “suite of navigational tools”, and yet – it turns out – the best “suite of navigational devices” is your forefinger and thumb.

You can move slowly forward in the “text” by using your forefinger to turn the page, or you can jump backwards by using your thumb to flip a whole bunch of pages.

The Traditional book also has a “search” function, in which you have a squiz at chapter one to remind yourself of the hero’s surname, and even a “bookmark system” which operates through a device we call a “bookmark”.

Used correctly, the “bookmark” will retain a temporary record of the point reached in any text. It even operates without a power source, so is environmentally sustainable.

In fact, the traditional book itself has been designed to never need recharging – a remarkable fact when you consider it was invented well before the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Can a traditional book offer all that is offered by an e-book? Alas, no. The traditional book fails completely when it comes to a “progress bar” – the display indicating what percentage of the book has been read.

Luckily, a “hack” is available: just re-orientate your traditional book in space so that it can be viewed from the side or top.

It will naturally form two halves joined in the middle (“the spine”). If the left-hand chunk is thicker than the right-hand chunk then – congratulations – you are more than half way through.

Fans of the e-book point out that digital text is easy to annotate. In some systems, there is even a pencil icon to guide the reader through the process. Remarkably, traditional book users have a similar system which we call a “pencil”.

Marie Kondo, the Japanese guru of tidying has nominated 30 books as the limit in any well-regulated household. A large, well-stocked book shelf is more meaningful. It’s a map of your life as a reader.

Also: the smell of old books, intense in a second-hand bookshop, is instantly evocative.  

Educational fads come and go, and maybe the traditional book won’t firm into a lasting trend. But for the moment, I find myself standing to attention, flexing my Messel-built shoulders, and saluting its glorious return,

signs off Glover!