Why Print?

With the incredible growth of knowledge and resources online, the question inevitably comes up: Why have something in print?

Print is a unique medium for carrying the written word and ideas. The nature of the medium lends itself to a very different experience than knowledge online. A book can have a personality. This is particularly true for books that contain many voices. It can be an engagement with an entire community. And, given the physical nature of a book, readers can engage with that personality, with that community, very much on their own terms and at their own pace. There is a great degree of interpretation and discovery in the pacing of working through a book. This creates space for a reader. In that space, there is freedom, time for reflection and time to make the ideas, the contributors’ voices, personal. To internalize them and live with them.

The answer is based on things Marshall McLuhan and Seth Godin have written about as well as my personal feelings on books and ideas. I love books and ideas. I find the written word magical and ink on paper fulfilling.