Bitter clinger...

To borrow a phrase out of the 2008 campaign rhetoric, from the Obama side, I am a "bitter clinger"; not to guns and religion (in my case, um, it's guns and irreligion ) but BOOKS.

A colleague passed along this bit of wisdom from a "Green Libraries" blog; Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of having libraries meet LEED standards and all that good noise, avoid using toxic carpeting, etc, that's all good.

but I do have to question this bit of advice:

“Consider the Kindle 2: It’s expensive and may upset some reading purists, but the Kindle 2 is an eco-friendly reading tool. Purchase one for the library to spread awareness to readers.”


Um, yeah, until it breaks and ends up as highly toxic e-waste in a landfill, whereas a regular old hardback or paperback book is much more “biodegradable”. *roll eyes*

Not to mention the pollution created in generating the electricity necessary to keep this device's batteries charged and operational. That's not environment neutral either.

Reading purists = library "innovation" change-agent parlance for those pesky “normal people.” – “bitter clingers” to their "outdated, organically based bibliographic storage and retrieval technology..."