Who needs books? : reading in the digital age

Summary: "In a lecture given at the Canadian Literature Centre at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and in interview with CBC Radio host Paul Kennedy, novelist Lynn Coady explores what happens if we separate the idea of 'the book' from the experience they've traditionally provided. Lynn Coady presented 2015 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture at the Canadian Literature Centre at the University of Alberta. Her lecture was called Who Needs Books? She challenges book lovers addicted to the physical book to confront their darkest fears about the digital world and the future of reading. Is the all-pervasive Internet turning readers into web-surfing automatons and books themselves into museum pieces? The bogeyman of technological change has haunted humans ever since Plato warned about the dangers of the written word, and every generation is convinced its youth will bring about the end of civilization. Coady suggests that, even though digital advances have long been associated with the erosion of literacy, recent technologies have not debased our culture as much as they have simply changed the way we read. Novelist and journalist Lynn Coady was born and grew up in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. Her first novel, Strange Heaven, was nominated for a Governor General's Award. She lives in Toronto, where she writes for television. Lynn Coady was featured in a CBC Radio Ideas series program on this topic called The Monster at the End, originally aired May 6, 2015, which can be listened to on the CBC Radio Ideas website"--Provided by publisher.