Chuck & Nancy

I write a column for our library newsletter. I’ve had this topic on my mind for a while and so I wrote this article for the next issue. It thought I’d share it here ..

Books will Endure
by Nancy Hevenor

Have no fear, the book will continue to survive. It is a perfect form and executes its function wonderfully. Like pen and paper it is found everywhere and used constantly. Many of us love books. As young children my sons were more likely to clutch a book while falling asleep than a teddy bear, certainly a reflection of our attitude toward books.

But as certainly as the Guttenberg press created a revolution in book printing we are at the edge of a new revolution in publishing. Not every book is worthy of the natural resources used to produce it. The weight of a book in pounds is not indicative of its value as literature or resource. We have already seen the disappearance of encyclopedias from homes and libraries. And few people regret the increased ease and speed of locating information on computers and the recovered shelf space.

The days of publishers flooding the market with mass media paperbacks are numbered. And they should be. The younger generation will have no emotional barriers to reading their romance novels and thrillers on a hand held device. I expect libraries will still check them out, but do so electronically. You will be able to fit dozens of books in your pocket instead of 20 lb of luggage. And this will be a better use of space and resources, to say nothing of back and knee injuries.

But many kinds of books will continue to be loved and cherished. Children’s books, art books and certain references will always be something that is best experienced on the physical printed page. When the digital camera was in its infancy some people thought there would be no need for photo processors. As it turns out photo printing is a bigger industry than ever. But only a very few photographers cling to film as the recording media. Even most professional photographers have surrendered to digital at this point. And this will be true of books too. The mass media paperback will go the way of the vinyl record, the 8 track tape and film. But important books will be in our homes and our libraries and our lives.

But this story is not all about what is disappearing. Google has been working on a project since 2004 to digitize all books. So while many printed copies of books will disappear in the future, many discontinued and unobtainable books will become available again. You will be less force fed mass literature as the publisher pushing books into a publishing food chain. The popularity of a book will drive the numbers “published” instead of a printing schedule.

I confess to being a book lover and at times a book hoarder. I still own some of my favorite college texts and many of the books I read to my children. To me you can escape in a book, to an adventure, a romance, a new skill, new emotions. I believe books can rescue people from poverty and ignorance. But it is the contents not the media that does these things. Like with people, the most beautiful and important part is what is inside.

This morning CBS Sunday morning had a wonderful human (and elephant) interest piece on about an unlikely partnership - a totally dedicated pair Bella and Tara - an elephant and a dog.  If you missed the piece on TV you can enjoy it here - thanks to Cyberspace.

While in Colorado we drove up to Estes Park and enjoyed this charming mountain town in the Rockies.  We always enjoy visiting the Glass Blower’s shop in Estes - where there is normally someone working.  It is fascinating to watch the process of melting, blowing, spinning, cooling the glass into shapes.  I find it awesome. 


And I love the results. The little pumpkins are so charming .. I find the stems especially charming with the vine like curly q and the plump ridges. It’s a very pleasing shape..

And the rows of glasses and vases just please the eye ..

It’s difficult for me to believe that Adam is 30!  It still amazes me he is so tall and grown up.  At 6′4″ he towers over both Chuck & me.  We were thrilled to spend this birthday together celebrating with Adam & Dasha, Peter & Kellie and Adam’s close friends, BIlly & Deanne and Alex.

We celebrated another wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with Family and Friends.  We appreciate more every day how much we have to be thankful for.  Family and friends are our greatest riches and we deeply appreciate the time we spend together. 
Like most people we ate too much .. the food was fabulous and the company delightful. All in all it was a great day. In addition we celebrated Adam’s 30th birthday.

Chuck built a gorgeous hand crafter clock for Adam to mark his 30th year!

It’s Heather’s Birthday and the Gerber Girls gathered for lunch.  Of course I no longer work there but it was a delight to be invited to celebrate Heather’s milestone.  She looks decades younger than her age.  It must be the triathalons she’s competing in.  

It was very nostalgic for me to listen to the chat about kids going to college, getting their driving license and performing in concerts.  I watched all of these friends have their babies so these milestones really mark the march of time.  Friendships like these are timeless and cherished and the conversations are so easily slipped back into.  Our lives, conversations and values centered around the essence of life.. family, friends, health and work.  

We have been visited by a couple cute little foxes.  They’ve been coming up to sun themselves on our front porch.  They are considering making a den under the porch.  They are really cute.

Our stock club fortunately decided to liquidate our portfolio last January.  It was not clear at the time what a prescient move that was.  But we ladies still like to get together.  We gathered for dinner last week and had a wonderful time.  We had presentations from 2 members who have done some amazing things.  Bebe and her husband, Fred,  spent 2 months this past winter in Tanzania teaching Aids orphans.  Elin and her husband, Rick, brought water to 2 different villages in Guatemala.  We are thrilled to have such truly altruistic friends.

We are looking forward to going to Maui this winter.  And we are especially excited that a number of friends will be there too.  We were able to have a Hawaiian preview party .. it was great.

Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t do anything “small”.  My enthusiasm often gets the better of me and I get carried away.  That certainly applies to my love of photography, especially digital photography.  And I love sharing my passion with others so the library has been a perfect forum to present some classes on the topic.  I’ve been doing that recently and they’ve been very popular.  And I am so excited to help people have more success with their photos and memories.  There was so much interest in the classes the local newspaper did a couple stories on them .. I think she captured me well .. it certainly made me laugh to read.

“Last week I covered a story at the Mystic and Noank Library about digital photography. It focused on organizing and sharing photos using Picasa, a free program that enables you to work some pretty neat magic on your photos.

I watched the delightful Nancy Hevenor show the audience of varied abilities, how to make the most use of the very userfriendly program. She was friendly, articulate, engaging and nformative. Now I’m not sure what constitutes an obsession but the woman has more than 40,000 photos. And she sure is good at taking them, organizing them and sharing them with friends. And she is good at teaching others how to do the same.

She is a gift to the community. She’ll be back to the library in a week or so to teach a class on how to make Christmas cards, which will probably be filled, if it isn’t already, just like her last class.

But back to the photos. Why would someone snap and keep 40,000 photos I wondered. This fascinated me as I raced back home to download Picasa. I couldn’t wait to see what I could do. I love taking photos, although my own camera was recently pronounced dead after weeks in the camera hospital. I still get to play with the newsroom camera taking photos for my stories. Anyway, the things you can do with Picasa amazed me. And compared to Photoshop it is so easy to use. ”

Click to read the complete Mystic River Press articles.