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"There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book," says Patti Smith, winning the National Book Award.

Last night, in the nonfiction category, for her memoir "Just Kids" about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe:

Accepting the award to applause and cheers, Ms. Smith ? clearly the favorite of the night ? choked up as she recalled her days as a clerk in the Scribner bookstore as a young woman.

?I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf,? she said. ?Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don?t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.?

Congratulations to Patti Smith. She's a longtime favorite of mine.

I used to hang out in bookstores and buy piles of books. Nowadays, I hang out of the internet, and though I read many, many hours a day, it's mostly on the computer screen. When I've had enough screen time, I like to listen to audiobooks. There are 27 audiobooks in my iPhone at the moment. But I do occasionally choose to have my reading in old-fashioned book form. This year, of the few books I bought, one was "Just Kids."

I'm not really into the romanticism of the physical object that is the book. I think the internet is more beautiful than a book. But is the internet "in our material world"?

Full post as published by Althouse on November 18, 2010 (boomark / email).