Kindle the Future

In 2010, the personal archive of the late author David Foster Wallace opened for researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to the author’s notes and manuscripts, the collection includes books by John Barth and Don DeLillo, which Wallace annotated heavily, plus a battered New American Heritage Dictionary in which he circled hundreds of words that captured his imagination over the years. Not that there’s anything wrong with electronic texts or the new category of devices for reading them, but many of the documents in the Wallace archive are strictly dependent upon traditionally bound books and hard-copy text. Writer and editor John Mark Eberhart and National Book Critics Circle members Denise Low, Mark Luce and Steve Weinberg discuss The Next Decade in Book Culture at 7 p.m. at the Johnson County Central Resource Library (9875 West 87th Street, Overland Park). They consider issues relating to electronic texts and the future of the printed word. For more information on the free discussion, call 913-826-4600 or see jocolibrary.org.— Chris Packham

Wed., Jan. 19, 2011