Greg Jordan: Real books don't need batteries or expensive devices

Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
Updated ·4 min read

Mar. 28—Tuesday evening I watched while some of Tazewell County's fourth and fifth grade students got excited about winning trophies in an academic competition.

It was the 22nd Annual Tom Colley Reading Bee, a time when students developed a love of reading while testing skills such as spelling and reading comprehension. Seeing this in an age when so many kids are hunched over their cellphones was good.

I'll confess that I spend a lot of time online these days, but I still find time to read. I'm currently reading a book outlining the history of the Jack the Ripper case and some of the suspects.

I've read several Jack the Ripper books, but this one is especially interesting because it goes into a lot of misconceptions.

One of the more interesting misconceptions concerns the image of Jack the Ripper, all dressed in black, roaming London's slums while carrying a little black doctor's bag. Well, it turns out this legend started when a guy carrying such a bag happened to pass by a courtyard where one of the ripper's victims was found.

He didn't go into the courtyard and was glimpsed for only a moment. He later read about this sighting in the newspapers and went to the police. He had a solid alibi for when that killing took place and he was cleared, but the image of Jack the Ripper with his black bag full of knives stuck.

That style of bag was popular among men back then, but it fell out of style because carrying one could get the owner chased by vigilantes crying "Jack the Ripper!"

Now, I wouldn't recommend using "A History of Jack the Ripper" at any future reading bees.

Maybe some of the original Sherlock Holmes short stories would be good.

I still remember reading my first Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League," in an Alfred Hitchcock book for young readers. After finishing that story, I went to a Sherlock Holmes book my grandma had given me years earlier and read them all in a couple of days.

I still have a collection of Sherlock Holmes books.

Competitions like the Annual Tom Colley Reading Bee continue to spark that love of reading books in a time when it seems like cellphones and tablets with their videos are going to replace them. I've heard about reading books online and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm among those folks who want a physical book to read and own.

Sherlock Holmes, through his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, once said that it was good to start out in life with some really good books that are actually your own. Well, I agree with my literary hero. I'm reluctant to give up a book once I get it because I will likely read it again. Hopefully, the students participating in these reading bees will eventually set out on their own and have some really good books to put on a shelf.

Discovering Sherlock Holmes helped ignite my love of reading and learning about vintage crime cases like Jack the Ripper helped keep that flame alive.

I later went on to read the classic Foundation Trilogy by Issac Asimov and J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings."

I could read both again and find something new in both because they are so rich in detail.

I also discovered that reading is still one of the most affordable forms of entertainment in this age of streaming channels and online videos.

Real books don't need batteries or expensive devices, and the technology behind them doesn't need updating every year or sooner.

I have vintage books that are just as readable today as they were in the 1950s.

You just have to keep them in a dry place.

Public libraries are still great places to find and borrow new books at no cost.

I still think the public library was one of Benjamin Franklin's greatest inventions.

Greg Jordan is the Daily Telegraph's senior reporter. Contact him at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com