katiepaterson_futurelibrary_certificate.19-05-2014_2Here’s an interesting literary art project that maybe our grandchildren will survive to read.  Ebook Friendly has an article about an art project in Norway called “Future Library.” There’s also an explanatory video, embedded below.

A forest of trees have been planted to provide the paper for the printing of a series of books in 100 years from now. Every year, an author will be commissioned to contribute an original text to be held in trust until the year 2115, at which point it will be published on paper provided by those trees. Contributing authors so far include Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell.

It’s an interesting idea, though it’s a little hard to get too excited about books that I’ll certainly never get to read, unless we make some pretty significant longevity advances in the next few decades.

The Ebook Friendly article concludes:

There is one thing, a calming thought behind this project: no matter where and how far ebooks will evolve, print books will be there, no doubt about it.

Yes, well, at least this one art project will, assuming it doesn’t fizzle sometime between now and 100 years from now. But who knows what other print books will be around? A lot can happen in a century. For all we know, the e-book edition of the stories will be more popular.

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