Is the end of books?

Talk about e-books nowadays is very common. Like was common to talk about CDs, Mp3 and DVDs on the past. But think the physical book will disappear like vinyl or VHS won’t be an overreaction or at least a precipitate conclusion? I still believe there’s public to both formats.

With much less personality than the physical book, e-book has been slowly gaining its place among the not so radical readers. And not for nothing. With an e-reader you can  carry thousand of books in your bag, weighs only  a few ounces. And ok, it’s not necessary , and probably you’ll never be able to read all this books, but considering the practical side, you can read “David Copperfield” (a work by Charles Dickens about 900 pages) weighing just 200 grams. Not to mention the ease of reading an eBook anywhere without bothering to turn pages or hold a large volume. Another advantage is to adjust the font size. Who never had a wonderful book on hands, and couldn’t read it for its font size be small and uncomfortable?

In my opinion, physical books will never go out fashion. Despite having an e-reader and love all the ease its brought to my life, one thing is undeniable: I love bookstores and smell new books!
And it’s not only the smell of paper with ink, has to do with admiring the colors of covers, the texture, the size and weight, and also imagine this book and a coffee in a cold and rainy day at home. To admire a bookshelf with all your volumes, to pick a book was shabby by time and use, and imagine how many times that book told its story. It’s fantastic!

So, having an e-reader is something very good, I can keep my private library, with the facility of chose what books I want to put on it, I don’t need to think how to get rid of books I didn’t like. Because read an e-book is something cool, but open a book on lap and wait for him to tell me its story is a great satisfaction!

Relative clauses and non-finite clauses

This will be a brief explanation about relative clauses and non-finite clauses.

Defining:  Is an essential part of the sentence.

There were four students who missed class at 7 a.m.

He is the teacher whose wife just died.

Non-defining: Is extra information, always separated by commas and the speech changes.

The class, which was missed by four students, started at 7 a.m.

The teacher’s wife, who just died, always made pie for students.

Which

Is used to introduce a non-defining clause:
The train, which was late, exploded.

Always follow a preposition:

It was a help for which I’ll be eternally grateful.

That

Is more informal than which:
By 4:30, there was only one painting that hadn’t been sold.

Is often used instead of who in everyday speech in defining clauses:
Do you know the girl that lives next door?

Whom

Whom is the object form of who.
He was a person whom everyone regarded as trustworthy.

Whom is always followed by preposition:

With whom were you dancing?

However, in everyday use, it is usual avoid this kind of construction:

Who were you dancing wih?

Whose

Whose means “of whom”. Can be used in both defining and non-defining clauses:

Several guests, whose cars were parked outside, were waiting at the door.
Several guests whose rooms had been broken into complained to the manager.

When and Where

Non-defining: They follow a named time or place.

Come back at 3:30, when  I won’t be so busy.
I stopped in Maidstone, where my sister owns a shop.

Defining:  When follows words such as time, day, moment.

There’s hardly a moment when I don’t think of you.

Where follows words such as place, house, street.

This is the street where I live.

Non-finite clauses containing an –ing form

These are clauses without a main verb.

Actions happening at the same time:
Waving their scarves and shouting, the fans ran onto the pitch.

One action before another:

Opening the letter, she found that it contained a cheque of $1,000.

An event which is the result of another event:
I didn’t get wet, having remembered to take my umbrella.

Writing beyond Twitter

To write on the twitter era can be more complicated that you imagine, because you have a limited number of characters to be used. So, to pass a message you need to abbreviate many words, or even purposely write something wrong, cause this way fewer characters are used.

The internet is something that can’t be avoided nowadays, and all this confusion when it’s time to write is understandable. We live in a fast pace and write a brief message can save time and God knows we live like we’re dying in the next second. Social medias have an important role, but you need to know how and when to write something complex or simple.  

On the other hand, nothing justifies write wrong when you don’t need to save this “precious time”, when you need to do a composition or essay to college, or even write something for your work. Social medias like twitter also have something bad about this limit to write: you’re not be able to develop extend ideas, and it’s ok for social medias, but the thing get complicated when the person is not able to write at all. Read and write well should be seen like an obligation not as a differential, and many people do not realize that.  Write wrong or in acronyms is the new fashion boom and if you don’t write this way on the internet you’re considered someone outdated. Write well is also identifying the target audience and gives to your text conditions to be understandable.

Is very important to read everything you can and sometimes to practice writing, many people don’t remember how to write some words because they are used to copy and paste most of the things on the internet.
So, be someone who is able to adapt your written language can get you rid of embarrassing situations writing to others. And if you’re able to write  what happened in a day with just 140 characters, it means you can express yourself in a concise manner, which is very good for this fast pace of life we live.