How many books do you really own?

Many years ago, I heard a library science professor speak about the real concept of book ownership during a book acquisition lecture. A voracious reader, he wanted to share with his students what it truly meant to ‘own a book.’

“To own a book goes beyond purhasing a book at the bookstore and putting it on your shelf back home,” he said. “No, it’s more than that. The only time you can say you own a book is when you’ve read it from cover to cover and have mastered its content by heart.”

It was such an erudite remark that I had to share it with my sister who, like me, is a certified bookworm. “That’s a great definition,” my sister said. In the months — and years — to come, my sister and I would read each other’s book purchases and declare at the end of each reading conquest, “Hey, I own your book!”

I can’t remember how many times my sister had told me this line. She had read most of my books (mostly modern classics, humor books, how-to books, self-help bestsellers, comic books, and reference books on PR writing and journalism) more than I had read hers (mostly must-read classics). Well, with my busy schedule as a journalist at that time, I couldn’t read as many books as I wanted to. More often than not, she would own my freshly purchased book even before I had the chance to flip through the first few pages! She would sometimes tease me that she was the rightful owner of some of my books (I’ve still not yet read all the books I had bought in the past — shame on me!).

Now, here’s the funny thing: my older brother is an avid book collector. When he was still living in Manila — he now resides in the US — he would buy lots of medical books as well as Christian books, and his bedroom would eventually look like a mini library of sorts. I loved his Christian book collection and found myself poring over his books during, say, my two-hour bus journeys from our home to the office and vice versa. Eventually, I ended up becoming the real ‘owner’ of his Christian books just because he had not found the time to read most of them — even to this day. He was more a book hoarder than a reader.

Fortunately, I now have more time to ‘own borrowed books’ on a regular basis here in Switzerland — although I still buy books online and offline as I was wont to do in the past — thanks to my public library membership and my less hectic timetable.

It was great to read from start to finish, for instance, Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Soseki Natsumi’s Botchan, Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Mitsuyo Kakuta’s Woman on the Other Shore, Sue Townsend’s Number 10 and Rebuilding Coventry, and be able to say to myself after reading the last page of each borrowed book, “Yes, I finally own this book!”

The other day, when I returned some DVDs at the library, I spotted Alex Haley’s Roots displayed on the English section shelf. My family has a copy of that book in Manila, but I never got around to reading it in the past. What a pity.

I really want to own Roots soon, without having to buy a copy on Amazon (not yet, anyway). Owning a book has never been so practical yet meaningful at the same time. Thanks, Prof. Cobaria, for your enlightening insight.

TIDBITS: There’s a nice English bookstore located in the university town of Neuchatel called Used Ink, which sells used English books (something like what Booksale does in Metro Manila, albeit on a much smaller scale). Owned by an American expat, Used Ink also sells secondhand French titles. The bookstore relies mainly on book donations from owners of English/French books. For more information on how to get there, you can visit the Used Ink website here.

CNN encourages citizen journalism

With modern technology and new media platforms readily made available on the Net these days, it’s much easier — and much faster — for ordinary people to collect, process, and disseminate firsthand information as part of what we call “citizen journalism.”

Never before have we seen people actively sharing information ever so passionately online. Sites such as YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have become potent tools for ordinary citizens to disseminate news and views. Armed with a digital camera or a high-end cell phone, a handy video camera, a personal computer, and pure journalistic intent, they complement the news coverage of the traditional media by creating their own news piece (sometimes accompanied by some form of webcam commentary) and uploading their material on the Net for all the world to see.

Seeing the potential of the new media, CNN has created a site called iReport that enables basically anyone with the desire to be part of the news writing process to present eyewitness photos and videos via the network’s interactive news site.

As its tagline suggests — Unedited. Unfiltered. News. — CNN’s iReport is a user-generated news platform for citizen journalists, who don’t need to have their raw photos and videos fact-checked, edited or screened by the pros at CNN prior to online publication. Just about anybody, who’s familiar with the Internet and the nature of social media, can have their voice be heard anytime…anywhere.

That’s the beauty of the iReport concept. It gives people the freedom to share their news and views with others on a site set up by a globally recognized news network like CNN. And if your iReports have what it takes to be aired on TV, then well and good.

Having said that, it has to be said that freedom of speech can also be misused and abused by troubled people, who seem to enjoy wreaking havoc in community sites, iReport included.

So don’t be surprised, my dear iReporter, when you get readers’ comments that can be harsh, crude and uncalled for. And expect criticisms or one-star ratings to your otherwise carefully crafted iReport post. It’s a free world, after all. People are not always nice, even if your hard work to come up with a well-thought of iReport piece — in keeping with what’s relevant and what the CNN iReport producers are asking for — really merits a pat on the back, and not a thread of unkind words.

But the CNN iReport team did make it clear from the very start that iReport site would be the type of news project created for and by the people. As they wrote in their blog:

“You will program it, you will police it; you will decide what’s important, what’s interesting, what’s news.”

They further stated in italics that CNN makes no guarantees about the content or the coverage on iReport.com.

Personally, I like the idea. It gives news-conscious people the avenue to share with the whole world their passion for what’s important, what’s interesting, or what’s newsworthy using today’s easy-to-use social media tools. Citizen journalism has never been this easy.

While it would be ideal to first screen who gets to post on the site to weed out avoidable ‘bad elements,’ I understand that CNN wants this to be a free-for-all news outlet for everybody. Well, that’s fair enough.

TIDBITS: If you want to be a citizen journalist for CNN, read the iReport About page and sign up for a free account here. The people behind this user-generated site has provided this useful toolkit so you can share your news stories and/or views like a pro.