It's no wonder that I am a bit downcast. From what I read in the newspaper or hear on the radio, books, as we know them, soon will become as extinct as the ancient do-do bird. Increasingly, books are being replaced by computers.

I prefer the feel of a genuine book. I enjoy reading a good book while sitting on my porch. I like going to bed at night with a book by my side. Books have been my companions since I was a child, long before the advent of computers.

To keep books on the shelves it was suggested that ads, like those put in magazines, be included in books. That doesn't appeal to me either.

If books are no longer printed, book stores will be forced to close their doors. Printing companies will go out of business, adding more people to the growing list of the unemployed.

A number of libraries will have to shorten their hours or close their doors.

Andrew Carnegie would not have been pleased. His endowment founded more than 2,800 or our libraries, many of them still standing, including the one in Albion, Neb.