When reading an old fashioned wood-pulp-and-print tome, I get into a specific emotional state of relaxation and familiarity.
I’ve used e-reading devices before and they’re just not the same.
Further, I own about 700-1000 books and like them a lot.
My sister LISTENS to books for pity’s sake. Then again, that could hark back to the childhood paradise of being read a story. I wonder what percentage of young people today only watch books. “Moby Dick? Didn’t they make that into a book?”
I’ll sooner hang my balls in a blender and press the ‘puree’ button than buy such an infernal machine.
Given the choice, and realizing that I wouldn’t actually have to use the damn thing, I’d buy one.
Save about 10 books, my entire law library is now on line. It’s great in that its much cheaper to subscribe to a few databases that rent a whole room to house books you have to subscribe to, which I used to have to do, and you don’t have to pay someone to misfile all the supplements and find all the books that got left laying around in various places (and then misshelve those.) Everything is where it is supposed to be and completely up to date. And since I usually only need somewhere between a sentence to a couple of paragraphs from a case or statute, I can just cut and paste.
BUT, if I have to actually carefully read 5 or 6 or 26 pages, I print it and read the printout. Maybe its just my age, but my comprehension is vastly improved when I’m actually holding a sheet of paper in my hand, and I like to make marginal notes.
By the way:
McCreason - 25 April 2009 03:55 PM
Wireless download in a couple of minutes? […] Most books are a mere 9.99?
Most books are free if you go to the bookstore and don’t mind hanging out for awhile. Of course, that doesn’t help the author, publisher or bookstore, as the venerable Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley found out.
I love ole paper books myself, but have not much space for them. Of course I take them to the local book store for credits at times, but I hate getting rid of things that I may want to read or reference later. Thus the Kindle2 works for my life.
I used to order used books (many were actually new and unread) from Barnes and Noble, and most were cheap, many under 10 bucks, but it was REAL snail mail waiting for them. Sometimes 3 weeks! PLus the postage added a few more dollars as well.
Further, I own about 700-1000 books and like them a lot.
This is a misleading statement, Jefe.
You are creating the impression that your shelves are filled with the likes of Nabokov and Twain.
I have been to the den of depravity that you call your house and we both know that 90 % of your ‘books’ are hard-core pornographic stories and prints of the sort that would make Marquis de Sade cringe, pull up his aristocratic nose and mutter; “now that’s just nasty.”
Especially that 12 volume series you have about people flentching their furlies through a slip-hole was so disturbing that I had to study its waywardness for a good four hours.
Further, I own about 700-1000 books and like them a lot.
Thoreau self-published his first book, ‘A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers’. Later, in his journal, he reported that he owned 734 books, “706 of which I wrote myself.”
When reading an old fashioned wood-pulp-and-print tome, I get into a specific emotional state of relaxation and familiarity.
I’ve used e-reading devices before and they’re just not the same.
Further, I own about 700-1000 books and like them a lot.
Me too. Nothing against new technology—hey, if it helps keep the printed word competitive against the barrage of electronic non-print media, I’m all for it—but it’s not for me. I own hundreds of books, I have several checked out from libraries at any given time, and at the age of 41 I don’t see my reading habits changing any time soon.
Plus, I just enjoy the actual act of holding and reading a physical book.
Save about 10 books, my entire law library is now on line. It’s great in that its much cheaper to subscribe to a few databases that rent a whole room to house books you have to subscribe to, which I used to have to do, and you don’t have to pay someone to misfile all the supplements and find all the books that got left laying around in various places (and then misshelve those.) Everything is where it is supposed to be and completely up to date. And since I usually only need somewhere between a sentence to a couple of paragraphs from a case or statute, I can just cut and paste.
BUT, if I have to actually carefully read 5 or 6 or 26 pages, I print it and read the printout. Maybe its just my age, but my comprehension is vastly improved when I’m actually holding a sheet of paper in my hand, and I like to make marginal notes.
Me too. I read a lot of articles I find online, but if they’re more than a very few pages long, it’s much easier and much more natural for me to print them out and read a paper copy.
teuchter - 25 April 2009 07:47 PM
By the way:
McCreason - 25 April 2009 03:55 PM
Wireless download in a couple of minutes? […] Most books are a mere 9.99?
Most books are free if you go to the bookstore and don’t mind hanging out for awhile. Of course, that doesn’t help the author, publisher or bookstore, as the venerable Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley found out.
As a professional librarian, I hasten to add that not only will your local library let you check out their books for free and take them home, but many library systems have interlibrary loan programs which give you access to the holdings of hundreds of libraries around the country. And many ILL departmenets and procedures are automated now—the library system I work for can get most ILL requests to the patron in a week or less.
