Yeah... the whole portability thing. I adore my laptop; I'm not taking it to waiting rooms, out to dinner by myself, or throwing it in my bag just in case.
And as someone who *does* write in books [under certain circumstances and in certain ways]... that's just not at all a reproducible experience yet.
Dad was, for some reason, considering getting Mom a kindle for her birthday. When he consulted each of the 3 of us, we all apparently found different tactful ways to say "wow, what a horrible idea!". The only people I know of who are happy with them are people who travel frequently, and find the trade-off of meh interface for lots of luggage space back worth while.
*nod* There are plenty of places and situations in which I'd risk a paperback that costs $8 to replace, but not a laptop that costs $800 to replace, or a $90+ Device. And plenty of situations where I'd consider a book safe, I wouldn't think the same of a piece of tech.
I think the travel factor is as much about how long you're traveling as how often. If you're making a bunch of couple-day trips and don't read too fast, you can get by packing a book or two each time. It's only if you're doing heavy reading and/or spending weeks at a time that I think I'd consider trading the extra couple paperbacks' worth of space for cost and inefficiency.
I feel vicious protective impulses on seeing someone reading a paperback of mine with the covers at a spine-snapping 180°+.
Just reading that made me cringe and want to snatch the book out of their horrible, mauling paws.
I loaned a friend in HS one of my books, with the spine pristine. When he returned it all cracked and mangled, I told him to buy me a new one, because it looked like a fucking library copy.
The only books on my shelf with bent spines are ones I picked up used. Even the 500-page 3-book omnibus ones.
Some of the spines of my paperbacks are a little ripply. That's what happens after many, many read-throughs. The only ones with ugly spinal scars are ones I've lent to my mother, or inherited/bought used. Even The Name of the Wind, which is nearly 800 pages, has been shared by ragnvaeig and I, and read multiple times.
By the way, if you haven't read The Name of the Wind yet, I have to apologize profusely for not recommending it before, and you have to hit the bookstore/library.
Sorry, it won't make a very good doorstop. For it to function as a doorstop, you'd have to be able to put the book down. This has been an enormous challenge for me on both read-throughs.
It's really clever - manages to play with a lot of fantasy tropes, while subverting a whole bunch of others... it's kind of a story about how stories begin, among other things, how myths are started... the frame story is the main character telling his life story, so he even gets to comment on the lack of dramatic elegance in certain chains of events, etc. It's fascinating.
Klett-Cotta apparently snapped up the German rights, which kinda says something. K-C's Der Name des Windes also includes a special feature, one that thoroughly convinced the author he had indeed entered the ranks of true literary giants, but Patrick himself tells that story best.
There's a reason the guy managed to publish just this one breakout, quit his day job, and still donate $50,000 to Heifer International the second year after his first book came out. Well, OK, it's
( ... )
Until this textbook, I had no real reason to. I have a couple of books in e-format, on my harddrive. Books I actually do want to read. Books that can't compete with re-reading some of my paperbacks for the 5th time instead, once comfort is factored in... which is why I'm making my fourth pass or so through The Dresden Files now, instead of all these books I've been wanting to read for years.
One of my friends is prepping a class for the first time. He mentioned it as possibly being of interest to me, and that he'd like someone else to discuss/geek out over things with in the process. Since I've been out of the game for years, and the stuff I'd be learning is applicable both for Embedded Systems and general Microsoft coding, I figured, hey, why the hell not.
So, no official class. No grade or certificate. Just learning stuff that might or might not be useful later.
*nod* I remember flexible organic displays in discussion years ago... I hear they've gone inorganic etc, but I know they won't produce something I can accidentally bend in a backpack, drop, or trust in my pocket, at a price I can afford, for years.
Plus, again, it's a market that doesn't need revolution. Short of free downloads, I don't have much advantage from a $500 piece of hardware over the 50 or so books I could buy with that money.
Now, once digital copies are ludicrously cheap, and/or libraries shift to offering scans of books to cut costs and space... OK, there's some market. All the same, I think cheap, truly portable e-readers are going to need to precede those sorts of shifts, and there's not much impetus to actually do so.
There's an e-reader in production that ROLLS UP and retracts into something small and cylindrical. I like that., in theory, although I'd have to muck about with it in practice. I can see it being too flexible, or hard to hold.
And yep, I think the tech has to precede the content in this case. Books are CONVENIENT and wonderful. e-books, unless you get the price point worked out just right, really can't compare.
That said, I'd probably read a whole lot of e-books if the price was right and I could put them on something ilke the proposed XO2.
If the "something small and cylindrical" is also case-hardened, I'd be down for that - but not at the price it would probably necessitate. That's the biggest thing - it's hard to imagine an e-reader priced low enough to splurge on, and it would have to pay for itself fairly quickly to even merit my consideration. Since I'm not currently in the habit of buying tons and tons of new releases every year, that'd be a hard task indeed.
But, then again, I'm also not well off at all, and thus not the intended market for groundbreaking gadgetry. I can admit that. If I didn't look at a $500 e-book reader and go "But that's as much as the new laptop I was considering saving up for, and does less!", it'd be a whole new ballgame.
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And as someone who *does* write in books [under certain circumstances and in certain ways]... that's just not at all a reproducible experience yet.
Dad was, for some reason, considering getting Mom a kindle for her birthday. When he consulted each of the 3 of us, we all apparently found different tactful ways to say "wow, what a horrible idea!". The only people I know of who are happy with them are people who travel frequently, and find the trade-off of meh interface for lots of luggage space back worth while.
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I think the travel factor is as much about how long you're traveling as how often. If you're making a bunch of couple-day trips and don't read too fast, you can get by packing a book or two each time. It's only if you're doing heavy reading and/or spending weeks at a time that I think I'd consider trading the extra couple paperbacks' worth of space for cost and inefficiency.
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Just reading that made me cringe and want to snatch the book out of their horrible, mauling paws.
I loaned a friend in HS one of my books, with the spine pristine. When he returned it all cracked and mangled, I told him to buy me a new one, because it looked like a fucking library copy.
The only books on my shelf with bent spines are ones I picked up used. Even the 500-page 3-book omnibus ones.
Reply
By the way, if you haven't read The Name of the Wind yet, I have to apologize profusely for not recommending it before, and you have to hit the bookstore/library.
Reply
Reply
It's really clever - manages to play with a lot of fantasy tropes, while subverting a whole bunch of others... it's kind of a story about how stories begin, among other things, how myths are started... the frame story is the main character telling his life story, so he even gets to comment on the lack of dramatic elegance in certain chains of events, etc. It's fascinating.
Klett-Cotta apparently snapped up the German rights, which kinda says something. K-C's Der Name des Windes also includes a special feature, one that thoroughly convinced the author he had indeed entered the ranks of true literary giants, but Patrick himself tells that story best.
There's a reason the guy managed to publish just this one breakout, quit his day job, and still donate $50,000 to Heifer International the second year after his first book came out. Well, OK, it's ( ... )
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So, no official class. No grade or certificate. Just learning stuff that might or might not be useful later.
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Nah.
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Plus, again, it's a market that doesn't need revolution. Short of free downloads, I don't have much advantage from a $500 piece of hardware over the 50 or so books I could buy with that money.
Now, once digital copies are ludicrously cheap, and/or libraries shift to offering scans of books to cut costs and space... OK, there's some market. All the same, I think cheap, truly portable e-readers are going to need to precede those sorts of shifts, and there's not much impetus to actually do so.
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And yep, I think the tech has to precede the content in this case. Books are CONVENIENT and wonderful. e-books, unless you get the price point worked out just right, really can't compare.
That said, I'd probably read a whole lot of e-books if the price was right and I could put them on something ilke the proposed XO2.
Reply
But, then again, I'm also not well off at all, and thus not the intended market for groundbreaking gadgetry. I can admit that. If I didn't look at a $500 e-book reader and go "But that's as much as the new laptop I was considering saving up for, and does less!", it'd be a whole new ballgame.
Reply
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