Beautiful words, Bob. As much as I enjoy a good hardcover book, the smell, the flipping of pages, truth of the matter is that, living in a small apartment, I have no room for a huge collection of books; I can only keep the ones that I really like, the ones I believe cannot, or even more, should not have an electronic version, these are obviously photography books, where the whole point of having a book is to enjoy printed photos. For other books that might be read maybe only once, an e-book reader does just fine, and I don't need to take up room to keep them.
Somebody has to play devil's advocate, this wouldn't be PDML otherwise ;-) Is not paper, but the display is good enough for that kind of reading: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3236/3101352553_c39bcc572b_o.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/3101352209_8eee8f049e_o.jpg On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 6:39 PM, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: >> I don't happen to agree with you. A paperback book is about >> as portable as >> anything and less prone to accident. >> >> You can throw it down, bend the pages, leave it spread open >> to where you >> stopped, stuff it in anything, toss it across the room to a >> friend, take it on a >> camping trip and not worry about batteries and/or >> recharging, and as long as >> you don't drop it in the water while reading when taking a >> bath, it can last >> a long, long time. >> >> Sometimes progress isn't progress, and one can't really beat >> a book for >> readability and durability. (Yes, hardback too, and they are >> still around.) >> >> People have been predicting the demise of the book for about >> 20-30 years, >> but books are selling (well, were before the recession) >> better than ever. >> >> Marnie :-) >> > > I agree. There are more pleasures in reading than just reading. The > physicality of the book is important. The smell of a new book, the > progressive degradation of the spine as you read it. The ability to scribble > on it. Books, as the saying goes, furnish a room. Babies can pick books up > and read them upside down, and suck them without electrocuting themselves. > Pages rustle and twist and turn. High quality paper feels good in the hand. > The weight of a well-made book is like the weight of a good camera - it's > balanced and it exhudes quality. Books need shops to sell them. You can into > the shop and browse, and meet like-minded people. You can look at a girl and > know from the books she's browsing whether she's got a brain or a vacuum > between her ears. You can pick people up in bookshops. You can go into a > French bookshop in London and be greeted in French, and be in France for > half an hour while you browse and eavesdrop. You can go into the library in > the British Council in Addis Ababa and be in England for 30 minutes' respite > in the cool. Tyrants can burn books. Democrats can spot tyrants by their > book-burning habits. A child will never be able to teach herself to read > from a machine - she needs a book. Marcel Pagnol taught himself to read, but > his mother wouldn't let him have any books until he was 6 years old, 'for > fear of a cerebral explosion'. Books free everybody. How would a public > library system work without books? Free public libraries are one of the > crowning achievements of civilisation, asking nothing of their patrons other > than the ability to read quietly. No IT skills, no costly machines or plugs > or wires or blue screens of death. Having a Kindle is like having your own > CD player. Having a book is like having your own orchestra. > > Bob > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferand/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
