I'm inclined to agree, even in the face of the following two facts: - modern e-book readers, including Kindle, have effective & convenient bookmarking/annotation facilities - Amazon allows one to associate a rather large number of devices with an account; so the unit of book acquisition is in effect the household, as it should be.
Your points about what gets left lying around is a good one, as is that about longevity. Back in 2005 I wrote on related subjects, some might find that interesting: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/10/06/Edmonton#p-3 On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 8:04 PM, SS <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, 2014-01-05 at 20:26 -0800, Mahesh Murthy wrote: > > As a sideways punt on the topic, has anyone noticed how quickly Google > > Play > > Books has become a real contender to Kindle? > > > > Books here are almost always cheaper (often 50% or more) than on > > Amazon > > Kindle, and the Google magazine newsstand has begun to rock. > > The point someone made about space available for regular books is valid. > But disk space only encourages electronic collections of trash. > > None of my (or anyone else's) whines about e-books is going to make them > go away, but they are, IMO, changing the way people handle reading > material. > > Less than a decade ago, my brother and sister in law, both prolific > readers, would have books lying about that someone else could simply > pick up and flip through and get a sense of what was in there. Now they > sit with their noses stuck to an electronic screen and any interesting > thing being read can only be discussed, if at all. No question of > "flipping through" - an impossibility with e books. Both people are now > more detached from their surroundings and people around them - with > their precious i-this and i-that which cannot safely be left in a toilet > or perched precariously on the corner of a full dining table. > > No one lends e books to others. Like an idly, or a sandwich, you get > your own. Its about me and what's mine. > > Has anyone ever comprehensively reviewed an e book? Someone must have > done that. I have reviewed a few (paper) books related to the military > and aviation. I find it necessary to make a pen/pencil mark on a page, > sentence or paragraph and then go back (or forward) to a blank page and > note the page number with a remark or reminder. When I read a book for > review - I end up with at least a 100 or 150 remarks+annotations that > fill up all the bank/white space at the beginning or end of a book. > These remarks serve as a guide for me to either review the book - or > reminders of important points that may come up later if I am writing > something. I can sometimes keep 2 or 3 separate books by my side and > consult the annotations I have made in all 3 books if they are related > to the subject I am writing about. This would be an impossible feat > using an electronic book reader. > > That apart, I sometimes remember something I read in a book as a > paragraph that was in the top left corner about 1/3rd of the way into > the book. This sort of interaction between mental memory and muscle > memory is useful to find information when one is doing some serious > reading and has failed to annotate (or cannot annotate as the book > belongs to someone else or a library). This is again an impossibility > with an e book. Of course a word search is possible - but for that one > has to remember key words. > > Napster, which was discussed at length on Silk, was generally hailed as > a great achievement that broke the back of greedy recording companies. > But sound copyright owners have fought back. Books were primarily shared > resources, and resources that would last a century or more with ease. > That is being killed by e books. It is more of a loss than a gain, IMO. > > shiv > > > > > >
