Pity the Kindle Generation

[Bekah]

I love my e-reader but I can understand the concern.   What if "they" pull the plug on something which is  "incorrect" in some way? They can very easily just yank the book from the e-shelves, so to speak.  Very convenient. 

But I especially appreciate my e-reader for travel to a place where there are no bookstores for 40 miles.   I don't have to drag an extra suitcase along to visit my grandkids.  And while I'm there I can download whatever books I want and not have to lug them home again (or leave them there).  -  I just got back from about 3 months up there. 

I like them because I can have a book right here at home, right now,  where there is no decent bookstore for  50+  miles.  UPS is good there go the gas costs again. 

And e-books are light-weight.  I'm reading The Cornish Trilogy - it's in one volume (for a reasonable price) and not available in e-format.   That book is a veritable door-stop at over 1100 pages long!  How to lug it around? How to hold it?   It  needs a prop to read -  same with War and Peace but I got that one in e-book. (Same with Against the Day, for that matter.)    

And e-books don't use trees and don't fall apart after a couple readings and they are very easy to dispose of when a person passes away.  

I've seen books which are out of print revived for an e-edition.  E-editions likely won't go out of print.   Relatedly,  e-books make self-publishing viable. 

Otoh,   I do miss bookstores.  I miss the sensual experience of the pages in my hands.  I miss the cover art of current or recent reads sitting around the house.  Paper format books are decorative but they get dusty  - I actually own a few thousand.   No one is going to want them when I go to the nursing home - someone will have to pack them up and take them off somewhere.  

Fwiw,  none of Pynchon's books is available in e-format but I suppose that's his option. 

I'm not trying to sell anyone on e-books - read what you like - I'm just blabbing on about my opinion.   I still buy paper and audio books - whatever I want.  

Bekah


On Oct 12, 2011, at 7:05 AM, Matthew Cissell wrote:

> The changes in reading practices that are occuring now may cause some to seek refuge in nostalgia, but I myself feel no "fusty ire". But I do have some apprehensive concern. Take a good dose of paranoia mix it with some Foucault and add in a PH Dick plot, then you'll get an idea of my concern.
>     Liberty? Think of it this way, the obtainment and reading of a text can now be documetned in a way that would be impossible w/ 'old book' reading. Farhenheit 451 (as it is written) is unthinkable in the post-book future. But then, what is possible? If they don't burn them, then what will it be?
>  
> ciao
> mc otis (a not very old fart)
> 
> 
> From: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
> To: Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com>
> Cc: Pynchon Liste <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 12:07 PM
> Subject: Re: Pity the Kindle Generation
> 
> actually, I think the "Kindle Generation" will define "scanning my
> bookshelves" as something entirely different to what the Torygraph
> nostalgist has it.
> 
> I can't comprehend this fusty ire over e-books, and I am an old fart.
> I love books, have tons, buy many more than I will ever read (is that
> what he means when he says "for show"? I always think of buying books
> as a hopeful act, a hedge against some future in which i have all the
> time in the world and finally catch up), but I feel LIBERATED by
> e-books.
> 
> damn, sometimes I feel like a monk whose wrists & eyes are aching from
> midnight illumination being shown Gutenberg's printing press.
> 
> On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 9:41 AM, Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yrhelCxd9xQ/TjAXtN0YPBI/AAAAAAAAAIo/0HS3t2DkTRk/s912/buecher1.jpg
>> 
>> 2011/10/10 Jed Kelestron <jedkelestron at gmail.com>:
>>> P-listers books are rarely on shelves.
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 6:48 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8814562/I-pity-the-Kindle-generation-they-will-never-know-the-sweet-nostalgia-of-scanning-their-bookshelves.html
>>>> 
>>>> According to a new survey, two thirds of the books we have on our
>>>> shelves are purely for show.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>