British novelist doesn't want a Kindle for Christmas

Alexander Turcic · 11-26-2007, 08:04 PM

Well, really, who is going to complain given the current shortage of Kindle readers? But if do you care, Andrew Norman Wilson explained today in a short column in the Daily Telegraph why nothing is going to replace the good old dusty, crumbling, smelly paper book any time soon.

Quote:

Alone with my book, I am impregnable. It beats any drug, and it is so cheap. Eyes do the scrolling, and you do not need to recharge their batteries. As for reading a newspaper on a Kindle - how do you scribble telephone numbers on it, or half-finish the crossword?

Mr. Wilson turns out to be one of the more visible literary figures in Britain. Do your kids use the Internet? Watch out. You may have just turned them into thieving mind-numbed sex-addicted little monsters. Paper children books to the rescue.

Thanks to eagle-eyed Jorgen for the tip!

(image courtesy of New York Times)

Mycropht · 11-27-2007, 04:22 AM

A.N.Wilson: 'The internet is destroying the world as we know it'.
Mr. Wilson is quite right, the internet is destroying the world as THEY know it. Should we mourn such a world? I do not think so (of course, this comment is NOT about books). The books may be cheap and ubiquitous from his point of view but it is no so from everyone's perspective. Books will always have a special charm and I hope they will always stay with us but, ultimately, electronic readers will provide a better reading experience, for less money, to more people.
Quote: 'Kindles flip from page to page. Presumably you can flip back a page, but even if you can do so in seconds, this will be longer than the split second that it takes us to turn back a page when you want to check the name of a character in a novel or to refresh your memory of who is speaking.'. It is a very safe bet that the paper book will lose the fast page flipping contest very soon. As for the memory refreshing, I expect the next gen. of e-readers to find me all occurrences of a specific word or a phrase in the read part of a book. It is a thing where a paper book definitely does not excel and never will.
In short, Mr. Wilson may be a writer, but I do not think he is a visionary.

Mambo · 11-27-2007, 05:04 AM

I agree with his comments about the internet. Every time I download an ebook from the internet I have to watch those ugly sex-oriented advertisements and I hate it! Why can't they just advertise ringtones or t-shirts?

Otherwise I disagree with him on e-readers, but that's maybe because I am not a visible literary figure.

sianon · 11-27-2007, 05:12 AM

I am about to retire for the evening and read a serious e-boook downloaded from Fictionwise regarding treatment for depression (written by a reputable psychiatrist and recommended to me by my doctor). I really appreciate that I can do this without having to go out and find a bookstore that may or may not stock the book in question. I would most likely have to drive for about 50 minutes and struggle with parking to get to such a store. However thanks to this (according to Mr Wilson) evil entity called the internet, I can access this information readily, no matter where I might reside. Yes the internet does have an evil side to it, however this can be mediated by people being aware that there is a lot of misinformation out there and also parents monitoring their children's on-line access and activities.

HappyMartin · 11-27-2007, 06:42 AM

Please tell me the name of the book on depression.

The internet will end the world as we know it? The world never was the world that we knew anyway. What a load of drivel.

JAcheson · 11-27-2007, 09:48 AM

It's already been proven by Baen and others that electronic publishing works best in parallel to hardcopy, not as a replacement.

People can surf the cheap ebooks, and what they like, they will buy in hardcopy.

Also, it's particularly amusing to me that he mentions the Bible as one of his irreplaceable books, as I stopped carrying mine in favor of MyBible on my Palm years ago. If you're actually using the Bible for something more than a Sunday morning fashion statement, the electronic version is so much better, what with full text search, faster indexing by chapter and verse, and all the reference materials you could ask for.

nekokami · 11-27-2007, 12:44 PM

If you want more of this sort of "technology is ending the world/civilization," try Neil Postman's Technopoly. For the extreme of the other point of view, see Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital.

Myself, I tend to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I regret the "sound-bite" pace the world seems to move at now, but I love being able to exchange opinions and info with people all over the world.

tsgreer · 11-27-2007, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mycropht

A.N.Wilson:Mr. Wilson is quite right, the internet is destroying the world as THEY know it. Should we mourn such a world? I do not think so (of course, this comment is NOT about books). ....

Ha, great line! Yes, it's destroying the world as THEY know it. Thank goodness. These people that are so afraid of change are the ones left behind. I mean, seriously, is opening the reading world to more options a bad thing? He's a joke.

rflashman · 11-27-2007, 01:38 PM

This guy is a real idiot. He assumes the Kindle has a lit-up screen and is concerned that it may not be as clear as printed type. He has obviously never been near one. Then again, look at his picture. I think he still uses LP records and gets up to change channels on his TV.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 11-27-2007, 03:41 PM

ANW has obviously decided that he just doesn't want to join us in the 21st century. That's fine... just so he stays out of the way, and doesn't whine too loudly about getting left behind.

andym · 11-27-2007, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mambo

I agree with his comments about the internet. Every time I download an ebook from the internet I have to watch those ugly sex-oriented advertisements and I hate it! Why can't they just advertise ringtones or t-shirts?

Maybe the answer to that is only download legit e-books?

Steven Lyle Jordan · 11-27-2007, 04:31 PM

Oh, be nice! And I was going to ask him what those naughty, naughty e-book sites were. (Just for the sake of avoiding them, you understand.)

gingercat · 11-27-2007, 04:48 PM

"how do you scribble telephone numbers on it, or half-finish the crossword?"

I couldn't help laughing about the above comment. I don't know about u but on my reader I just pull out the stylus and start writing - its no big deal.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 11-27-2007, 04:52 PM

If you look through my entire collection of novels, magazines and comics, you won't find a single scribbled phone number or half-finished crossword. Phone numbers go into my phone or PDA, and crosswords... like ANW... are so last century. Somebody clue 'em to sudoku.

Patricia · 11-27-2007, 05:08 PM

A N Wilson is well-known for his old-fashioned, almost Victorian attitudes. I would have been amazed if he had liked an electonic reader.

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11-27-2007, 04:22 AM	#2
Mycropht Optimist Posts: 77 Karma: 378 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Zagreb, Croatia Device: Kindle Paperwhite	A.N.Wilson: 'The internet is destroying the world as we know it'. Mr. Wilson is quite right, the internet is destroying the world as THEY know it. Should we mourn such a world? I do not think so (of course, this comment is NOT about books). The books may be cheap and ubiquitous from his point of view but it is no so from everyone's perspective. Books will always have a special charm and I hope they will always stay with us but, ultimately, electronic readers will provide a better reading experience, for less money, to more people. Quote: 'Kindles flip from page to page. Presumably you can flip back a page, but even if you can do so in seconds, this will be longer than the split second that it takes us to turn back a page when you want to check the name of a character in a novel or to refresh your memory of who is speaking.'. It is a very safe bet that the paper book will lose the fast page flipping contest very soon. As for the memory refreshing, I expect the next gen. of e-readers to find me all occurrences of a specific word or a phrase in the read part of a book. It is a thing where a paper book definitely does not excel and never will. In short, Mr. Wilson may be a writer, but I do not think he is a visionary.

11-27-2007, 05:04 AM	#3
Mambo Gadget fan Posts: 147 Karma: 3968 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London Device: RM Tablet PC, iLiad, PRS 505, iPod Touch	I agree with his comments about the internet. Every time I download an ebook from the internet I have to watch those ugly sex-oriented advertisements and I hate it! Why can't they just advertise ringtones or t-shirts? Otherwise I disagree with him on e-readers, but that's maybe because I am not a visible literary figure.

11-27-2007, 05:12 AM	#4
sianon Addict Posts: 352 Karma: 572 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Melbourne Device: Sony 500, Bebook, Kindle, Eco reader Drs and soon the Archos 9	I am about to retire for the evening and read a serious e-boook downloaded from Fictionwise regarding treatment for depression (written by a reputable psychiatrist and recommended to me by my doctor). I really appreciate that I can do this without having to go out and find a bookstore that may or may not stock the book in question. I would most likely have to drive for about 50 minutes and struggle with parking to get to such a store. However thanks to this (according to Mr Wilson) evil entity called the internet, I can access this information readily, no matter where I might reside. Yes the internet does have an evil side to it, however this can be mediated by people being aware that there is a lot of misinformation out there and also parents monitoring their children's on-line access and activities.

11-27-2007, 06:42 AM	#5
HappyMartin Martin Kristiansen Posts: 1,546 Karma: 8480958 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Johannesburg Device: Kindle International Ipad 2	Please tell me the name of the book on depression. The internet will end the world as we know it? The world never was the world that we knew anyway. What a load of drivel.

11-27-2007, 09:48 AM	#6
JAcheson Tech Writer Posts: 211 Karma: 1745785 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Philadelphia, PA Device: Palm TX, Nook Color, Nook Simple Touch, Vizio Tablet, Nexus 10	It's already been proven by Baen and others that electronic publishing works best in parallel to hardcopy, not as a replacement. People can surf the cheap ebooks, and what they like, they will buy in hardcopy. Also, it's particularly amusing to me that he mentions the Bible as one of his irreplaceable books, as I stopped carrying mine in favor of MyBible on my Palm years ago. If you're actually using the Bible for something more than a Sunday morning fashion statement, the electronic version is so much better, what with full text search, faster indexing by chapter and verse, and all the reference materials you could ask for.

11-27-2007, 12:44 PM	#7
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	If you want more of this sort of "technology is ending the world/civilization," try Neil Postman's Technopoly. For the extreme of the other point of view, see Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital. Myself, I tend to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I regret the "sound-bite" pace the world seems to move at now, but I love being able to exchange opinions and info with people all over the world.

11-27-2007, 01:38 PM	#9
rflashman Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 408 Join Date: Jul 2007 Device: Amazon Kindle, Archos 605 Wifi, & Sony PRS-500	This guy is a real idiot. He assumes the Kindle has a lit-up screen and is concerned that it may not be as clear as printed type. He has obviously never been near one. Then again, look at his picture. I think he still uses LP records and gets up to change channels on his TV.

11-27-2007, 03:41 PM	#10
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	ANW has obviously decided that he just doesn't want to join us in the 21st century. That's fine... just so he stays out of the way, and doesn't whine too loudly about getting left behind.

11-27-2007, 04:31 PM	#12
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Oh, be nice! And I was going to ask him what those naughty, naughty e-book sites were. (Just for the sake of avoiding them, you understand.)

11-27-2007, 04:48 PM	#13
gingercat Connoisseur Posts: 92 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2007 Device: iRex iliad	"how do you scribble telephone numbers on it, or half-finish the crossword?" I couldn't help laughing about the above comment. I don't know about u but on my reader I just pull out the stylus and start writing - its no big deal.

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11-27-2007, 04:52 PM	#14
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	If you look through my entire collection of novels, magazines and comics, you won't find a single scribbled phone number or half-finished crossword. Phone numbers go into my phone or PDA, and crosswords... like ANW... are so last century. Somebody clue 'em to sudoku.

11-27-2007, 05:08 PM	#15
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,504 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	A N Wilson is well-known for his old-fashioned, almost Victorian attitudes. I would have been amazed if he had liked an electonic reader.