05-18-2010, 12:42 AM | #31 |
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See now, (shaking head) I was just the opposite. I used to break out in a cold sweat at the thought of being stuck at home during a blizzard/tornado/hailstorm or bad case of the flu without enough books. I am pretty sure that between what's on my 8 GB SD card in my Kindle 1, what's archived at Amazon and what's saved on my external hard drive, I have more Ebooks than the small town libraries I grew up near had DTB. I remember my 5th grade teacher wailing that I read on a college level and she had no appropriate books for me.
I use LibraryThing to keep track of what I have read, what I thought of it and who I want to read more of. They seem to suggest good books and I get 3 or 4 a month for review so I find new authors that way. |
05-18-2010, 01:47 AM | #32 |
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are too many ebooks stealing the pleasure of reading?
nope! |
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05-18-2010, 01:56 AM | #33 |
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Sometimes I have the feeling I simply have too many books to choose from. That's mostly when I just finished a book (or the last book of a series). But I already had that feeling too when I just had my pbooks and went to the library every week.
But I feel the same towards my ebooks as I do towards my pbooks. Some books are still very special to me, and those I'll read over and over again. Before, I read those books in pbook form, these days, in ebook form. The only "problem" I have now, is that not every book is "ready" for reading on both my ereaders. The JE100, with Mobipocket on it, can read every book I have, but on the BeBook Mini I prefer my custom made PDF. But I haven't converted every book to PDF yet... |
05-18-2010, 02:41 AM | #34 |
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possibly
the promise of digital printing was supposed to be the single format. Books are a single format so to speak: table of contents, index and the actuall content, (then you get the little extra details in footnotes, biblios, etc).
The problem of e-readers is their proliferation in many different types that soon will match of books been published!! If every publisher attaches an e-reader to their contents then you'll be hauling 15 different e-readers with their corresponding flavor of USB cable, firewire, bluetooth, 3G, wifi, chargers, etc. Hence ALL the advantages of digital books is lost, the environmental factor (save trees, in case is not from a tree farm), the usability factor (fast words look up without a dictionary that weights a ton, citations, linking etc), space/weight and the ability to carry as many books as you wish. It's all lost in the DRM crap, vastly different and cumbersome user interfaces particular of e-readers. Thanks god I got a NOOK with it's touchscreen which makes the experience iPad-like. Because e-readers user interface and navigation is the biggest stumbling block for a fully natural and pleasing reading experience, the very thing the article mourns about. With a paper book all you gotta do is go and open it. With e-readers you need to pass a user interface degree in order to get to the book. In my opinion e-readers got a long way to go before they become a solid and comfortable 'writer's' alternative to pulp books. However, this is just the beginning. As I said earlier e-readers should match the iPad's iBook and pdf reader. I saw a video and fell in love with that. |
05-18-2010, 04:06 AM | #35 |
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I can see only good things coming from this sort of progress.
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05-18-2010, 05:06 AM | #36 | |
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Quote:
The choice is huge. However, my reading habits have not changed since I have started to read ebooks only. I use the same approach for choosing what to read as I have been doing for the last decade since I became aware of book forums. There are 3 forums I follow. Not all the threads and sub-forums that they host. Mostly only general topics such as: Reading in May 2010 May 2010 reads Reading at t'moment? After joining Goodreads and falling in love with it, I follow monthly threads such as Reading in Xmonth 20xx year in two groups: Fantasy Book Club and SciFi; Fantasy Book Club. Although, they are less informative, people discuss read books less, they usually just list them but sometimes there are good reviews. In a while you find people whose reviews or points of view you like more and follow their suggestions or descriptions of books more than others. As simple as that. Sometimes I do fall prey to over-hyped books. For example Time Traveller's Wife. Then again, I learn from my mistakes, I try to remember users who raved about it, then read between the lines their posts and remember the posters who have diametrically opposed points of view. That's how I make my TBR list Ebooks or printed books, it doesn't matter. I have only so much time to read and I am a very slow reader, so I must be careful of what I choose to read. Last edited by astra; 05-18-2010 at 05:09 AM. |
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05-18-2010, 05:25 AM | #37 | |
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You must be an extrovert. You have missed the whole point. The reason Bob and I and others have these problems is the books are in our face. You go to the library or bookstore, used or new, you can't buy them all. You have to pick a few. Even at thrift shops or library sales it is the same. All these free books online to download is different, you can have all you want, and you get overwhelmed. Of course it is the same if you have a large library of thousands of books like I used to have. Now anyone can do it by downloading them free and legally. I find that I wind up collecting ebooks, but reading real books.
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05-18-2010, 05:46 AM | #38 | |
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It said the same thing I did, just a different wording. Nothing has changed. Just like in the First Law trilogy. The first chapter of the first book is called End and the last chapter of the last book is called Beginning. |
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05-18-2010, 05:56 AM | #39 | |
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I cannot imagine how one can loose a track of what one is reading. If you read more than one book at time and you loose track of them, then you are incapable of reading many books at the same time. I know, I cannot. So, I don't. I am sure I would forget all the good books I am planning to read, so I have created a TBR list. It started with a simple handwritten notes in my Read books notebook I have from age of 6, then it was copied to Word on my PC then to Goodreads. I believe it all boils down to whether you are an organised type of person or not. If you aren't, then you would be in trouble with printed books in huge book shops too. |
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05-18-2010, 07:25 AM | #40 |
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05-18-2010, 07:58 AM | #41 |
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The only issue i see is that it's so much easier to 'give up' on a book early on if it's not immediately grabbing you, and switching to something else.
But the alternative is far, far worse..... I'm with Glitrbug - " I used to break out in a cold sweat at the thought of being stuck at home during a blizzard/tornado/hailstorm or bad case of the flu without enough books" I have been stuck on an oil rig offshore, on standby (ie waiting around) and finished my books. This was before the days of internet, and even having my own laptop to ward off death by boredom. My god, the horror. I had to read an Iain M Banks sci-fi novel, which was painful enough - but the true pit of hell and torture was ending up reading 'Toxin' by Robin Cook. The Worst Book I Have Ever Read. Ever. Look - 71 (count 'em!) 1 star reviews at Amazon.... oh, the memory of it. http://www.amazon.com/Toxin-Robin-Cook/dp/0399143165 ps - it's inspired me to write my first Amazon review, so it's up to 72 one star reviews now. Last edited by Coops; 05-18-2010 at 08:09 AM. Reason: the p.s. |
05-18-2010, 09:17 AM | #42 |
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Heck, I thought it was going to be an editorial on how all the OCR errors and lack of proof reading makes reading stressful.
IMO, when it comes to books more is better. |
05-18-2010, 09:45 AM | #43 |
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That would be true. I hate errors and I hate when I stumble because of an error and it breaks my concentration on the story and jerks me out of it and drops me brutally back to real world.
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05-18-2010, 10:41 AM | #44 |
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For me it's hard to judge, since there was a time between the beginning of puberty and 2000 where I did not read for pleasure. It was eBooks that got me back on track and rekindled my joy of reading.
One thing that I did notice, however, was that most eBook stores are like huge, HUGE warehouses filled with ALL sorts of books. And almost no directions. You need to sift through everything and figure out how to avoid the trash. Book covers, not just the visuals but also the effort that goes into printing them, do allow you to draw conclusions of their quality. I have given up "browsing" through eBook stores. I buy only what I know I will like. But having a lot of books on my device does not reduce the joy I find in them. I read only a book at a time, and the only thing I might feel is anticipation to start with the next book - which does not make the current book any less enjoyable. And just like a smoker who comes home on saturday night only to realize he's out of cancersticks before the weekend I feel stressed when I'm nearing the end of a good book and realize I don't have anything good to read next. I might have classics or unknown indie books lined up. But sometimes I'm not in the mood to try something new, I feel like there's a void when my favorite authors have not published anything new. |
05-18-2010, 10:46 AM | #45 |
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One of the biggest things to take away here is that, with the significant change in dynamic between available ebooks and consumer tools, comes a need for new and better ways to manage it all, through searching, purchasing (or obtaining), storing, filing, referencing, and just plain enjoying. In other words, everything's different.
Going from "familiar" to "different" usually creates some amount of stress, creating emotions ranging from excitement to dread... and in the case of ebooks, most of their aspects are changing, so there are few areas to fall back on as a "familiar" comfort while everything else changes. Many of the biggest sources of contention among ebook consumers and creators can be said to reflect a desire to keep one element or another "the way it was," creating that "familiar" aspect to provide an anchor as everything else changes around it. The fact that we don't all agree on that anchor--be it prices, formats, access, rights, tools, etc--is what causes much of the contention. The best way to deal with it, in most cases, is taking things a step at a time as far as you can... but when everything is changing, you often have to take multiple new steps at once... it's like a waltz dancer learning the electric slide, or all the steps to a Michael Jackson video... and it can take some time before you figure out the steps, and the rhythm, and the changes, and finally jump in and take a few practice steps until you get it. And until you get the steps down, you're too busy concentrating on the effort involved to actually enjoy the dance. Sooner or later, we'll all have the right tools, know where to get books, know how to store and retrieve them on demand, etc, etc. Some of us already have all the tools and methods we need (lucky you!), and some of us are still waiting and working on the tools and methods that will function as desired for us (hand raised). Eventually it'll be second-nature to everyone. |
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