Steven King likes the Kindle

[Kingston]

Of course he liked the Rocket reader too:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20172616,00.html

[schulzmc]

"You cannot, for instance, listen to one of the later Patricia Cornwell novels without realizing how little feel she has for language,"

Totally cracked me up!

[HarryT]

I entirely agree with the sentiment, however. The early "Kay Scarpetta" novels were excellent but she's completely "lost the plot" now, IMHO. The last couple have been absolutely dire. She's switched from writing in the third person to using the first person, which I find very distracting.

I do "listen" to many novels, by the way; I have a 45 minute journey to and from work every day and fill the time by listening to audiobooks.

[astra]

I am trying to imagine Stephen King sitting at home and reading books ...on ebook reader (be it Kindle or anything else)..... I fail

[KlondikeGeoff]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I do "listen" to many novels, by the way; I have a 45 minute journey to and from work every day and fill the time by listening to audiobooks.

We do also, as travel in the Southwest U.S. entails some really long distances. Slogging along the freeways (even at 75 mph) gets terminally boring after a while, and listening to books makes the time fly.

I find a huge difference in the narrators' ability, usually feeling the worst are those done by the authors. Some professionals are truly amazing at doing different voices. I wonder how they keep track of all of them as they go from one to another.

[SpiderMatt]

Will Kindles replace books? No. And not just because books furnish a room, either. There's a permanence to books that underlines the importance of the ideas and the stories we find inside them; books solidify an otherwise fragile medium.

A good point to make. I don't understand why anyone would expect or want ebooks to replace paper books.

By the by, I liked Neil Gaiman's plug for the Kindle on the Amazon page.

[Alisa]

Personally, I'm a big fan of trees.

[Ervserver]

Unless one plans to read a book several times over or use for future reference I see no point in having to have paper books. Maybe there are those with a compulsive disorder who have to have stacks and stacks of books around

[Alisa]

There are books I would like to have in a permanent medium to go back to again and again. The number is small. Paper is not permanent enough for me to store those books. Paper gets dusty, stinky and moldy over time. I have old beloved books now that I can't look at for more than a few minutes without getting red-eyed and sneezy.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Paper gets dusty, stinky and moldy over time. I have old beloved books now that I can't look at for more than a few minutes without getting red-eyed and sneezy.

Where/how do you keep them??

[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Personally, I'm a big fan of trees.

Me too!!! Especially when they're in my books! Besides, there are tree farms for things like books. I'm not worried about our tree supply.

Originally Posted by Ervserver

Maybe there are those with a compulsive disorder who have to have stacks and stacks of books around

No, I hate having stacks of books around. I prefer to have all my books organized in wooden bookshelves so as to use up more trees.

Originally Posted by Alisa

Paper is not permanent enough for me to store those books. Paper gets dusty, stinky and moldy over time. I have old beloved books now that I can't look at for more than a few minutes without getting red-eyed and sneezy.

It should go without saying that you have to take care of your books to keep them from getting "stinky and moldy." That is not an inevitability of paper. And I think paper is far more permanent than electronic books. A simple hard drive crash or file corruption and your books are gone! With more time and money you can continually back up your drives, but it's not an ideal solution.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

Where/how do you keep them??

On bookshelves. They get dusted regularly (which is quite a chore) and my house isn't at all damp but the paper does deteriorate. There's a particular mold that lives on paper that seems to take hold no matter if the books are kept dry or not. The older books I've bought used I can hardly touch any more. I have a lovely old collection of Shakespeare that belonged to an English teacher and has tons of notes in the margins. I love it but I can't hold it for more than a few minutes before the musty smell makes me ill and my eyes get all red. Sometimes at the public library I have to refrain from checking out a book I want because it's too old.

[astra]

This is odd.

I keep my books on bookshelves as well, although with glass doors.
For the last 5 years I have not noticed any problems. Glass doors prevent most of the dust to get inside and also protect books from direct sunlight. Well, maybe 5 years is not a good enough period of time, however, my father was collecting books from 1960, when we moved to Israel we could not take all 4.500 of books with us, so we took only 700-800. As far as I know they are still in a very good condition, although Israel is notorious for mold/dump problems and the books are kept on open shelves. I believe that some art albums were damaged by damp on the lowest shelves but that all. The rest is in a good condition.

[zartemis]

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

And I think paper is far more permanent than electronic books. A simple hard drive crash or file corruption and your books are gone! With more time and money you can continually back up your drives, but it's not an ideal solution.

At least you can back up ebooks. I've lost paper books in an apartment flood (just the bottom shelf of 15 or so bookcases, though, not all of them; I lost one box of books in a cross-country move; and my mother lost books in a house fire as a child. (no, no insurance). I also have 20 or so boxes of books in storage that I need to go through, sort, and sell, give away, or trash. Time and money is spent maintaining those boxes. I no longer dream of having a large enough house to have my own library (as I did as a kid).

I haven't yet lost an ebook (though I have far fewer of them and only 8 years of reading them). My backups are automated (and my book vendors still alive: ereader and, now, Amazon, and allow redownload). And so far all the ebooks I have are still readable.

OTOH, I've also sold or given away several hundred books. DRM ebooks prevent that possibility.

[SpiderMatt]

I like the smell of old books.