"The book is dead. Long live the e-book!"

[Jaime_Astorga]

Lots of mind-killing in this thread...

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You are in your room at night. The power goes out. You have no light. The books don't work.

Isn't that what candles and flashlights are for? Then again, I come from a third world country and currently live in a hurricane-prone section of the first world, so I have many experiences with blackouts and dealing with them is second nature by now.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga

Lots of mind-killing in this thread...


Isn't that what candles and flashlights are for? Then again, I come from a third world country and currently live in a hurricane prone section of the first world, so I have many experiences with blackouts and dealing with them is second nature by now.

I'm in a large-sized U.S. city now, but where I grew up was very rural, and we'd have blackouts for 1-2 weeks if it rained too much or snowed too much. I used a battery-powered booklight then, same as I would now with my ereader.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You are in your room at night. The power goes out. You have no light. The books don't work.

I have my 650. Same night. It has power in the battery. The battery for the light cover has power. Guess what? I am reading, you are not.

The power goes out. I go to the kitchen and grab a flashlight and/or candles. I keep reading.

Your battery dies out. Your 650 no longer works.

I have candles and flashlights. I'm still reading.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

The power goes out. I go to the kitchen and grab a flashlight and/or candles. I keep reading.

Your battery dies out. Your 650 no longer works.

I have candles and flashlights. I'm still reading.

Yup. Even if I weren't a reader, I wouldn't be sitting in the dark. Duh.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I have candles and flashlights. I'm still reading.

Flashlights maybe. Have you ever tried to read a book by candlelight?

Flickery, shaky, dim, uneven. You need a lot of candles.

Graham

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Graham

Flashlights maybe. Have you ever tried to read a book by candlelight?

Flickery, shaky, dim, uneven. You need a lot of candles.

Graham

Booklights have been around for decades, longer than e-readers. They originally sold them so you could read print books. No reason a person can't use a book light even without an e-device.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Graham

Flashlights maybe. Have you ever tried to read a book by candlelight?

Flickery, shaky, dim, uneven. You need a lot of candles.

Graham

I'm from the country, lol. I've done a lot by candle-light.

Also, my grandparents were superstitious - no power use at all during thunderstorms. I've got a lot of practice reading by candlelight.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Booklights have been around for decades, longer than e-readers. They originally sold them so you could read print books. No reason a person can't use a book light even without an e-device.

[Graham]

I suppose the key thing here is that this argument crops up time and again and misses the point. If the battery runs out on your eReader you reach for a paper book. It's not an either/or question. The BBC site seemed to run "will eBooks kill paper books" articles regularly, with a smug response "ho, ho, not any time soon", missing the far more interesting story that it's another way to read, not a replacement way to read.

Hopefully we're moving out of that era now, with moves like the Booker Prize judges being supplied with eReaders to use if they want to.

Graham

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Graham

I suppose the key thing here is that this argument crops up time and again and misses the point. If the battery runs out on your eReader you reach for a paper book. It's not an either/or question. The BBC site seemed to run "will eBooks kill paper books" articles regularly, with a smug response "ho, ho, not any time soon", missing the far more interesting story that it's another way to read, not a replacement way to read.


Graham

Agreed.

[sufue]

Apparently grammar is dead for Fox News writers too, as the extra apostrophe and missing comma in the attached screenshot of just the last two paragraphs of the article seem to show.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by sufue

Apparently grammar is dead for Fox News writers too, as the extra apostrophe and missing comma in the attached screenshot of just the last two paragraphs of the article seem to show.

[G J Lau]

Originally Posted by Graham

It's not an either/or question. The BBC site seemed to run "will eBooks kill paper books" articles regularly, with a smug response "ho, ho, not any time soon", missing the far more interesting story that it's another way to read, not a replacement way to read.

Graham

Agree totally with this point. I am on the board of directors of my county library and can tell you that we must continue to have readily available printed material for the many people who still live on the wrong side of the digital divide.

E-books will help inevitably find their way into a larger reading segment. I certainly hope so as a newly minted e-book author, but I will always have a book or two from the library lying around the house.

[Marcy]

You liberals are so sanctimonious and holier than thou it makes me sick. I love how you all think you know what's good for me and think the government should interfere in every aspect of my life. Liberals must be the idiots because they need Michelle Obama and the city of San Francisco to tell them what to feed their kids, the Department of Education to ensure their children can read, the government to provide them with health care and tell them what medical treatments they deserve, and pretty much want a cradle to grave governmental nanny wiping their butts their entire life. Guess what? My family and I get along just fine without you.

I suppose you all think MSNBC, CNN and the NY Times are impartial and reliable sources of news. I recently finished Grey Lady Down and it was a sad and pathetic tale. Bernard Goldberg's Bias was another good read from several years ago.

I see all the posts here and always keep my mouth shut, but this just broke the dam.

I guess I'm a scary person with a lack of sanity. I've read all the books mentioned and more. I don't always agree with them, especially Ann Coulter, but I have to admit she's a great writer who will always make me laugh.

I will end with a selection of my favorite Jefferson quotes, which I'm sure the liberals will all deride. For people who think they are the intelligentsia they don't actually read a lot of history.

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

-Marcy

[Grimm]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Books died for Fox News viewers long ago.

Kind of like how unbiased reporting died for CNNMSNBCCBSABCNBCLATNYT years ago...