Asus to launch cheap liseuse this year

[Boston]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

But surely if you had bookstores to go into to buy e-books, then e-books wouldn't be much cheaper because of the lower vendor costs .....errrrm, oh yeah, sorry!

I would love to be able to buy e-books at the local bookstore.

I wouldn't mind spending a little more to buy a book in a store...because I still love nothing more than browsing a brick & mortar bookstore and don't wan to see them go the way of the record shops. I still make a point of purchasing on my visits, even if its just a latte or a magazine...and when there is a pbook I need to buy, make a point of doing it at the store now even if its cheaper on-line.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by Boston

I would love to be able to buy e-books at the local bookstore.

I wouldn't mind spending a little more to buy a book in a store...because I still love nothing more than browsing a brick & mortar bookstore and don't wan to see them go the way of the record shops. I still make a point of purchasing on my visits, even if its just a latte or a magazine...and when there is a pbook I need to buy, make a point of doing it at the store now even if its cheaper on-line.

I think the point Bilbo1967 was making was that ebooks in a bookstore would negate some the cost-savings that ebooks theoretically provide, but in reality don't. The whole comment was tongue-in-cheek.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

Given the eventual (and sometimes rapid) obsolescence of computing hardware and software, I think it would always be important to keep paper copies of books around and safely stored. Or else books could be lost forever with all the knowledge and historical value they possess.

that's also a good point, although i think ironically some books may end up being saved from obsolescence and disappearance by ebooks (A.A. Milne's works have all disappeared for good except for the Winnie the Pooh stories, because they weren't reprinted. we'll never get them back, now. this is precisely why Project Gutenberg is such an invaluable and brilliant initiative). as i said, i do think that paper books still have place alongside ebooks, but i wouldn't like to depend *only* on them for preserving books for the future.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I always hear that Americans can be like that when we travel. It always boggles my mind that people would go to another country and just assume English was spoken!

I have imagined if I could ever travel I'd be wandering around with one of those "translater" programs, hoping against all hope to find an English speaker. But I certainly wouldn't expect to find one! Well, okay - maybe if that country was the UK or Australia! (And given lots of American's point of view against bilingual road signs and legal papers here in the States, you'd think they'd get that maybe other people feel the same way about their own mother tongue!)

It's common to attribute that quality to Americans, but while there are quite a good few disrespectful Americans pushing their way around the world that do justice to the stereotype, it is not uncommon at all (and indeed, where I live, more common) to see pushy English-only behavior from Australians, South Africans, and Canadians rather than from the historically belligerent and arrogant English and Americans.

[Patricia]

I think that it's a bit gauche (and possibly macabre or sinister) to assume some sort of linguistic purity for English. Haven't borrowings always existed? As arguments go, it's a bit of a cul-de-sac. Let's have some glasnost here!

And a firm that invented "EEE" is unlikely to complain about neologisms.

As for the device, it would be useful for comparing two texts.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I think that it's a bit gauche (and possibly macabre or sinister) to assume some sort of linguistic purity for English. Haven't borrowings always existed? As arguments go, it's a bit of a cul-de-sac. Let's have some glasnost here!

And a firm that invented "EEE" is unlikely to complain about neologisms.

As for the device, it would be useful for comparing two texts.

that reply is truly a tour de force, patricia. i would even go so far as to call it a chef d'oeuve.

[Patricia]

Ah, we don't have an Académie Française, so can borrow whenever we like.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Ah, we don't have an Académie Française, so can borrow whenever we like.

i suspect the Académie Française wishes we didn't borrow nearly as much as we do.

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

that reply is truly a tour de force, patricia. i would even go so far as to call it a chef d'oeuve.

One might say that Patricia's reply had a certain Je ne sais quoi.

[Moejoe]

Liseuse or death!!!!!

[Donnageddon]

You can pry my liseuse from my cold dead mains!

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by EricGagne

There's no reason we can't have book stores without physical books. The shelves can be replace by touch screens that you can use to browse the books. It could show the overview and even a sample like we have with Mobipocket. Books would never be misplaced, any book store would have ALL the books available on the market regardless of the size of his shop.

I really don't we why we can't have the best of both worlds, digital books, environmentally friendly reading but without losing the advantages of having knowledgeable people to recommend books and answer our questions.

This is a nice idea in theory, but while there are still paper books being made then the setupin that video is a very nice way of selecting your new books for your ereader because it has a reassuring familiarity for the customer that maybe some websites just don't have.

Mind you, it wouldn't be that hard to create a similar system even without needing new ereader hardware just by the store having portable barcode readers for customers to use and then purchases would either be delivered wirelessly if your reader supported that or delivered to your email address.

I have to say that I am not sure about the idea of a dual-screen reader at the current stage of technology, when things have advanced sufficiently that it could easily be done without making the reader too heavy then fair enough, but at the moment that probably isn't the case and if a book was uncomfortable to hold if you were reading for a couple of hours then it would seem like a noticeable flaw.

[drmathprog]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

astra, you seem to be overreacting a bit, particularly in light of the long and glorious tradition of "borrowing" words from other languages which english (and in fact *most* if not all living languages) have been enriched by. probably the majority of words in any one of your (english-language) posts have non-english origins, whether they are recent or not. you know what is meant by the use of the word "liseuse" here, no need to make a big deal out of it. there was certainly nothing in any previous post to justify your post above, i sincerely doubt you are suffering any pain or suffering from the use of the word "liseuse" nor was that the intention of Eric's post.

Yes, but the best languages (like English) improve upon the simple "borrowing" process by insisting that (1) borrowed words have their spelling changed to conform with English's completely arbitrary spelling conventions, (2) borrowed words have their pronunciation changed in order to give native speakers of the of parent language a false sense of confidence when attempting to use such words in English, and most importantly (3) shading, or even changing completely, the meaning of the borrowed word so as to sever any functional link the borrowed word make have otherwise established between the two languages.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Liseuse or death!!!!!

"Oh, no! Not you, too!" he ejaculated.

That makes 3 1/2 people who use that "foreign-sounding" word!



Don

[Dylrob]

You might want to be a bit more careful with your choice of words. Poor Slite could be lurking about.