Kaufman links e-book trend to bookburning, Nazis

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Apparently only if they're on paper, bound with some other paper and held together with decomposing glue.

Hrm, does the fact that he wrote that on a computer make it more meaningless than it already was?

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

Hrm, does the fact that he wrote that on a computer make it more meaningless than it already was?

I think it might make it heavier (more bits or something)

[PKFFW]

So reading is only reading if you are reading from a piece of paper?

As for a kindle being akin to Hitler exterminating Jews.........if a non-Jewish person had ever had the audacity to claim that I can only imagine the outcry!

Either you want people to read or you want people to read what you think is worth reading and in a way you think is right.

Which is it? Which is really important to you?

Cheers,
PKFFW

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Alan Kaufman

We are slowly dissolving in a catastrophe of blandness. A stainless steel tableau of screen-mummified generic looking clone people placidly seated in the sun on perfect lawns of Astroturf, gaping at laptops and ipods and Blackberries. A fear-constricted world painted in the fading pastels of distraction- benumbed senses. A world in which fewer and fewer people bother to read books that engage you. I don't mean Harry Potter or James Patterson. I mean The Brothers Karamazov. I mean Madame Bovary, Sound and Fury, War and Peace, Bleak House. .

Mr Kaufman, if I told you all these books were out there, price from "free" on up, would that make a difference?

If I told you many of us have re-discovered these and many other classics by noted authors because they are free, and a pleasure to read on a small device instead of lugging huge books around would that make a difference?

What if I told you many people with ebook readers have discovered these authors for the first time.....and are devouring every classic out there, would that help you understand?

Nah........I don't think it would. I think your mind is closed.

[luqmaninbmore]

The ironic thing is that the classics have benefited most of all from the arrival of ebooks. From the start of Project Gutenberg they have been the most widely distributed and are even today among the most downloaded. In addition many have been rescued from obscurity. How many people have read Da Vinci's Notebook in ebook form (on, gasp, the Kindle) that would never have read it due to unavailability in printed form? On the literacy front, ebooks make it easier to learn the language itself, providing access to dictionaries, thesaurii, and grammar guides in one convenient package. Completing the irony is the fact that Harry Potter is not legally available in electronic format. Apparently you and J K Rowling have something in common after all.

Luqman

[dmaul1114]

Big surprise.

Another load of pretentious drivel.

Excuse me while I finish up some work and head home and play some video games and read some disposable fiction on my Kindle.

[grimo1re]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Oh dear, you really don't get it do you? You don't understand one thing about the democratization the internet provides. How it frees writers from corporations and bottom-lines. How it give voices to those who would otherwise be voiceless. How, in the grand scheme of things, no book can ever be burned again, for it will live forever as long as one person is bothered to make a digital copy.

You're a fetishist, sir, of the highest order. A book sniffer, a glue-huffer, a fingertip romantic more in love with the idea of books than you ever were with the knowledge or the words contained within.

You are a dinosaur. We are the comets. You may turn your head away from the skies and imagine we are not here, but we are, and soon you and your ideas will be nothing more than a wikipedia stub, begging to be expanded.

Yours
The internets.

Well said! Hear, hear!

PS. Still flagging a Godwin.

[Donnageddon]

I am reading a lot more of the classics on my Sony than I ever did in paper form.

Is Alan Kaufman another pseudonym for Mr. Bloom?

[basschick]

the important part of a book isn't whether it's being read on paper or on a screen - it's text actual words read, the content. and that is the same. i read gone with the wind many times in hardback and paperback form. i just reread it on my ebook reader, and it was exactly the same story.

supporting paper books means supporting not only deforestation and pollution caused by printing, but also a publisher system that doesn't work for anyone except the publishers and a few best selling authors. ebooks have allowed smaller publishers and actual authors to get their books out there without printing and shipping costs. and there are a lot of excellent authors who were unable to sell their books to big publishers or any publishers who are now able to bring their books to readers and make some money doing it.

[HansTWN]

Don't be so hard on him -- he is suffering from a serious case of dementia. It appears almost all brain functions have deteriorated to the point of being useless.

Seriously, how a man can show so much disrespect for all his father has suffered by equating people who produce/read ebooks with the Nazis is beyond me. His raving drivel reads like it came straight from Hitler's mouth.

[Falbe Publishing]

It appears that someone is looking for attention on the Internet...

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

His raving drivel reads like it came straight from Hitler's mouth.

Godwin's Alert!

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Don't be so hard on him -- he is suffering from a serious case of dementia. It appears almost all brain functions have deteriorated to the point of being useless.

Seriously, how a man can show so much disrespect for all his father has suffered by equating people who produce/read ebooks with the Nazis is beyond me. His raving drivel reads like it came straight from Hitler's mouth.

it's like really misplaced survivor's guilt. with a twist

Originally Posted by Falbe Publishing

It appears that someone is looking for attention on the Internet...

this is NOT a good place for that!

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Mr Kaufman, if I told you all these books were out there, price from "free" on up, would that make a difference?

If I told you many of us have re-discovered these and many other classics by noted authors because they are free, and a pleasure to read on a small device instead of lugging huge books around would that make a difference?

What if I told you many people with ebook have discovered these authors for the first time.....and are devouring every classic out there, would that help you understand?

Nah........I don't think it would. I think your mind is closed.

+1
Not only free, but now widely available. Ebooks have brought around far more choices and opportunities for me to read, and not just restricted me to what is currently in print or stock at the local bookshop.

So what is Alan's next whine going to be, listening to a CD takes away the cultural aspect of going to a live performance?

[Gideon]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

Here is what I think you, sir, should do. You may wish to read to the end prior to acting my instructions out.

1) Stand up.
2) Reach around behind your computer.
3) Pull the plug out from the wall.
4) Pick up your computer and defenestrate it.
5) Once you've done that pick up your wooden stylus and clay tablet.
6) Continue writing.

Defenestrate. Brilliant.