People with Kindles are like robots in another world

[dsip]

"Kindles are just a phase and they won’t last."

In the really long run, I'm sure he's right. Knowledge of making e-readers is sure to be lost long before people don't know how to make books anymore. And usage of books is a lot less dependent on other infrastructure than real books, of course.
Won't help him with his bookstore though..

[Xoanon]

Booksellers here definitely want them banned. You see people walking around with Kindles and they are like robots in another world.

‘Books are sociable and people stop and talk to each other about them. Kindles are just a phase and they won’t last. They are our enemy.’

Ha, I'm going to remember this. I found out yesterday that I have to go on an unpaid work placement...with a second hand bookseller. This may be my opportunity to help destroy the system from within

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

I have a friend who co-owns a local bookstore, and she says the same kind of thing. I think what it boils down to is they know ereaders are hard on their business and resent them. I know there's a way to buy books from Googlebooks and support your idependant bookstore, but I also know that doesn't happen very often. I kind of wish ebooks could be bought by going to any bookstore and scanning a code on a book and then purchasing, and whatever book store you were at would get the sale. But that isn't how they work.

i've also thought of this before, and i wish this were possible. i really do feel badly for independent bookstores, but unfortunately, money talks with a really loud voice. i try to do what i can to help by buying in local bookstores (my local store also offers to cover the books with plastic for free, so that's an added incentive to buy) when i see something i like there.

as i've mentioned on other threads before, i was recently in a Barnes & Noble when I was in Hawaii, and what really irked me is that they (unlike the shops here) have all the books out of their plastic packaging. it prevented me from buying one book on top of my TBR list because the pages were already dirty, and i wasn't paying $26 for a dirty book. i wonder why can't they just have one copy open for viewing and the rest still in their packaging. is this a cultural thing, i wonder? most people here don't mind a setup like that at all, but i guess it might be different in the US.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i've also thought of this before, and i wish this were possible. i really do feel badly for independent bookstores, but unfortunately, money talks with a really loud voice. i try to do what i can to help by buying in local bookstores (my local store also offers to cover the books with plastic for free, so that's an added incentive to buy) when i see something i like there.

as i've mentioned on other threads before, i was recently in a Barnes & Noble when I was in Hawaii, and what really irked me is that they (unlike the shops here) have all the books out of their plastic packaging. it prevented me from buying one book on top of my TBR list because the pages were already dirty, and i wasn't paying $26 for a dirty book. i wonder why can't they just have one copy open for viewing and the rest still in their packaging. is this a cultural thing, i wonder? most people here don't mind a setup like that at all, but i guess it might be different in the US.

A cultural thing, for sure. Where are you from? The high-end collector sets are often wrapped in plastic but that is certainly the exception. They're the only 'real' books I buy anymore also.

If I think about it, yea, sometimes the copies of books of the normal shelves are thumbed by others (though I wouldn't categorize them as dirty). When I bought those, I'd certainly look for the least-thumbed copy. It's never been enough of an issue to make me forgo buying.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

A cultural thing, for sure. Where are you from? The high-end collector sets are often wrapped in plastic but that is certainly the exception. They're the only 'real' books I buy anymore also.

If I think about it, yea, sometimes the copies of books of the normal shelves are thumbed by others (though I wouldn't categorize them as dirty). When I bought those, I'd certainly look for the least-thumbed copy. It's never been enough of an issue to make me forgo buying.

I'm from the Philippines, but at least the bookstores I've also been to in Singapore sell books that are still wrapped in their packaging. There is only one copy that is open.

Well, this book had a big smudge on the outside of its pages. I couldn't stand that, and when I asked if they had a newer copy, they unfortunately didn't; it was the last copy on the shelf.

I bought some other books though. I just really wanted that one as well. *shrug*

[Joshua.P]

That's why I buy my paperbacks (increasingly fewer these days) on amazon or the book depository.

And the price difference of course...

[Cdesja5]

When I visited Thailand I noticed that most books were wrapped and that they offer to add plastic to the cover when purchased as well. I think it is the norm in many parts of Asia but not in Japan, books were unwrapped the shelf there in any store we visited. Books are not generally shipped in a wrapping here in North America and Europe... Also with labour costs in the West (and Japan) it would definitely add to the cost and reduce profit/add to price of purchase. I've never seen a store here or in the US offer to cover a book...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Barcey

This according to a used book store owner.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...rts-event.html

I understand that people will judge others but it still amazes me how people want to control what other people prefer.

Eh, he wanted to have a rule for the literary festival. Seems reasonable to me especially since the festival is in Hay-on-Wye. The whole town is about physical books.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Graham

What's most ridiculous about this is that Hay-on-Wye is full of exactly the sort of bookshops that will survive the advent of the eReader. They're distinctive, each tends to focus on a particular genre, and they're stuffed full of rare and out of print titles.

Really, when I was there maybe 5 years ago most had a general selection. Like for example the Cinema Bookshop.

[din155]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Hey, my precious doesn't need a name

shut up u bad monkey..i spilled my coffee..stop talking and eat your banana

[crich70]

Books are sociable and people stop and talk to each other about them. Kindles are just a phase and they won’t last. They are our enemy.

I can imagine people saying the same thing about the automobile and television, not to mention the movies when they first came out and though the technology of each has changed over the years they are still here. It also reminds me of the story of the man who claimed that a heavier than air craft couldn't fly. He had math formulas to prove it, he said. Then the Wright bros. took off at Kitty Hawk. Alright said the man a one seat heavier than air craft can fly, but they'll never get a craft with more than one seat into the air. lol. People will believe what they want to despite facts to the contrary.

[Annenon]

Originally Posted by applesauce

This is beyond rude. So does he get to call people who use wheel chairs or glasses or walking frames names. What about those who read braile. Are they all banned from there as well. He is an out and out idiot not to know the world kindles have opened up for the disabled. Those with vision issues those with limited mobility and or strength in their hands. Somebody needs to point all this out to him, It isnt just a cute toy for some people.
applesauce

I am really echoing that which Applesauce has already said.

My friend and I used to love reading, but we both had to give it up a few years back, as I could no longer hold anything other than a very small paperback, due to a disability in my hands and arms and my friend through failing eyesight.

The Kindles that we have bought have given us the freedom to read again and read again we are doing.

This man has made me so angry with his comments. Would he have everyone who can no longer use a physical book, for whatever reason, lose the freedom that these devices offer with their light-weight and variable text sizes?

Let us hope he never has to find out what it is like to be denied the freedom to read as my friend and I and countless others likes us have.

As for Kindles and similar devices stopping people talking about books - that is utter tosh! We talk about the books we have read and discuss the subject matter all the time. For that matter, what on earth does he think we are all doing on this very forum?

I think this man is living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Long live the E-Reader!