I don’t collect many books because I have to travel light in this world. But I have two very special books that I am particularly attached to.

They are handbound in leather, with hand-marbled endpapers and they have gilt edges and gold imprinted titles. And the author herself has inscribed loving messages within each of them in a flowing hand. I believe by having these two special books in my home its vibration is changed for the better. They are good medicine, borne of blood, sweat and tears — written by someone of my own tribe.

The plastic Kindle in all its sanitized “splendor” cannot possibly compete.

I was looking last week at a copy of Tillie Olsen’s Silences, and the type I swear was 10 point, and the leading miniscule. I don’t know what the publishers were thinking. I understand that on the kindle, one can make the type face any point size. That would be very cool, esp for one of my editions of the OED… ‘the condensed version’ has maybe 7pt type and the books–there’s two to the set—-and when I bought it a thousand years ago, it literally came with a big black rectangular magnifying glass. lol

Your comment about how precious the PDA becomes —made me think of PDAs/laptops etc., that though made of plastic and metal ….because of what they carry ‘in’ them… can become what in psych., we’d call a ‘self object’ … something that is not only of literal, but also intrinsic value… and thus we protect them, and would feel less intellectually and psychologically, as well, without them were they suddenly lost for instance.

I was reminded of a string of Starbucks/ bookstore coffee shops heists where the theif just walked up to pp working on their lap tops and drinking cofffe, showed them a gun, scooped up their cpus and fled. One of the guys whose computer was stolen was quoted as saying the thief ‘murdered me’….

I can see that you care about books (you know they require care) AND your PDA. I think as more big guys (or brilliant entrepreneurial little guys) get into the industry of transmitting papers, treatises, books, images by download for a price …so a reader is free to download from anywhere without being tailed by the seller at every turn… and as the hardware becomes not only more competent, but also more designy… well, as some of us were saying earlier, I think it will be great for some things that now are cumbersome… and… sometimes far away in miles. Like some documents I would love to see at Oxford, but the plane ticket alone from USA to UK, well, that’s a really really expensive ‘booking.” Ok, I couldnt resist that.

Welcome, and I hope you will read The Moderate Voice often.

dr.e

1. The copyright issues do bother me. I do miss all the perks of “owning” a paper book. I also worry about losing my PDA and losing all my books in one swipe. When my computer crashed, but I could not re-download my book because Amazon had discontinued that service, I was furious. But, I was in the middle of a class and had no choice but to buy “my book” again. This is a serious issue, and, to my mind, the one we should really focus on.

However,

2. I live in the ROK but I still like to read American stuff. If I want to buy a western paper book, I either could wait and hope the volume becomes popular and pay a slightly higher price, or I can pay more for shipping fees than the tome costs and wait months. With my PDA (I doubt I’ll buy a Kindle, especially after reading this post), I can both pay less and download in minutes.

3. There are actually some fonts and types of paper which are hard to read, but my PDA stays the same.

4. I can read in any lighting, and even without it.

5. I’ve yet to find a reference for bibliographies and footnotes using e-books.

6. My PDA now also has a tangible “touch”, and I’m used to the screens (and the inflated counts).

7. My PDA is smaller than any book. It also is lighter, something important for someone who moves frequently. Books take up space, and they really do deserve pampering. The right humidity and temperature, as well as lighting and cleaning, is necessary.

I’m a deep introvert cave-dweller except for activism. The kind of shy I cant talk myself out of when I go to places where I know no one. You know those ones who go late, leave early because they dont know social stuff? That. lol. Next time you go, let me know if you and your familiy needs someone to carry their books for them: I’m your person. If you do all the social talking. (but if a kindle, no need to ‘carry’ anything, I guess.)
dr.e

http://themoderatevoice.com/media/16389/i-dont-know-chris-id-rather-see-you-get-an-award/

I’ve been collecting for years and attending science fiction conventions for decades. I have 10 Heinlein firsts and 4 are signed, two of them when I met him in 1976. There are more than a few others like that from other writers I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in all that time and in some cases I can say they’re my friends. That’s what attending science fiction conventions is about for most people as opposed to some of the media events that the Star Trek conventions have become.

Urenco “NEF”

I mercifully yield the floor.

Why then, I must be a man because I hate to shop!

Did you see the trademark after the statement?

That’s true about (real) Americans [tm], too.

* * *

DLS is accurate psycologically, a lot of people /males often… like to target their treasure locations

“Demonic Males” — what’s the smallest unit in the military, in the infantry, or a few aircraft conducting any kind of aggressive operations (stellar example, albeit “cheating” somewhat — the attack [I won't use the R word, that's overkill] on Osiraq), or a sports team? It’s a raiding party! It’s an attack on the other tribe’s village! Co-operation in group activities (or going to the store under ordinary, not sought-pleasure, circumstances) is meant to accomplish a specific objective, not because you enjoy it necessarily.

(Yes, Holly, women like sports, too — my older goddaughter developed into a typical blonde 6-foot beach kid that also loved basketball and volleyball — and can be quite competitive, and may cooperate or visit stores not for fun but to accomplish an objective, too.)

I dont know… I keep thinking there’s a good possibility of something other than paper to print on, something that weighs very light, has good opacity for ink on both sides. A ten pound book that weighs, say, 5 ozs. There are thin//light paper weights, but blocking out ‘bleed through,’ amongst other things, has been a prob.

dear DLS, exactly right. Segway. And maybe while juggling beanie babies. No offense to anyone with bbs.

dear Holly, most women–and men–I know who are so busy back to back 7 days a week, they dont have time to shop, or if they do, they do it just to relax and do something mindless foir a bit. But, I know what you mean. I imagine that’s a topic all of its own. I know many men who love, like Jim and DLS and others here, to shop. But, it’s got to be kind of like a treasure hunt. Same with women, except, I think they are often willing to roam farther from the cave in order to gather. In that sense DLS is accurate psycologically, a lot of people /males often… like to target their treasure locations, rather than browse
locations like some others tend to do.

I just want to mention how it makes me sit here and smile warmly to read comments from people who love books, who have ‘the language’ of love … that goes with truly knowing books as mentor, mother, teacher, helper, delight, consort, weird friend, and all else.

Heinlein. No kidding. He has this one quote about loving a woman, that I love in return. Man.

dr.e

What is Kindle (or something like it) good for?

It’s something to be seen holding while riding a Segway.

I love books, too. Believe me. But some books are on my shelves for more pragmatic reasons than the signed Heinlein first editions or the somewhat battered first edition of The Sword in the Stone.

… unless (one of a universe of exceptions, and in my case) I’m in a bookstore, particularly a used book store.

The shopping trips themselves are fond memories. There was the time I rode my Vespa down from Seattle to Portland to visit my brother, and on the way back, went into Powell’s and got Albro Martin’s book on railroads and regulation, not “Railroads Triumphant” but the earlier, hard-to-find “Enterprise Denied.” I got it, put it in the Vespa’s cargo box, and rode home triumphantly.

Gold!

I loved this line of yours: “Consider the contrast, Kindle versus a trip to a used book store (which is a trip to a gold mine).”

in’t that the sweetest truth… a trip to a gold mine. Is it ever.

dr.e

A $400 plastic thing, I don’t know.

I know: Forget it! I’ve read all my life, have 60 boxes of books at home in addition to what’s out in the open for me to handle, bought bed covers for the two trucks I’ve owned to protect the contents, which often are books…why would I want to overspend on a trendy-named, over-monopoly-priced gimmick?

Consider the contrast, Kindle versus a trip to a used book store (which is a trip to a gold mine).

Powell’s, Strand, and innumerable other book stores, yes; Kindle, no, thanks.

* * *

You can buy a tank on Amazon too.

Dear Jilly: Is it possible to buy an atomic bomb (fission bomb) or a thermonuclear bomb (fusion bomb, with or without uranium jacket or sleeve to raise the yield) on Amazon? If so, would you be so kind as to pre-purchase one or more for me and send it or them to me? (While I have many supporters in America and elsewhere in the West, others aren’t so helpful and in fact are trying to hinder my ability to have one or more such bombs. This precludes your leaving the bomb or bombs for me or one of my associates to take back to Iran, at the United Nations in New York City.) If you are able to purchase either kind of bomb, please send it to the following address, and I shall reward as well as thank you afterward.

Best Regards,

Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

President

Islamic Republic of Iran

Tehran

Iran

I think eventually, ALL old books and also ALL out of copyright art images that are currently held away from regular
folks ….when museums that house them put their own image copyright on them…will be Googleized. I believe Google’s mission is to scan every book/ phamplet/page in every language, and every image, including Art, NASA and other images, worldwide.

What I am most waiting for is not another device to read with, but the abilty to enter an image on Google that I already have in a file, and that Google will match it to exact data about the image’s creator, etc. Many many of the public domain images have no artist or name attached to them as they whiz through the sphere.

I imagine the day will come. Though some focus on scanning and mechanics of dellivery, I and most others who try to mine, are interested not in increased ability to do the ‘same thing in a different way,’ but how to extend ability to learn and know by unearthing unknowns… and then preserving them in some way.

We now have ‘books on demand,’ I own several, and for their content, they’re valuable. But, they are also printed as generic food used to be packaged long ago, rather cardboardy and undistinguished. I suppose you could download an image and plaster it over the paperback cover…. but liked it better when the whole book comes as a piece of art often, rather than just the filling.

dear cosmoetica; ‘look like and smell like paper books’… I hope not the musty/ moldy ones. lol Man, when you handle old books alot, there are so many ‘sick’ books that literally have to be put outdoors to keep from spewing spores all over the place indoors.

We have several methods of ‘healing’ such ill books, some of them pretty funny the lengths we’ll go to to try to ‘save’ a book that at this point is not scanned or availible elsewhere. The preservation of ancient and old books, special editions and short runs and privately printed books (most often in libraries that regularly toss them as they have no air-controlled place nor money to keep them and the old old books just keep deteriorating, literally when I do library research, some fall apart in my hands, crumbs of dust and broken off page parts everywhere) will be the rich blessing that Google places on the literate world. Just my .02

dr.e

I am an enthusiast for the possibilities inherent in ‘reading machines’ that put all knowledge in your hand anytime but the thought of one company mediating that makes me a little queasy.

There are many ‘open knowlege’ efforts on the web; project Gutenberg, the open content alliance, creative commons, archive.org – and probably many others.

On the hand held reading machine front you should take a look at http://www.booksinmyphone.com they provide free PD books you can read on your cell phone. I read a lot of novels from this source while I wait for the perfect ‘open’ eReader.

Me too. I’ve had a few commenters challenge my words/quotes because they cant find them on the internet. They come often from the library ‘discards’ of ethnological books from the 1800s. Or from my own old country familiy. I am just laughing and shaking my head. It’s a funny world in some ways.

You read it right, PAY to download blogs to the contraption, no offense to the contraption meant.

I believe the blogs have entered into agreements with Amazon to receive a few pennies per…. but …

well, you and I and others who grew up in a certain kind of low down dirt, know that witchy-oil salesman will try to sell you back the air you just exhaled.

The ultra catch, is that Amazon captures all the subscibers to the blogs… As it stands now, our commenters who create a account at a blog owned by a private person, well, their data is kept private re their IP’s, email addies, etc, seen only by us who administrate the blogs.

See my point? Remember the Cherokee Strip? Course you do, you were the one who told me about it 20 years ago. I hope in one of these posts, where it fits, you’ll reiterate, or/and over at your blog at Salon.

dr.e