I’ve several times complained about (and to) The New Yorker for its reliance on cartoons which are little more than illustrated gag lines. And I respect copyright laws. Those points established, I have to admit to liking a cartoon from the current issue. It addresses the topic, and this is fair use, inasmuch as the illustration is pointless without the caption (and vice-versa) – for which you’ll have to visit the NYer site. http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2012/05/07/cartoons_20120430
Love the random access of books. I would say I buy 1:1 ratio of ebooks v. print. It depends on the book’s price/availability. If the print used copy is cheaper than the kindle version (it usually is), I’ll buy the print copy. But, if the difference is close, or if the book is newer, I’d buy the kindle version.
I tend to read on a Nexus 7" screen tablet, but have also read on my phone. The font size is the same, but there’s a lot less text on the page.
I agree that ebook readers are great. I have a Kindle Keyboard myself and I use it a lot. Not only is it easier to carry round a Kindle than a regular pbook but one size fits all when it comes to fitting in a pocket or holding it. It doesn’t matter if the tale is 25 pages long or 500 the thickness of the Kindle doesn’t change unlike with a pbook. And ebooks have another advantage. They store easily. I have a good collection of old fiction through Mobileread.com which is made up of books from Project Gutenberg that have been cleaned up and given some very nice covers and they are easily transferred from a DVD disk to my Kindle. So I don’t have to keep a large collection of pbooks around or repurchase a book again if I get rid of a copy (to open space) and then decide some time later that I want to re-read a particular book again.
I actually greatly prefer print books when travelling. Yes, they take up a bit more space (a typical holiday will see me carry 8 paperbacks), but you don’t have to switch them off during take off and landing, and you don’t have to worry about leaving them on the beach when you go for a dip in the sea!
The major turn-off for me is the flash the screen makes every time it turns the page. It’s far more jarring to me than the act of turning the leaf of a real book.
As for storage… A small portion of books that I buy get kept. There has to be a very high liklihood that I’d want to re-read a book for me to keep it… which reduces the number considerably when you factor in the sheer number of great books in the world that I’ve never read. The rest are donated… In downtown Calgary there is a lamppost with a small metal box welded to it where people leave books they are finished with for anyone to pick up.
And I’m increasingly not buying books. I joined my local library a few months ago, and am loving the experience!
I read both paper and e-books. I still prefer paper books for pleasure, but can tolerate e-books. The arrival of the iPad mini will let me know if the advantage of iBooks and Kindle for iPad will make the e-reading experience winning.
I’ve never been in tune with my e-ink device (Nook Single Touch), because 1) I read at home most of the time, so the display is too dark for me; and 2) sharing, organizing and annotating books is really annoying. In addition, everything I purchase from Amazon has to be converted via Calibre.
Essays that have to be heavily annotated are much better in electronic form. Researching is way easier. And it is a lot easier carrying e-books than paper books, as I had to discover when spending some time studying abroad, and my library was not with me.
By the way: what do you do with books you already have on paper? Amazon just sent me an offer for five Maigret’s novels at 2,99 euros. I already have all of them on paper. Should I get them, or be confident I’ll always have access to my home and my library?
I recently resigned my academic job and so also gave up access to the university library - but I still write freelance in (roughly) the same academic area, so e-books and other documents - e.g. from Open Library, sites like U. York Toronto’s collection of history of psychology and other academic portals - read and annotated in Sente, are a god-send. For pleasure reading I now have Kindle on a Nexus 7 - great for bed-time news reading; but I still get (and ask for) real books at gift times …
I received a Kindle back in 2010, and I have to admit that aside from books I need for academic purposes (I’m a teacher), or books that aren’t available on the Kindle, I’ve almost entirely switched over to e-reading. I just love the device, and I find I don’t have any problem getting into a book that is on the kindle as opposed to paper (and I confess I don’t get it when others say they have that problem; each to their own).
When teaching novels, I have been known to allow students to use Kindle books instead of the school’s copies, but I also encourage kids who are serious about reading to buy their own paper copies to annotate. Few do.
Bunch of malarkey. I think the main reason for the ban has more to do with limiting the number of heavy objects free-floating around in the passenger cabin during the two most risky portions of the flight (and so, not quite applicable to a Kindle, but definitely the artillery slug that would be an iPhone with a sudden severe case of inertia). Or look at it this way: if a bunch of cell phones and laptops could cause an airplane’s avionics, server and communication systems to hiccup or fail, then modern offices would be a ceaseless catastrophe of cyclically crashing computers crashing other computers and phones bringing the servers down and… hmm, actually that might explain a few things.
One would hope it’s actually impossible to disrupt commercial airliners simply by listening to an iPod, but for as long as I’m not allowed to use electronic devices at takeoff and landing, I’m staying away from eReaders.
Such strange unfathomable behavioural traits, the human species presents with.
Surely, as windows of opportunity, the minuscule amount of time devoted to an aeroplane taking off and landing, need not be filled with meaningful activity…except, p’rhaps, for some poor soul suffering from a bizarre form of, Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder.
Very strange…but then, humans are, aren’t they?
Puzzled Fluff
It doesn’t have to be OCD: if you’re a hopeless aerophobe (as I am) those objectively small stretches of time subjectively last an age and need filling with some kind of mind-distracting activity, meaningful or otherwise …
“Tis a truth universally acknowledged, that any man in
fear of his life, when taking off and landing in an aeroplane, need only grip the armrests of his seat, tightly, whist entreating the deity/saint of his choice, to be gentle with him and get it over with as quickly as possible.”
Jean Austin
I have no need of ‘deodorising’, Young Master Ioa, and I’ve trained my human to hunt for my food
Take care
Fluff
PS Dr Dog, welcome aboard the Pirate ship Scrivener. Do be careful with whom you associate, though! Iffy crew members abound. Beware
I flew in to Heathrow on a flight from Shanghai. The Chinese think rules and regulations are great, but they only concern other people not themselves … so when the cabin crew announce, “Switch off your mobile phones” are fair few of them will promptly turn their mobile phones on.
Anyway, no sooner had the plane — Virgin Atlantic — touched down on the runway than a Chinese passenger across the aisle from me turned on his mobile phone. Almost immediately there was a scream down the intercom from the captain, “For god’s sake make that bloody passenger switch off his mobile phone!” So it’s not true that mobile phones don’t have any effect on what’s happening on the flight deck!
Like Mark, I can say I’ve been proven that cellular phones can interfere with flight instruments. I was landing, when the pilot immediately pulled the airplane up. They were missing the landing path. Hostesses and stewards were immediately looking at the passengers, until they found someone who was callling home. Not a great experience.
I’ve never had a near death experience thanks to a fellow passenger, I’m just going off of what I’ve read, and the statistics of the matter. Considering how many airplanes land and take off every hour of the day, and how many times you know someone is using their cell phone during these events, and how few times there are crashes on taking and landing due to circumstances not otherwise accounted for—I’d say it’s overblown. But even that isn’t fair, even a slight disturbance in the instrumentation is undesirable. There is more evidence for that. Low level buzzing in communication channels with GSM phones, and when phones are used inside the cabin they exceed the safe level of electronic emissions around older pre-'84 instrumentation and have been demonstrated to produce small malfunctions. But that inside the cabin, practically holding the live phone right up to the instrument.
I do enjoy my tablet for long, drawn out reads like 1Q84.
It’s great.
But I’ve always enjoyed that feel of paper and binding in my hands.
Brings back some great past times. :]
Many years ago I’ve developed allergies when reading paper books. (I suffer from asthma attacks whenever I read paper books). My brother-in-law speculates that may be allergic to the ink of paper books. Anyhow, I’m grateful that we have eReaders now. Because of this device, I can still enjoy reading books…
I love reading on my kindle for many reasons, the biggest of which is convenience! There is such a HUGE array of books that are available at the push of a button. It’s also very handy in terms of storage. I’ve got a LOT of books on my kindle (read all of them) and I just can’t imagine having them all in print! I’d have no space!
In saying that I do love having printed copies of books I especially love. It just feels satisfying to me to have a book collection where every one is a favorite that I’ve read many times before. Previously my collection was full of books I thought to be average or simply didn’t like. This way my collection feels very special to me.
