Reading, no batteries required

[bemildred]

Tenderly, the lover caressed his beloved. So pale, so smooth. He tilted his head forward, the better to inhale that scent — rich and enticing. Fingertip to spine, feeling every contour, he pressed his face closer — and turned a page.

I don't know what you were thinking about, but I was talking about a book. A real book.

The Kindle and its ilk are just gizmos with pixilated screens. Hit the off button and its borrowed character vanishes. A genuine book has a soul of its own. It is tactile, beautiful, accessible. Not only do its contents tell us stories, it in itself is a story. That rare copy of Sir Isaac Newton's "Principia" — did his own august eyes behold it? And that first edition of "Pride and Prejudice" — whose ladylike hands held it, turned its pages by candlelight? The old copy of "The Cat in the Hat" is beloved not only for the tale it tells but for the crayoned personalization added by each generation of a family's children.

Do you mock books as old school? Wise up. Remember the 8-track tape that was supposed to be the dernier cri? Vanished into the recycling bin of

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison-book-love-20120422,0,7299838.column

[saras]

1. 4-tracks were better than 8-tracks. Thats why broadcast used them for another decade.

"Good" and "successful" rarely have much to do with each other.

Historically the best way of predicting the success of a format war is: which format adopts porn first?

One thing the MP3 has successfully demonstrated is the old argument of hi-fi freaks, that most people can't really hear music that well and don't care anyways. Quality? Meh. Quality is for snobs. It's un-American, to leftists AND right-wingers.

The REAL issue with books is: tool or service? The corporatist economy doesn't like consumers to have tools, it gives them too much power and short-circuits too many potentially profitable services. A paper book is a tool - something that can be used in innumerable profitable ways, most unimaginable to the author. Intellectual property is strictly controlled so that any profit you make from using it sends its "fair share" back to the owner.

In capitalist terms, OBVIOUSLY you should pay each time you READ a book, not get to use it FOREVER. Same with music. Ultimately, you should pay by the hour for listening to music, and not allowed to develop a private collection. Same for news. If the powers that be want to change the news, you've got no business preserving conflicting versions. It's THEIR property, not YOURS.

[bemildred]

2. I see you understand.

I especially like your criteria for success in the format wars, the porn metric, which can be also transposed into: profit trumps quality every time. I think MP3 and it's successors and cousins will kill them all in the end, a format free format.

But people that think electronics will replace books don't really understand books. The two technologies compliment each other. I expect e-books to do quite well in the entertainment end of the business, but not so elsewhere.

People would do well to consider McLuhan's dogma again: "The medium is the message."

[RainDog]

5. great comment n/t

[KoKo]

10. Good points. The New "E-Book Authors" just care about being read for their own profit...

wider audience and to see their works out there.

Will they ever make as much money as they would have going through the copyright, agent, Publishing System?

They think they will and it's more important to be read than to make money off their work, I guess.

[KoKo]

3. This is definitely a Good read...and I hate getting bugspray and suntan lotion

all over my "Nook" at the beach.

There's nothing like a good old "Beach Read Paperback" to take the abuse of the wind, sand, surf, bugs and spewing sand from the kiddies. Then just throw it in the recycle when one gets home if it's beyond reading.

I love the tech toys...and the Nook and Kindle. But, if worse comes to worse and it's me and a candle...and being alone... I will go with a "touchable, feelable "paper product" for as long as they exist.

All is good and having choices...but, it's not going to part me from my paper books...any more than "GPS" will ever stop me from having a MAP in my Glove Compartment.

I am a dying generation. "An ELDER...who clings to 'the old ways' who manages to use both New Tech and Old and is comfortable with the advantages and disadvantages of both."

[CRK7376]

12. Call me a dinosaur!

I'm with you, family gave me a Nook for Christmas, ok, but still much rather prefer a good paperback. Now I will go down slugging if you try to take away my iPod! Kids look at me like I crazy to still have city, state and regional road maps in the truck door pockets. Although I do like my GPS. 17yo laughed his butt off at my and my Sergeant Major when we wound up at the wrong golf course because we swore we knew where it was and ignored the Garmin. Youngster reminds us often of that golf outing disaster while he's killing us on the links. But my SGM and I still do better with the Mark 1 eyeball range estimator than he does with his fancy-smancy GPS. We look and know the distance and have already selected the club and probably hit the ball before he's finished lazing in the distance and returning the device to it's protective pouch and selected his club....Unfortunately he still beats us, but we all have fun....

[KoKo]

4. Too Cool a Thread...not to kick on a Weekend.

:kick: (from the old days)

[Odin2005]

6. I want the real thing, I don't trust "the cloud" and I never will.

[KoKo]

7. But..."The Cloud" is such a pretty naming...Beautiful Clouds drifting by..

Folks don't much go beyond the image of "Puffy, billowing white clouds drifting by...safe and secure" before the "THUNDERCOUDS and LIGHTENING RAIN ON THEM..and their SAVED
TREASURES....DESTROYED!

Just like your last Devastating Computer Crash ...where you lost everything...and, finally, had to call in the Techie or Start All Over?




I know...I'm waiting for someone to come in and say: "But, I have a MAC...that would NEVER happen to me...and their CLOUD IS SAFE AND SECURE.

Steve Jobs is dead, though. "His Cloud" has been there and gone. The NEXT APPLE CLOUD...is up to his Heirs.. just saying.
:-{

[Odin2005]

8. Heheheh, I''ve been called a book hoarder.

And I do have some hoarder tendencies, (but it's not like I have stacks of books covering the floor, LMAO!).

[Louisiana1976]

9. My stacks cover my sofa and coffee table, among other places.

[saras]

11. My bookstore has a one-off book printing machine. They need to get cheaper.

There's no reason that everything ever published shouldn't be "in print" in a recyclable paperback edition, either pocket-sized or with big blank margins for notes.