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The Deep Space of Digital Reading

nautil.us

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Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#11

Post by ashark »

hoodwink wrote: post #8
ashark wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. You can tell so much about a person by their library. I've been testing some solutions to this problem. 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market), 3. annotations, footnotes and such tend to be much worse…

The main selling points of e-reading for me are the ones I listed previously: 1. I can get a new book immediately instead of visiting the book store or waiting for Amazon. 2. I can effortlessly take highlights and notes and then access those annotations through the cloud. I can't stand trying to write in the tiny margins of physical books and even if I did, I'd rarely reference my own notes because it's so much more…

> 1. I can get a new book immediately instead of visiting the book store or waiting for Amazon.

OK, yeah, missed that.

> 2. I can effortlessly take highlights and notes and then access those annotations through the cloud. I can't stand trying to write in the tiny margins of physical books and even if I did, I'd rarely reference my own notes because it's so much more laborious.

The cloud part's the only thing that's much different than having a little notebook, which I find so much easier to work with (aside from anywhere-the-Internet-is availability) that I wouldn't really count this as a win for ebooks, but if you find it easier, then it must be so for some.

> 3. I can read at night without needing the light on (i.e., while in bed with my sleeping spouse). This is my main reading time. More generally, the form factor is better while lying down (and to the point above, I can still take notes).

They make tiny clip-on lights for books that are little different. E-readers are nice for holding up, though I've discovered the hard way that the touchscreen e-ink devices, at least, are more annoying to use in bed than the real thing (brush a blanket or move your thumb a bit while shifting around->page turns)

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#12

Post by the_greyd »

danidiaz wrote: post #10
hoodwink wrote: post #4

Ever since I lost my physical library of books to a fire, I've been an e-reader zealot. There are so many advantages: instantly start reading virtually book you want, effortlessly take digital highlights and annotations, carry a whole library in your pocket while you travel, read at night while your partner is asleep... I could go on. As an e-reader evangelist, I've encountered all kinds of resistance. In fact, it's…

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. An secondary advantage of pysical books is that they're much more beatiful to destroy. Burning books make a striking image, and not only because the ominous historical connotations. Nobody would be bothered by an ereader melting in a fire or being crush…

I would say I have experienced a similar feeling in a recent effort to reduce my fingerprint, deleting files on my computer/google drive that I don't use (which can be easily found over the internet). It just feels good, destroying information.

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#13

Post by hoodwink »

danidiaz wrote: post #10
hoodwink wrote: post #4

Ever since I lost my physical library of books to a fire, I've been an e-reader zealot. There are so many advantages: instantly start reading virtually book you want, effortlessly take digital highlights and annotations, carry a whole library in your pocket while you travel, read at night while your partner is asleep... I could go on. As an e-reader evangelist, I've encountered all kinds of resistance. In fact, it's…

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. An secondary advantage of pysical books is that they're much more beatiful to destroy. Burning books make a striking image, and not only because the ominous historical connotations. Nobody would be bothered by an ereader melting in a fire or being crush…

You're silly. In all seriousness, however, I did lose all my books to a fire so I can truly appreciate yet another advantage of e-reading: the digital books themselves are implicitly indestructible.

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#14

Post by lostlogin »

hoodwink wrote: post #4

Ever since I lost my physical library of books to a fire, I've been an e-reader zealot. There are so many advantages: instantly start reading virtually book you want, effortlessly take digital highlights and annotations, carry a whole library in your pocket while you travel, read at night while your partner is asleep... I could go on. As an e-reader evangelist, I've encountered all kinds of resistance. In fact, it's…

> I've been testing some solutions to this problem.

What have you tested?

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#15

Post by a3n »

ashark wrote: post #7
hoodwink wrote: post #4

Ever since I lost my physical library of books to a fire, I've been an e-reader zealot. There are so many advantages: instantly start reading virtually book you want, effortlessly take digital highlights and annotations, carry a whole library in your pocket while you travel, read at night while your partner is asleep... I could go on. As an e-reader evangelist, I've encountered all kinds of resistance. In fact, it's…

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. You can tell so much about a person by their library. I've been testing some solutions to this problem. 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market), 3. annotations, footnotes and such tend to be much worse…

> 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market)

Huge loss to society. We've lost a lot of things that we loved over the millenia, and we're still around. But I regret the eventual extinction of used (and new) bookstores. So many hours, sniffing those books and listening to the bell ring when the door opens ...

My coffee cup is sitting on a purpose-built book shelf housing a set of The Great Books, both bought used at the dearly departed Shorey's Books in downtown Seattle, decades ago.

There is no serendipity at Amazon.

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#16

Post by yellow_postit »

ashark wrote: post #7
hoodwink wrote: post #4

Ever since I lost my physical library of books to a fire, I've been an e-reader zealot. There are so many advantages: instantly start reading virtually book you want, effortlessly take digital highlights and annotations, carry a whole library in your pocket while you travel, read at night while your partner is asleep... I could go on. As an e-reader evangelist, I've encountered all kinds of resistance. In fact, it's…

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. You can tell so much about a person by their library. I've been testing some solutions to this problem. 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market), 3. annotations, footnotes and such tend to be much worse…

The inability to loan a book and to curate a library are the biggest issues which brought me back to physical books after 3 years of being a devoted eReader. My Kindle gathers dust until a trip comes up and I read few things of meaningful value on it because of the aforementioned issues.

I do think much of this could be addressed by software and legal/copyright, lending & reselling being the most straightforward albeit they would likely lock you to a single DRM-heavy system.

My pipedream is to be able to separate the price of the IP from the method of delivery so that I could say buy a physical book for $10 and for $5 get a digital copy, and vice-versa spend $10 on a digital copy and $5 for a physical print.

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#17

Post by hoodwink »

yellow_postit wrote: post #16
ashark wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. You can tell so much about a person by their library. I've been testing some solutions to this problem. 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market), 3. annotations, footnotes and such tend to be much worse…

The inability to loan a book and to curate a library are the biggest issues which brought me back to physical books after 3 years of being a devoted eReader. My Kindle gathers dust until a trip comes up and I read few things of meaningful value on it because of the aforementioned issues. I do think much of this could be addressed by software and legal/copyright, lending & reselling being the most straightforward albe…

Have you seen Kindle MatchBook? https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/ep-landing-page

Or Shelfie? http://www.shelfie.com/

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#18

Post by pjmorris »

a3n wrote: post #15
ashark wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. You can tell so much about a person by their library. I've been testing some solutions to this problem. 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market), 3. annotations, footnotes and such tend to be much worse…

> 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market) Huge loss to society. We've lost a lot of things that we loved over the millenia, and we're still around. But I regret the eventual extinction of used (and new) bookstores. So many hours, sniffing those books and listening to the bell ring when the door opens ... My coffee cup is sitting on a purpose-built book shelf housing…

> There is no serendipity at Amazon.

Perfectly said (and perfectly sad.)

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#19

Post by brudgers »

hoodwink wrote: post #4

Ever since I lost my physical library of books to a fire, I've been an e-reader zealot. There are so many advantages: instantly start reading virtually book you want, effortlessly take digital highlights and annotations, carry a whole library in your pocket while you travel, read at night while your partner is asleep... I could go on. As an e-reader evangelist, I've encountered all kinds of resistance. In fact, it's…

I am sorry for your loss.

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Physical books provide random access. I can open a physical book to any arbitrary page without doing data entry. This is part of the a bigger difference, physical books don't require me to be a systems administrator managing files and licenses and network connections and accounts tied to credit cards.

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Physical books provide parallel access, I can pile open books on and around my desk. I can leave one particular book by my favorite chair and two others by my bed for months at a time and each will be there to create a different experience for my different moods.

---

To me, ebooks are like Skyping a lover or dining in an Indianoplis Olive Garden. Sometimes the best available option, but not an experience worthy of trans-Atlantic travel...sure maybe travel is purely irrational when Google can show me pictures and video of Tuscany and Wikipedia can give me its demographics.

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The touch of a clothbound book is not like holding my cellphone and the typeset pages of a trade paperback are distinct from my laptop's screen and the heft of one book is different from the other. Tufte is not a flavor of Soylent.

---

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html

Re: The Deep Space of Digital Reading

#20

Post by brudgers »

a3n wrote: post #15
ashark wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only shortcoming of e-reading, in my opinion, is the inability to display the books you've read and the books you want to read somewhere in your home or office. You can tell so much about a person by their library. I've been testing some solutions to this problem. 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market), 3. annotations, footnotes and such tend to be much worse…

> 1. Can't re-sell, 2. tend to be significantly more expensive to begin with (no used market) Huge loss to society. We've lost a lot of things that we loved over the millenia, and we're still around. But I regret the eventual extinction of used (and new) bookstores. So many hours, sniffing those books and listening to the bell ring when the door opens ... My coffee cup is sitting on a purpose-built book shelf housing…

When I moved in 2006, I gave away my set of Encyclopedia Britannica to a neighbor. 1957 edition with the dedicated bookcase purchased at a yard sale for $15 in 1989, just because 'Wow' and its own bookcase and some things don't go out of date. There's no Kindle edition of the '57 Britannica and if there was, it would not be $15 to me and free to my neighbor.

These days, my culled books go to a local charity's thrift shop or to Habitat's ReStore or to my public library for its book sale or to someone I know. Not the bitbucket.

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