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No one buys books

elysian.press

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Re: No one buys books

#691

Post by kstrauser »

wenc wrote: post #640
kstrauser wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I truly don’t mean to be pedantic, but there’s a giant implicit “for me” in there. I do not want or need to scribble or write in my books for “deep reading”. It’s totally fine if you want to, but that’s your preference and not a general requirement everyone has. I just finished “Moby Dick” on a Kobo. It’s no “Ulysses”, thank heavens, but I’ve never heard anyone describe it as a long romance or a beach read.

I think Moby Dick is a romance. I guess the term is confusing in English because people think “love story” but an older use of the word just means a novel with adventure, chivalric elements. There is also a giant implicit “for me” in your preference. It just happens that your preference happens to be one that is mainstream. A lot of types of reading are not linear —- for instance, if you have to read to write a book…

All of that is perfectly fine, of course, so long as you recognize that it’s not the correct or better way to study literature. It’s the way you were taught and I’m guessing most of us have learned different methods for learning the canon.

For example, I take notes in a separate book. The thing crucial to your preferred method is not at all needed for mine. In other words, most ereaders are not optimal for your process but just fine for most of us.

And yes, even for classic great books and not just amusement. I suspect you’ll find a higher than average portion of readers here are familiar with the books you’re talking about. We’re a reasonably erudite group.

Re: No one buys books

#692

Post by hollywood_court »

ddingus wrote: post #681
hollywood_court wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. You speak the truth. We're experiencing this very same thing now in Alabama. Or one could simply look at Florida. Things aren't getting better here. The current GOP leadership is trying their best to be as regressive as possible. I feel like I am doing my son an incredible disservice by raising him in Alabama, but my wife refuses to leave while her mother is still living here.

Show him some alternatives. I grew up in a backward place too. The single most valuable thing I learned is what is really possible to do. I got to see that because I ended up helping people of means who took me aside and showed me a look outside the place I was living. For many, and this is true of my peer group, just knowing what is possible really mattered. Of course I left town, found work and married someone I th…

I plan on showing him alternatives so he doesn't have to learn about them they way that I did.

I moved out of my mother's home when I was 16 and I managed to graduate high school. But I left town two days after graduation and I've only been back three times in 24 years.

Had I not left Alabama, and the US, I would have likely ended up just as bigoted and close minded as most of my family. The ten years I spent outside of the US allowed me to learn a completely different perspective and finally made me realize that my mother and my other family were wrong about so many things.

My boy just turned five a few weeks ago and he's already travelled more than I did by the time I turned 21.

Re: No one buys books

#693

Post by lolive »

I consume a LOT of comics on bittorrent, read them then buy expensive physical editions of the ones i like. That is VERY bad for my wallet (:i consume comics a lot), but it is always a sure shot when going to the comics store.

I consider that to be a win-win situation.

Re: No one buys books

#694

Post by whyage »

Interesting analysis, but it misses one group of authors: those who write books for fun, not profit.

Writing is an effective way to convey your thoughts and ideas. Writing a book has the added benefit of forcing you to plan, prioritize, and edit at a much larger scale. With it comes a greater feeling of achievement. Selling a few copies is a nice cherry on top.

Re: No one buys books

#695

Post by em-bee »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #306

I used to buy and read a lot of physical books. Around 2013-204, I started moving to eBooks, and Amazon Kindle played a significant role in my journey. But a couple of years later, I had an epiphany while discussing books with my daughter, “I never see you read books. You are just reading on your computer (kindle) or the phone and are not reading.” Since then, I have returned to reading physical books with an approxi…

i grew up with books around me, both my dad and my granddad were collecting books, and our walls were lined with bookshelves and i loved it. though most of the books i read myself came from the library.

but as a digital nomad myself, physical books were just not practical anymore. i remember a friend of mine when he moved from europe to asia, he shipped several containers full of books. that's a move you only do once in your life (and only if your employer covers the cost). so all my books stayed in my parents home.

then i also didn't have time to read anymore until i discovered audiobooks and audio drama. i am now listening to about 3 books worth of audio per month (including audio drama and short stories) but my kids would not know.

and there is no way to fix that. the books that i would want to buy are not available locally and would need expensive international shipping, and every time we move i'd have to discard my collection because books are just to heavy to be carried in a suitcase.

i'd love to show my kids how much i enjoy reading, but i just see no way to do it. it's a conundrum that i don't know how to solve.

Re: No one buys books

#697

Post by gverrilla »

pests wrote: post #573
gverrilla wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are gems coming out today that will be considered great works by our descendants. Wow. Can't wait for the next Harry Potter / Avatar / Celebrity book / Spiderman movie !!!!11!!!1! Great works! > but isn't right now pretty amazing too? No.

Why be so negative? Live a little.

Negativity is good sometimes. It made 2 revolutions already!

Re: No one buys books

#698

Post by mapt »

grepLeigh wrote: post #332

From the article: >>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?" I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local…

It might be great, but all the evidence says that we're not willing to nationalize the publishers in order to establish that deal as a durable offer, and that a private-sector publisher would change the terms of the deal the moment they'd gobbled up their competition, or perhaps even before. We would literally require that course of action from the corporate executives via the fiduciary duty.

The cycle of enshittification consumes all.

Re: No one buys books

#699

Post by leonroy »

atoav wrote: post #455
ddingus wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are. Every single public resource is seen as a potential market opportunity being squandered away, or as competition other players do not want to see in play.

Well a library is a place where a population can spend the day getting smarter while not spending money. If you're rich, powerful and an unethical asshole those are two things you definitely do not want. Sadly many people seem to think they are really showing the folks up there by retreating from any form of self-education once they are out of school. The opposite couldn't be more true.

Didn’t Andrew Carnegie, the very definition of rich and difficult to work for spend a huge chunk of his fortune funding 3000+ libraries?

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library

Re: No one buys books

#700

Post by WalterBright »

randcraw wrote: post #596
WalterBright wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why a retina display ipad is now my preferred reader.

Yeah, I've owned a e-paper Kindle for a decade but probably never finished reading a book on it. Instead I use a iPad 11 or mini, which are superior in every way (that I care about) except reading in sunshine. I love how lightweight the Kindle is, but not its small reading area or lack of color or weak illumination. Or its inability to serve any task other than reading ebooks.

I discovered that, although one really doesn't see the difference between a lower res display and a retina res display, it is just more pleasant to read the retina display.
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