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The new bibliomaniacs

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Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#41

Post by groan »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #38
ynac wrote: post #34

The signs sure seem to be indicating a Gen Z rollback to the analog and middle tech. Newspapers, books, cursive clubs, letter writing (pen pals), cassettes and albums, printed photographs, even carb/gas based auto hacking. These are just in my circle, but I have seen stories in the paper too. Anyone else seeing interesting trends from the youngers? I especially like to see the blending of new and old - like building…

As you mentioned, it’s trends. There’s nothing really sticky or mass-adoption like. This also isn’t necessarily new, as polaroids have been trending for over a decade now. Most of the same kids still scroll instagram, listen on spotify and etc. At least that’s what I’m seeing around me.

Not sure why this comment is downvoted. As someone who regularly buys old stuff, the price goes up and down with trends that bare little resemblance to any “return to form”. It’s mostly people looking to turn a quick buck before they go onto some other trinket. We sit and wait it out, or wait for sellers who are not clued in on a given hype cycle.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#42

Post by lubujackson »

ynac wrote: post #34

The signs sure seem to be indicating a Gen Z rollback to the analog and middle tech. Newspapers, books, cursive clubs, letter writing (pen pals), cassettes and albums, printed photographs, even carb/gas based auto hacking. These are just in my circle, but I have seen stories in the paper too. Anyone else seeing interesting trends from the youngers? I especially like to see the blending of new and old - like building…

The interesting thing to me is how media choices like these are becoming elements of identity, kind of like how if you were into 'zines there was a shared mindset and some assumptions about your beliefs and cultural approach baked into that. When everything becomes monoculture, the bar to stand apart can be almost any vector.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#43

Post by Insanity »

stuxnet79 wrote: post #33
Insanity wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highlight often when reading on my kindle. I have created a small program that scrapes my highlights and sends me a daily email with one of them. I get it before I wake up and it’s the first thing I read once I check my email (usually that happens after my morning reading). I find that this helps remember books that I read years ago, and usually the single quote is enough to jolt a series of memories about the book…

Could you share more details on how you were able to set this up? Do you use Koreader?

I wrote a python script that I run locally which scrapes read.amazon.com (think this is the URL, I’ll double check when I’m home). Kindle highlights are automatically synced there. The Python scraper extracts all highlights into a json file and stores this in S3.

I have a Lambda function which runs daily, selects a random highlights, and emails it to me. I’m using AWS SES for sending out the emails.

I think it’s all essentially free tier AWS stuff, so basically 0 cost. I’ve not fully automated it, I need to run the scraper manually but that’s easy enough to do whenever I’m at my desktop.

It’s a bit hacked together but it works lol.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#44

Post by Carrok »

raddan wrote: post #28
keiferski wrote: post #7

The problem with ebooks to me is that they have no real physical presence (obviously) and therefore I have a harder time remembering if I read them, and where I read them. On the other hand I have a ton of physical books on my shelf, and can specifically look at one, remember what it’s about, and where I read it. The book itself is a kind of memory totem, and over time I’ve built up a nice little physical collection…

> I don’t have the same thing for the ebooks I’ve read, and it gives me a weird feeling of amnesia. I have a similar feeling when it comes to my music collection, some of which includes rare recordings. I ripped everything and have it at my fingertips on my phone, computer, etc, but I often find that I’ve forgotten when I have. When I was younger, I kept it all on a shelf. Browsing one’s music collection (or a friend…

Maybe the cartridges could even contain the actual music. On an engraving that stores the audio information perhaps. This engraving could be played back and reproduce the audio. It probably would never work though.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#45

Post by Novosell »

dylan604 wrote: post #21
armchairhacker wrote: post #12

Personally, I don’t see any advantage of a real book over an ebook (locally stored) in an e-ink reader. And there are disadvantages: ergonomics, space, cost, environment. EDIT: books last longer (decades or centuries) than SSDs. But M-DISCs can allegedly last for millennia.

I hope you're saying that is only applicable to you personally and not applying that to every other human on the planet. There are plenty of real world advantages a physical book has over an ebook, even if you can't think of them. On of my favorites was not having to turn my book off during airplane take off and landing. Also, books do not run out of battery so they do not need to be recharged. You can have multiple…

Why would you need to turn off the ereader? Just put it in airplane mode.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#46

Post by benrutter »

armchairhacker wrote: post #12

Personally, I don’t see any advantage of a real book over an ebook (locally stored) in an e-ink reader. And there are disadvantages: ergonomics, space, cost, environment. EDIT: books last longer (decades or centuries) than SSDs. But M-DISCs can allegedly last for millennia.

> there are disadvantages: ergonomics, space, cost, environment.

I read a lot, was really into ebooks and now mostly buy paper books. The inverse of the cost point iis a big reason, cost of ebooks is much more than paper books in a lot of cases because there is no second hand ebook market.

Environmentally I think it's complicated- an ebook is certainly better, but an ebook reader itself is much worse for the environment than many books. I can't claim any moral high ground since I have both.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#47

Post by armchairhacker »

julianeon wrote: post #40
armchairhacker wrote: post #12

Personally, I don’t see any advantage of a real book over an ebook (locally stored) in an e-ink reader. And there are disadvantages: ergonomics, space, cost, environment. EDIT: books last longer (decades or centuries) than SSDs. But M-DISCs can allegedly last for millennia.

There are some fields where there are a real measurable advantages of physical books, essentially as an archive. I can name two: 1) Chemical Engineering 2) Classics In both cases the physical book may be the only place to find certain kinds of valuable info. In the case of Chem E, I was told this by my father, also a Chem E, who said that some of these old books contained values and tests that were found nowhere else…

If the only copy is physical, you should scan it and upload it to the Internet.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#48

Post by armchairhacker »

dakiol wrote: post #31
armchairhacker wrote: post #12

Personally, I don’t see any advantage of a real book over an ebook (locally stored) in an e-ink reader. And there are disadvantages: ergonomics, space, cost, environment. EDIT: books last longer (decades or centuries) than SSDs. But M-DISCs can allegedly last for millennia.

For me the advantage is simplicity. I pick up the book and I read it. No matter where or when, I know I can read it. If the book gets damaged, I pick up another book, I don't mind. The problem with digital books is that I need 3 different things working together: 1) a (charged) reading device, 2) corresponding software, 3) the actual digital book. So the reading device can be put in unmaintained mode any time by the…

The reading device, software, and books shouldn’t be locked down or remotely controlled. Buy a BOOX, Kobo, or jailbroken old Kindle.

You do need to set up the right software and make charging a habit (which can be helped by buying a wireless charger), but picking up an e-reader and just reading can be as fast and easy as a physical book. And getting new digital books is faster and easier.

I admit, books have the advantage in durability and individual cost.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#49

Post by armchairhacker »

dylan604 wrote: post #21
armchairhacker wrote: post #12

Personally, I don’t see any advantage of a real book over an ebook (locally stored) in an e-ink reader. And there are disadvantages: ergonomics, space, cost, environment. EDIT: books last longer (decades or centuries) than SSDs. But M-DISCs can allegedly last for millennia.

I hope you're saying that is only applicable to you personally and not applying that to every other human on the planet. There are plenty of real world advantages a physical book has over an ebook, even if you can't think of them. On of my favorites was not having to turn my book off during airplane take off and landing. Also, books do not run out of battery so they do not need to be recharged. You can have multiple…

> I hope you're saying that is only applicable to you personally

My comment starts with “Personally, …”

> not having to turn my book off during airplane take off and landing

E-readers don’t need to be always online, some don’t even have cellular

> books do not run out of battery so they do not need to be recharged

Some e-readers have long battery life, and most support wireless charging (https://zens.tech/pages/which-e-readers-support-wireless-cha...)

> You can have multiple books open at the same time, admittedly, this is more for during research times and not just a simple reading session

True, on an e-reader at best you can have a couple books at half size (side-by-side), although you can switch between books fast and it remembers where you left off

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#50

Post by cadamsdotcom »

Carrok wrote: post #44
raddan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t have the same thing for the ebooks I’ve read, and it gives me a weird feeling of amnesia. I have a similar feeling when it comes to my music collection, some of which includes rare recordings. I ripped everything and have it at my fingertips on my phone, computer, etc, but I often find that I’ve forgotten when I have. When I was younger, I kept it all on a shelf. Browsing one’s music collection (or a friend…

Maybe the cartridges could even contain the actual music. On an engraving that stores the audio information perhaps. This engraving could be played back and reproduce the audio. It probably would never work though.

“The actual music” is just so hard to contain. A recording of a performance - is that the actual music? Or is the actual music the playing back of the recording with speakers and audio? Will all that be in the box? Or is it the entire band in your proposed box, ready to play whenever you pull it from the shelf? Or is it what you hear in your head in the shower?

Sounds like it’ll be quite the innovation.

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