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Books Won't Die

theparisreview.org

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51–60 of 93 posts

Re: Books Won't Die

#51

Post by auggierose »

bamboozled wrote: post #15
libraryatnight wrote: post #12

I've tried every format and device and I can't read e-books. Nothing, to me, beats a real book. I don't enjoy the experience for one, it strains my eyes (yes even e-ink). But also, and this is something I wouldn't have considered back when I was younger and it seemed like books surely must die in their dead-tree form, I actively seek ways to not be interacting with electronics and books are sublime for this purpose.…

I agree with so much of what you said, plus I have to say I love post-it notes for keeping track of notes etc, nothing is better and more convenient then flipping the page open and immediately having the content at your fingertips. No slow crappy UI or micro keyboard to deal with, just what I wanted, the information. Yes there are downsides, but it's what I find most enjoyable and efficient.

If you have a slow crappy UI you might want to change your reader ...

Re: Books Won't Die

#52

Post by bamboozled »

auggierose wrote: post #51
bamboozled wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with so much of what you said, plus I have to say I love post-it notes for keeping track of notes etc, nothing is better and more convenient then flipping the page open and immediately having the content at your fingertips. No slow crappy UI or micro keyboard to deal with, just what I wanted, the information. Yes there are downsides, but it's what I find most enjoyable and efficient.

If you have a slow crappy UI you might want to change your reader ...

Sure or just use a book, where as I said, this isn't a problem for me.

Re: Books Won't Die

#53

Post by TeMPOraL »

JohnFen wrote: post #18
libraryatnight wrote: post #12

I've tried every format and device and I can't read e-books. Nothing, to me, beats a real book. I don't enjoy the experience for one, it strains my eyes (yes even e-ink). But also, and this is something I wouldn't have considered back when I was younger and it seemed like books surely must die in their dead-tree form, I actively seek ways to not be interacting with electronics and books are sublime for this purpose.…

For me, it depends on the book. For recreational reading, I strongly prefer real, printed ones. For reference materials, I strongly prefer electronic ones (stripped of DRM and converted into a non-proprietary format). I can keep my entire technical library on my phone and I can grep through the entire set of books for something in particular that I need to find. I remember the days when my technical library was in pr…

Huh, I have the reverse preference. Recreational books are read sequentially, like tape, so they suit e-book readers well. Also, they're usually plaintext. Reference/education books - with those I need fast random access, which mostly rules out the usual digital form, and extra formatting and media used (tables, images, figures, equation) make them problematic on e-book readers.

Re: Books Won't Die

#54

Post by robin_reala »

reaperducer wrote: post #9
keerthiko wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was in the mid-to-late 90s as the internet was just becoming more available to lower income groups. "Nobody buys physical encyclopedias anymore, everything else is going to go that way soon too" In high school debated on the side of the demise of books (2002) and I won. Back then I convinced myself of my side for the sake of my debate performance, but I'm pretty sure today that books are going nowhere in a…

This is true. When eBooks started becoming big, my wife threw out all of her books figuring that electronic was the future. She really regrets doing that.

I moved country and had to make decisions about which of our books were valuable. In the end our criteria came down to ‘would we read it again’, ‘is it a nice edition’ and ’does the physical book have a special memory’. That meant that we gave away probably half of the books. You can always buy or download them again in the future.

Re: Books Won't Die

#55

Post by robin_reala »

blhack wrote: post #41

Just a general piece of information to share here, since I think everybody in here has an interest in e-readers: did you know that you can get a mint condition kindle 3 with 3G (free data for the device for life) on ebay for $30? I consider the kindle 3 a nearly flawless device (save for it's lack of a frontlight). The fact that they are available, and the included 3G which just works , for $30, is a technological mi…

The hardware may be good, but you’re locked into Amazon’s non-standard formats unfortunately.

Re: Books Won't Die

#56

Post by qaq »

In my personal case it is because there are no good e-ink devices. That gray background plus either bad size or horrible interface and horrible price are not doing it for me.

Re: Books Won't Die

#57

Post by mrmonkeyman »

icebraining wrote: post #23
libraryatnight wrote: post #12

I've tried every format and device and I can't read e-books. Nothing, to me, beats a real book. I don't enjoy the experience for one, it strains my eyes (yes even e-ink). But also, and this is something I wouldn't have considered back when I was younger and it seemed like books surely must die in their dead-tree form, I actively seek ways to not be interacting with electronics and books are sublime for this purpose.…

> I carry a small one in my pocket that bothers me constantly through the day Personally, I don't get why people put up with that , and then feel forced to escape their devices. I put up with Slack on my work machine, but on my personal laptop nothing can interrupt me, and even on my phone only calls (which I rarely get) and alarms can do so, everything is on the drawer for when I get to them. I know the defaults are…

Don't marry or have needy friends is also a good tip.

Re: Books Won't Die

#58

Post by kosievdmerwe »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #53
JohnFen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it depends on the book. For recreational reading, I strongly prefer real, printed ones. For reference materials, I strongly prefer electronic ones (stripped of DRM and converted into a non-proprietary format). I can keep my entire technical library on my phone and I can grep through the entire set of books for something in particular that I need to find. I remember the days when my technical library was in pr…

Huh, I have the reverse preference. Recreational books are read sequentially, like tape, so they suit e-book readers well. Also, they're usually plaintext. Reference/education books - with those I need fast random access, which mostly rules out the usual digital form, and extra formatting and media used (tables, images, figures, equation) make them problematic on e-book readers.

Same for me. I would say an electronic book has the advantage in searchability, but a well curated index might actually beat a naive text search most of the time.

Re: Books Won't Die

#60

Post by rahimnathwani »

JohnFen wrote: post #18
libraryatnight wrote: post #12

I've tried every format and device and I can't read e-books. Nothing, to me, beats a real book. I don't enjoy the experience for one, it strains my eyes (yes even e-ink). But also, and this is something I wouldn't have considered back when I was younger and it seemed like books surely must die in their dead-tree form, I actively seek ways to not be interacting with electronics and books are sublime for this purpose.…

For me, it depends on the book. For recreational reading, I strongly prefer real, printed ones. For reference materials, I strongly prefer electronic ones (stripped of DRM and converted into a non-proprietary format). I can keep my entire technical library on my phone and I can grep through the entire set of books for something in particular that I need to find. I remember the days when my technical library was in pr…

I'm curious about this:

"I can grep through the entire set of books for something in particular"

What software do you use for this? I'm guessing you're not literally running grep at a command line on your mobile.

So what software do you use that allows you to search through multiple ebooks? Is there an Android or ios equivalent to DocFetcher?

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