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The new bibliomaniacs

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Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#71

Post by dhosek »

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…

My greatest moment of this was being able to find a quote in a 500-page book I had read 8 years earlier in about 2 minutes thanks to the physical memory of my first encounter with that text.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#72

Post by onecommentman »

cbfrench wrote: post #56
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’m a big proponent of physical books: I have several thousand in my home. But last week, I finally got my first e-reader, the Xteink X4, which I got because it was small and cheap. In ten days, I’ve read J.-K. Huysmans’s Durtal tetralogy, Nancy Maguire’s An Infinity of Little Hours, Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop, and I’ll finish Bernanos’s Diary of a Country Priest this evening. I don’t think I’ve ev…

Then again, there is more to life than increasing its speed. (Gandhi). When I read a physical book, especially an early (hardback) edition, I’m reliving the experience of all the early readers of that book. A mug of tea, a warm light, perhaps a candle or oil lamp, a period chair — and I’m recreating the experience the Author imagined his/her readers would be experiencing. Digital for work, analog for pleasure.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#73

Post by wpollock »

For what it's worth, in the U.S. at least you can connect to your local library with an app named "libby". I used this frequently on my Android phone to download books and magazines, and you can connect with the InterLibrary Loan system too. My use of the public library is much, much higher than before, when I had to travel to the physical library branch to check out books or read magazines.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#74

Post by cbfrench »

onecommentman wrote: post #72
cbfrench wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a big proponent of physical books: I have several thousand in my home. But last week, I finally got my first e-reader, the Xteink X4, which I got because it was small and cheap. In ten days, I’ve read J.-K. Huysmans’s Durtal tetralogy, Nancy Maguire’s An Infinity of Little Hours, Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop, and I’ll finish Bernanos’s Diary of a Country Priest this evening. I don’t think I’ve ev…

Then again, there is more to life than increasing its speed. (Gandhi). When I read a physical book, especially an early (hardback) edition, I’m reliving the experience of all the early readers of that book. A mug of tea, a warm light, perhaps a candle or oil lamp, a period chair — and I’m recreating the experience the Author imagined his/her readers would be experiencing. Digital for work, analog for pleasure.

That is very true, and certainly I’m in agreement that fast, digital reading isn’t necessarily desirable as a mode. Then again, my academic background is in English lit, and I’m a priest, so my professional reading has generally been slow and analog! Reading novels quickly allows me to become immersed in them without allowing my analytical lit-crit brain entirely to take over, and that itself is a nice change of pace, so the e-reader has been a welcome introduction. I do enough wrestling with dense theological texts that I appreciate being able simply to read.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#75

Post by voidhorse »

eudamoniac wrote: post #52
everdrive wrote: post #3

I've even considered printing off essays from the internet I find insightful. I want to reread them, read them in bed, preserve them for the future. Archive.org does exist, but everything on the internet seems to be ephemeral.

After I started reading essays printed in books, like Emerson's, I realized there is no blogger alive that is worth reading anymore. Something to consider.

Amen. I never understood how such an avid blog reading community existed when, compared to published essays, the vast bulk of it is drivel. I guess I simply hadn't realized that many people out there may have never read a formal or published essay. What a shame.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#76

Post by Nevermark »

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…

> The book itself is a kind of memory totem

My phrase for this is "Books are bookmarks".

Even unread books form a physical reminder to read, and of the import of the topic they cover.

When I come across a book that covers something important well, I buy it. I will likely read it, but even if it just keeps reminding me of the topic, reinforcing my integrated web of understanding, it is doing good.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#77

Post by TFNA »

benrutter wrote: post #46
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 environm…

You don't have to actually pay for ebooks. I have been an avid reader on a Kindle and then a Kobo for over a decade, and I have never once bought an ebook. Even in 2015 the shadow libraries already had nearly everything I was ever looking for. Nowadays with Anna's Archive, downloading ebooks is made so convenient that even my normie friends use it.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#78

Post by mbeex »

Regarding the feeling of something missing by reading on electronic devices, expressed in a few comments:

Some (not all) answers I was able to find in Maryanne Wolf's book "Reader, Come Home". Main concept there is what she calls deep-reading, a complex back and forth between different brain areas and the hemispheres, that needs time and is replaced by specific forms of skimming on the mentioned devices. In particular, the shift between hemispheres allows for integration into the reader's personal store of knowledge and, more broadly, into their own worldview.

The "wasted" time is essential for memory building and consolidation. Add enforced linear reading without immediate availibility to break the flow by googling/notifications/jumping to whatever, also consider haptics and more. Similar effects can also be found in handwriting vs typing, manual sketching etc.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#79

Post by armchairhacker »

BigTTYGothGF wrote: post #60
Novosell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I haven't flown in many years (and god willing will never have to again) but at the time you had to turn your electronic stuff off, whether it was in airplane mode or not.

I’ve only heard, in very rare scenarios (extreme turbulence), passengers asked to turn off their devices during takeoff and landing.

Re: The new bibliomaniacs

#80

Post by gf263 »

BoingBoomTschak wrote: post #23
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.

An embarrassingly large number of epubs have absolute no care put into formatting, in my experience. That and how do I get my "old book paper smell" fix and those beautifully illustrated hardback covers neatly lined on my shelves? Otherwise, I agree.

Shoutout to https://standardebooks.org/, amazingly formatted classics
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