Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

http://bookshelfporn.com/

While I certainly appreciate the "book porn" aspect of that blog, I have striven mightily over the past four decades to keep my library within modest bounds, knowing that objects can multiply to the point where they dominate your life - even objects which are loved for their intellectual beauty more than their physical existance. As a result, although I've owned well over 10,000 books, I have retained only about 500 and could probably reduce that to ~350 at a pinch.

Yowza. I have no idea how many books we own. I'm going to count them when I get home.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/the-perilous-art-of-giving-books/

I tried downloading that Project Gutenberg catalog http://www.freekindlebooks.org/MagicCatalog/magiccatalog.html onto my Kindle and when I access it it seems to freeze the whole thing :(

i haven't used it in a while but it has worked fine on mine many times before - do you have one of the newest kindles?

yeah, a new Kindle Touch. I've hardly used it yet so maybe I just did something wrong or maybe it wasn't fully downloaded?

Reading has nothing to do with machinery. If you own an e-reader, you might as well get an artificial heart implanted.
<img>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/JARVIK_7_artificial_heart.jpg<;/img>

A book is a sacred object, a totem - an e-reader is plastic sold at a loss.

Well done for reading this thread on the paper version of ILX

lol

That is a poor analogy.

you are a poor analogy. you are.

Reading has nothing to do with machinery. If you own an e-reader, you might as well get an artificial heart implanted.

That is a poor analogy.

sbanalogy

so fuckin tired of this argument

Man its such a bummer to have to haul this lightweight piece of plastic sold at a loss with me on vacation instead of trying to figure out which two books I want to have with me.

My analogy was sound - e-readers replace an emotional experience with a mechanical experience, so the image of a mechanical heart was perfectly apropos. Meanwhile, you were comparing ILX, a discussion board that can only be read electronically (thus offering no choice), to literature that is available in a variety of formats (choice). If I could read ILX in a book format, I would do so (though I still don't know if I would call it literature!)

I'm probably feeding the troll here, but that argument is so ridiculous.

you could print it, if you only had a heart

http://blog.bluewillowbookshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/32737-tin_man.jpg

My cousin has an artificial heart, I'll let her know she's no longer capable of emotional experiences.

i would definitely call ilx in any format literature

My analogy was sound - e-readers replace an emotional experience with a mechanical experience

they replcae a paper experience with a screen experience

f f s

My cousin has an artificial heart, I'll let her know she's no longer capable of emotional experiences.

― kinder, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:37 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Your abandonment of literature in its ideal format has apparently unable to discern the nuances of metaphorical writing. Good luck to your cousin!

"has apparently left you unable," I should say.

when metaphorical writing has nuance, it can be a delight

but only when

so fuckin tired of this argument

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 12 January 2012 09:31 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Geir is back as a book nerd!

It's not like if you buy an ereader you are suddenly physically unable to use a book

i hate that kindle versions of my favorite books strip out all the good metaphors. replaced them w/ fucking kennings.

xp actual advert copy for first kindle iirc

i won't argue that there aren't pleasures available in physical copies of books that you don't have with digital copies. i will however argue that none of those pleasures have to do w/ emotions. unless u get turned on by the binding.

Also no way would I have been able to lug around the hardcopy Jobso biog for a week. Without an ereader edition I simply would not have read it.

like, i hate that you can't flip thru pages on the kindle to find something an undetermined number of pages back as easily as you can w/ a real book. i have not noticed any loss in the quality of alliteration between the two mediums, tho.

like, i hate that you can't flip thru pages on the kindle to find something an undetermined number of pages back as easily as you can w/ a real book.

This is why all my textbooks are actual books. Annotating on a Kindle is a pain in the arse.

Well I'm guessing Static Electricity doesn't carry his books around like a peasant anyway. He keeps them at home where they belong, on the spotlit, handcrafted book stand in the focal point of his drawing room.

Me admitting to hardly using a kindle touch = burning my entire book collection in a big fire, dancing around laughing, making an effigy of Shakespeare out of my library cards, forgetting how to ~love~

the day i bought my kindle i actually spat in yeats' face, just spat. right. in. his. cuntish. paperloving. face.

metaphorically

lol u ppl read

u laugh but just wait until you can carry around all ur snacks digitally

i don't use my eyes the kindle wifi's the knowledge directly to my memory without ever having experienced it

u laugh but just wait until you can carry around all ur snacks digitally

e-markers

always sort of suspect that people for whom physical interaction with paper and ink is more than window dressing don't actually read a lot, because if they did being able to get everything written before 1900 for free ten seconds after they think of the title would be blowing their minds way harder

u laugh but just wait until you can carry around all ur snacks digitally

― Mordy

otm

xp And they obviously don't read long heavy books for any length of time or on public transport.

All I can say is that the aesthetics, the conceptualization, the idea, and the practice of actually reading a book on an electronic device make me want to vomit. But go ahead and discard thousands of years of human experience and effort! Enjoy your carcinogenic e-leaflets on how to illegally download music instead of being a responsible adult! Have fun piecing together the scraps of recorded civilization once the electricity gets cut off!

i would definitely call ilx in any format literature

― markers, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 5:37 PM (18 minutes ago)

Sincere or joke, funniest post I've read in a long time.

this is my favorite new troll of 2012

xxp Is "All I can say" a nuance of metaphorical writing here or actually true?