Saw my first iPad today
in [UK Mac]
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From: Jaimie Vandenbergh on 14 Apr 2010 07:17 On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:00:14 +0100, usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk (Woody) wrote: >D.M. Procida <real-not-anti-spam-address(a)apple-juice.co.uk> wrote: > >> R <me32(a)privacy.net> wrote: >> >> > I now have the electronic reader. It has some 90 free novels >> > on it and it has not grown fat with them. Imagine carrying 90 >> > traditionally printed novels around with you. Not convenient! >> >> I can pick up almost any book in my house and along with it, everything >> it means. Books I bought when I was studying, that were a gift from a >> friend, that belonged to my parents, that I got from someone who died. >> >> That's only a burden in the sense that having memories and experiences >> is a burden. > >Isn't this more related to the way you remember things? I pick up a book >I read as a child or that I got when studying etc, and I don't get any >meaning or memory from it (other than the meaning in the book and the >memory of what was in the book). Or it could be down to the feeling you >have towards books (I know other people that say that when you say about >ereaders). I get that with music, and with photos, but books, really not >much that I wouldn't get reading them on my ereader. Each to their own. I love ebooks for the "always with me" convenience, and I love some books for their physical packaging, some for their connotations. I was in a holiday cottage over the weekend, and that had several shelves of old books - 1835 was the oldest I found - and going through them as objects was fascinating. More so than reading the content, frankly. I've a few books of my own which have special meaning to me like Daniele has, gifts and those with attached recollections. Not all that many. I can take or leave most paperbacks, for example. Cheers - Jaimie -- "Machines take me by surprise with great frequency." - Alan Turing
From: Peter Ceresole on 14 Apr 2010 11:20 D.M. Procida <real-not-anti-spam-address(a)apple-juice.co.uk> wrote: > It's definitely the same kind of thing as with music and photographs. I > like to have a tangible artefact to relate to. > > But I feel it most strongly with books. I agree; the emotion attached to the object carries a powerful charge. I have a pretty complete set of Arthur Ransome's children's books. Looking at the publication dates, my parents bought them when I was eight. I remember having them read to me, then later reading them myself. I still read a few of them from time to time- they're so superbly written that they're still a pleasure, although of a very different kind from the first few times around. I have them on one shelf of a book case, quite close to where I'm sitting now. They're green cloth bound hardbacks- in many of them, I've coloured in the illustrations. If I wanted to be rational, I'd keep just the three or four I still read as paperbacks, and junk the others. But I get great pleasure from seeing and handling the originals. On the other hand, my favourite author of all, Anthony Powell, wrote a sequence of 12 novels that I have read and reread over the years. All my copies are paperbacks, and the physical existence of the books is not important. When one falls apart (which they do as I carry them about in trains and waiting rooms...) I just buy a new one. Woody gets his jollies from his musical intruments. Everybody has their particular enthusiasm. I'm sure that I might enjoy using an iPad or an eReader, but it wouldn't be the same... -- Peter
From: zoara on 14 Apr 2010 12:48 Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: > Each to their own. I love ebooks for the "always with me" convenience, > and I love some books for their physical packaging, some for their > connotations. Same here. eBooks are a great loss in many ways, but what I love most about them is the same thing I loved when I first got an iPod. And in both instances many people - including myself, to a degree - dismissed this advantage. "Why would you need all your CDs / books on you all the time? You can only listen to / read one at a time". Of course, the advantage comes when you *finish* what you're currently doing and go onto the next. I prefer to be able to choose from whatever suits my mood at the time, rather than from whatever album/book or two I thought to bring along. Compounding that is the fact that I always have more than one book on the go at the same time, and often four or more (all very different or I get confused). Depending on my mood at the time I start reading I might pick up any of those books, or start another. Easy when you're in the house with your bookshelves, but not so much if you're away. Three books take up a lot more space than an eBook reader. > I've a few books of my own which have special meaning to me like > Daniele has, gifts and those with attached recollections. Not all that > many. I can take or leave most paperbacks, for example. Same here. It's mostly about being gifts - I was 'given' a handful of eBooks for Christmas and it's nowhere near the same as being given a physical book. And you can't (easily) lend eBooks. That's a shame. Though it also has it's advantages, as proven by the book I recently got back from a friend - it looked like he'd tried to eat it. No respect! -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 14 Apr 2010 12:48 Ian McCall <ian(a)eruvia.org> wrote: > Ah well. Not terribly exciting but possibly worth a mention. Someone > else I know is having one brought back from the States next week so I > may get a closer look then. I'll be getting to play with one (and ask questions of the owner) this Monday. Anyone got anything (sensible) they want me to find out? -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: David Kennedy on 14 Apr 2010 15:44
Peter Ceresole wrote: > D.M. Procida<real-not-anti-spam-address(a)apple-juice.co.uk> wrote: > >> It's definitely the same kind of thing as with music and photographs. I >> like to have a tangible artefact to relate to. >> >> But I feel it most strongly with books. > > I agree; the emotion attached to the object carries a powerful charge. > > I have a pretty complete set of Arthur Ransome's children's books. > Looking at the publication dates, my parents bought them when I was > eight. I remember having them read to me, then later reading them > myself. I still read a few of them from time to time- they're so > superbly written that they're still a pleasure, although of a very > different kind from the first few times around. I have them on one shelf > of a book case, quite close to where I'm sitting now. They're green > cloth bound hardbacks- in many of them, I've coloured in the > illustrations. If I wanted to be rational, I'd keep just the three or > four I still read as paperbacks, and junk the others. But I get great > pleasure from seeing and handling the originals. I wish I still had mine, unfortunately my mother went through the "we must clear out all this useless clutter" phase. I was tempted by a set I saw recently in Hay on Wye - until I saw the price that is... -- David Kennedy http://www.anindianinexile.com |