From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Tue Apr 02 2002 - 00:55:57 MST
I LOVE books! I have been utterly nuts about them since
pre-school. So much so I used to hoard the best books in school
lest I not be able to access them when I needed them. <not
appreciated> I am one of Amazon's best customers. I read
usually 2-3 books or the equivalent a week. Sometimes it is
hard to keep track because I may have up to 9 or 10 open that I
am reading from. I've averaged a book a week or better since I
was 8 or 9.
But I am a convert to digital books. I read entire books on my
Compaq IPAQ and have been known to do the same on a Palm (more
painful until recently). I love the feel of regular books
EXCEPT that I have had to pack half of a large moving truck with
all my paper books one time too often. And I always want some
book or other when I am away from my collection and haven't put
it in my backpack. And I get tired of the linear nature of
conventional books with only as much lookup as they thought to
put in the index or that I can simulate with hyper-skimming.
Some of the e-book readers allow multiple bookmarks, notes, keep
track of how far I've read in each book in my collection and so
on. If I could I would cheerfully convert my entire library
except a few collector quality volumes into electronic form. I
especially wish all my reference books were online and
preferably in a form I could mark up with html to get linking
and so on.
Books ideally should be input devices of
information/entertainment and auxillary (to your brain) storage
of the same. Physical paper books just aren't the most
efficient form for satisfying those needs.
- samantha
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>>(spike66 <spike66@ATTBI.com>):
>>
>>I have purchased exactly two hardbound books in the last
>>12 months (both of them written by Damien Broderick).
>>I used to buy average 30 to 50 books a year.
>>
>
> That is an interesting statistic. I probably a book a week
> or so even today; in fact I've bought about 8 in March (sorry,
> Damien, none of yours; but I already have Spike in hardback
> and White Abacus in paperback). I don't know if that will
> change if technology does. Maybe it will. But it is
> evidence that there is still value in things other than the
> mere information: the sensual experience of a book and of a
> bookstore; the easy handling, universal reliable access and
> long-term storage; the ability to give as physical gifts,
> and many other benefits of real books-as-product. One could
> probably say the same kinds of things about live performances
> of music. None of those things is going away because of
> technology--just becoming valued for different reasons.
>
>
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