Books on the night stand

[sr71plt]

It certainly is interesting that authors publishing electronically on Literotica are pooh poohing electronic publishing/electronic device reading.

 

[PennLady]

Amen, sister! There is nothing like the sight of a well organized book case and the feel of a book in your hands.

The kindle is more from the instant gratification generation.

No, it is not. It is for people who want to read books. Why is it instant gratification any more than going to a bookstore, buying a print book, and sitting down to read it? Does the trip home in the car really make that delayed gratification?

It is simply progress, it is change. I imagine when print books became available to the public, some older people grumbled about how oral tradition was good enough for them, and why add another fire hazard to the house?

Of course, I'm not above taking advantage of them by selling e-books on them, but for me I enjoy regular books to much to bother.

An e-book is a regular book. Just like a laptop computer is a "regular" computer. I remember when my mom would tell me she was leery about using a laptop after she'd gotten used to a desktop. Mom, it's the same thing in a smaller box.

An e-book is a book, just in a different medium. How is it any better or worse than an audiobook, for example? No one seems to criticize those.

You say these things like people can't enjoy both paper and e-books. I just like BOOKS. I want to read BOOKS. I don't much care what the medium of delivery is. The author gets their cut no matter what, and as SR noted, they probably get a bigger cut from an e-books. I have basement shelves full of books, and all the books I listed in the beginning of the thread are print books.

I love paper books though!

I love the weight, I love the feel of the pages, I even love the goddamn smell.

Also, you can't read a kindle in the bathtub

As Derro noted, you can read a Kindle in the bathtub if you take reasonable precautions. I haven't tried it myself, but that's b/c I don't do baths and it's tough to read in the shower. I also figure someone out there will patent some kind of waterproof cover for e-readers anyway.

I love all those things about books, too, but ultimately I want the CONTENT.

 

[Derroreaper]

I have Stephen King's "Lisey's Story" in hardback I haven't gotten to, and the newest J.D. Robb book, and a couple Dean Koontz books I haven't gotten to, either.

I got my ereader because I live in the middle of nowhere. The closest book store is 45 minutes away. Even our library is pretty tiny.

But I must say, I like that fact it always remembers my page, even while reading multiple books. I can increase the font size, or even switch the font if I don't like what they used. (and some ebooks are hack jobs at best when it comes to formatting)

 

[sr71plt]

By the way, a computer is an e-reader. And Literotica stories are e-works. (duh)

 

[Derroreaper]

By the way, a computer is an e-reader. And Literotica stories are e-works. (duh)

You are joking right?

 

[Cruel2BKind]

You are joking right?

http://troll.me/images/futurama-fry/cant-tell-if-joking-or-just-stupid-thumb.jpg

 

[sr71plt]

You are joking right?

Are you reading on your computer? Do you read your Literotica stories on a computer? (If not, where do you read them?)

electronic files are electronic files. Whatever you read them on is an e-reader.

Of course I'm not joking.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Ok, here's a legitimate argument against ebooks, since apparently you CAN read them in the bathtub.

Everybody can write an ebook. It's what puts people like us in business, but what if I want to read a straight up fantasy or sci-fi?

My friend has one, and she got all excited for a fantasy series on the website, she purchased it, and it had horrible grammar, diction, plot, and altogether, looked like it had been written by a twelve-year-old.

We looked at it together, and it made Christopher Paolini's first book, Eragon, look like Hamlet (or Frankenstine, or Dracula... I dunno, some great classic book that is well written)

There is no way to sort the shit from the gold, unless you know that it was already a classically published book.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

http://troll.me/images/futurama-fry/cant-tell-if-joking-or-just-stupid-thumb.jpg

Are you reading on your computer? Do you read your Literotica stories on a computer? (If not, where do you read them?)

electronic files are electronic files. Whatever you read them on is an e-reader.

Of course I'm not joking.

Well, that only leaves one option

 

[sr71plt]

OK, that's two who don't think a computer is an e-reader. Anyone else want to take that position?

 

[lovecraft68]

No, it is not. It is for people who want to read books. Why is it instant gratification any more than going to a bookstore, buying a print book, and sitting down to read it? Does the trip home in the car really make that delayed gratification?

It is simply progress, it is change. I imagine when print books became available to the public, some older people grumbled about how oral tradition was good enough for them, and why add another fire hazard to the house?



An e-book is a regular book. Just like a laptop computer is a "regular" computer. I remember when my mom would tell me she was leery about using a laptop after she'd gotten used to a desktop. Mom, it's the same thing in a smaller box.

An e-book is a book, just in a different medium. How is it any better or worse than an audiobook, for example? No one seems to criticize those.

You say these things like people can't enjoy both paper and e-books. I just like BOOKS. I want to read BOOKS. I don't much care what the medium of delivery is. The author gets their cut no matter what, and as SR noted, they probably get a bigger cut from an e-books. I have basement shelves full of books, and all the books I listed in the beginning of the thread are print books.




As Derro noted, you can read a Kindle in the bathtub if you take reasonable precautions. I haven't tried it myself, but that's b/c I don't do baths and it's tough to read in the shower. I also figure someone out there will patent some kind of waterproof cover for e-readers anyway.

I love all those things about books, too, but ultimately I want the CONTENT.

Content wise an e-book is a book, but it does not have the physical aspects of a "real" book. You can't fondle it-and yes I fondle books as all book lovers do- can't flip around and find a good spot to pick up from if you've already read it and it just doesn't have the fun feel to it.

When you read a long book or reread the same book, that book becomes a comfortable friend. It gets stained and dog eared and opens automatically to your favorite part.

Kindles are sterile devices, a book is an intimate experience. A one night stand vs sex with a long time loving partner.

All my opinion of course and not one shared by the other half who has a bajillion books in the kindle fire I bout her a few weeks ago.

 

[Derroreaper]

Are you reading on your computer? Do you read your Literotica stories on a computer? (If not, where do you read them?)

electronic files are electronic files. Whatever you read them on is an e-reader.

Of course I'm not joking.

Ya smart-ass? walk into Best Buy and ask for an eReader, if they show you a PC you win...

Its like you say to yourself, "Hey, I haven't started any shit in six hours, I should insult everyone's intelligence"

Now, for the slow guy in the thread, we are talking about the electronic devices called "eReaders". It has proprietary software designed to read an "eBook".

Of course you already know this, but you like being abrasive...

 

[lovecraft68]

OK, that's two who don't think a computer is an e-reader. Anyone else want to take that position?

I'll probably want to shoot myself for this, but in this I agree. I got an acer tablet for my birthday and you can get e-books through kobo so technically it is an e-reader.

But I think they're disagreeing, because a pc and a lap top aren't small and easily handled like a kindle. That and they're not specifically e-readers. Then again neither is the fire which does quite a bit besides store e-books.

 

[sr71plt]

Later: This was posted to Derroreaper, not to the immediately preceding post.

No, I'm pointing out that you are not thinking straight--and that Cruel, by badmouthing e-publishing, is slitting her "posting at Literotica" throat. (and by posting that image to me is just plain nasty.)

If you went into Best Buy and told the salesperson you wanted the e-reader called a computer, they would be more delighted to sell you one of those than a handheld version--because you'd more likely than not be spending more.

Again, anyone else out there who doesn't think a computer is an e-reader?

Amazon obviously does. They deliver their Kindle products to my laptop. And Literotica obviously does. Most of the readers of the e-stories they publish are reading it on computers.

(Try thinking the next time before you make derogatory statements.)

And, incidentally, I'm not being as nasty about it as either one of you. You and Cruel are the ones being abrasive here, not me.

(Coopted by advertising much, are you?)

 

[PennLady]

Ok, here's a legitimate argument against ebooks, since apparently you CAN read them in the bathtub.

Everybody can write an ebook. It's what puts people like us in business, but what if I want to read a straight up fantasy or sci-fi?

It has always been the case that anyone can write a book, and as my grad program director said, "Any idiot can get a book published." There are plenty of crappy paper books out there. It would seem "Eragon" might be such an example, but I haven't read it myself.

Sorry, I don't buy that argument. All you're saying is some people write poorly and you might get suckered into buying it. So what? If you want to read straight-up sf/f, then look, for example, on Kindle's top 100, paid and free. I imagine B&N and Apple have similar lists. No different than going to the sf section in a book store.

There is no way to sort the shit from the gold, unless you know that it was already a classically published book.

So you take your chances. How is this markedly different than before? Just b/c a book is proofed and edited and published does not guarantee that it is good. It may have proper grammar, but that doesn't mean it's "good."

 

[Firebrain]

On my TBR:

The Resistance by Gemma Malley
This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Mojo Queen by Sonia Clark

I just landed my first editing position and I'll be acquiring YA, so I'm on a bit of a binge in that genre.

Is a PC an e-reader? A PC can perform the e-reader function, but it's not specifically an e-reader. When people talk about e-readers, they aren't talking about PCs, or laptops. They're talking about a small, very portable device.

 

[sr71plt]

Is a PC an e-reader? A PC can perform the e-reader function, but it's not specifically an e-reader. When people talk about e-readers, they aren't talking about PCs, or laptops. They're talking about a small, very portable device.

Well, the makers of Kindles and Nooks certainly want you to believe that--and you can if you're succeptible to marketing. But the truth of the matter is that the computer is and always has been an e-reader (which even the Kindle people recognize). And if you are reading Literotica stories, you most likely are using the e-reader called a computer.

 

[PennLady]

Content wise an e-book is a book, but it does not have the physical aspects of a "real" book. You can't fondle it-and yes I fondle books as all book lovers do- can't flip around and find a good spot to pick up from if you've already read it and it just doesn't have the fun feel to it.

Okay, but speak for yourself. Perhaps I can do BOTH -- enjoy paper and e-readers. You and C2BK give the impression it's not possible, that by embracing an e-reader, I have rejected print, and that's not true. I have several hundred books on my Kindle, giving me lots of choices, and it's easier to store when I go places. I never said I didn't enjoy the experience of a paper book. I'm hardly going out to replace my paper library with electronic copies. I do have some duplicates, but those are almost all public domain things like Jane Austen, RL Stevenson, etc.

Kindles are sterile devices, a book is an intimate experience. A one night stand vs sex with a long time loving partner.

All my opinion of course and not one shared by the other half who has a bajillion books in the kindle fire I bout her a few weeks ago.

To me, reading is the experience, the images I get in my head when reading the words, and it is no more or less "intimate" because I read them on an e-ink screen instead of paper. It may be different, but it is not less.

Is a PC an e-reader? A PC can perform the e-reader function, but it's not specifically an e-reader. When people talk about e-readers, they aren't talking about PCs, or laptops. They're talking about a small, very portable device.

I'd agree with this. A PC can be an e-reader, just like it can be a phone or video phone if you use Skype. A computer is a multi-functional device.

 

[ishtat]

Is a nightstand what Brits and Aussies would call a (small) bed side table?

At the moment I have Minette Walters The Ice House being re- read. She has to be the best crime thriller writer at the moment.

Also have Elaine Pagels Revelations in which she argues, convincingly that the New Testaments last book is an anti Roman polemic, written by an exiled Jerusalem Jew about AD150. In a way, the subversion of the original intent of John of Patmos to the service of the new church heirarchy (via Athanasius, Ireneus et al) reads like a thriller itself.

I'm going to a 'Lifeline' charity booksale on Saturday; that will replenish the 'nightstand for a few weeks.

Stone, wet clay, papyrus, scrolls, paper, vellum, cheap paper, printing, electonic publishing (kindle or PC) are all part of a continuum, the most decisive developments being the conversion from scrolls to books and the invention of printing. Kindles and PC's will be old hat when we are all fitted with receiving devices to facilitate direct access to our brains. But I'll bet even then we will still read books.

 

[sr71plt]

Okay, but speak for yourself. Perhaps I can do BOTH -- enjoy paper and e-readers. You and C2BK give the impression it's not possible, that by embracing an e-reader, I have rejected print, and that's not true. I have several hundred books on my Kindle, giving me lots of choices, and it's easier to store when I go places. I never said I didn't enjoy the experience of a paper book. I'm hardly going out to replace my paper library with electronic copies. I do have some duplicates, but those are almost all public domain things like Jane Austen, RL Stevenson, etc.

I embrace e-books for sales and print for my own reading. I consider that just recognizing (and riding the wave of) the convincingly demonstrated primary reading preferences of the generation after me.

I'm still buying print books.

 

[sr71plt]

Is a nightstand what Brits and Aussies would call a (small) bed side table?

Yepppp

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Is a nightstand what Brits and Aussies would call a (small) bed side table?

I call a small bedside table a nightstand...

 

[PennLady]

I call a small bedside table a nightstand...

Yes, but you're not British. Are you?

Kind of like Americans say sneakers, and Brits say trainers. We say nightstand, they say bedside table. Here's to international understanding.

 

[Darkniciad]

I've actually heard two pieces of furniture called by those terms.

A "bedside table" is a table that sometimes has one shallow drawer, while a "nightstand" is akin to a small dresser of about the same dimensions with multiple drawers.

May be a local thing *shrug*

 

[brasilike]

Naked by david sedaris
A Dog in a Hat by Joe Parkin
God's Politics by Jim Wallis
The 2012 Liberty Mountain catalog

To participate in the eReader debate, I use an iPad for my everday computer needs and have been for almost a year. Im a subscriber to several magazines, that come in the mail, and have tried reading the e-version and nothing comes close to the memories that come with reading a magazine/book in your hands. I can also be less cautious when at a cafe reading something physical whereas I dont want to spill anything on my electronic device. There are so many other reasons where the physical copy beats out the electronic copy, but if I was traveling for an extended period of time or where space was limited I could see where the e-reader has an advantage.