I dont like ebooks.

[tonya10057]

I have a nook,but I also like reading regular books also.

[perusaphone]

So, if one wants and needs to be a clone and join the 21st century and have everything done for you, simplified and electronically sterile, then go for it, a great many do not want it..... !!!

Are people who listen to music on iTunes instead of buying vinyl records "clones"? They're experiencing the same art, the same information is being fired into them. The only arguments I've heard against e-books seem emotional, as fear of the future always is. Paper books won't exist in a few generations, and I don't think that's sad at all; the content of books will be the same as it always was.

Basically speaking yes, I give you the factual evidence of a recent Inquest into why young boy died because of earphones stuck in his ears as he cycled along the highway, apparently police found the volume at the maximum level possible. Probably unable to hear the traffic and at independent risk because of his isolation within himself whilst listening to the MP3 player. The classic irritation to others by the incessant squealing and ticking on buses, trains etc as unthinking, invariably youthful people enjoy their selfish pleasures. It has the same effect as transistor radios etc on played selfishly loudly at beaches and gardens, whilst to others surrounding the babel like noise, have to put up with it until tempers fray and court cases ensue.
I personally do not have an axe to grind about technology, I find it rather amusing as 'Lemming like', the populace spend their hard earned on the latest must have for the fleeting moment of their existence, that is, until it gets superceded by yet a more expensive commodity.
However, at least people are actually reading however it is done, many do not, either books or electronic versions and, as a result, the educational standards drop away rapidly with each successive generation. The electronically induced, vacuous mindset of at least two generation now with the preponderance of 'gaming pastimes' that also become a solitary vice that encompasses the person for hours. What is the inevitable result of these people? we shall not know for years, as they shrink into their own worlds of robotic gameplay. The parameters of each game are defined already by the manufacturers, so nothing is actually gained in finding out anything new, just that after sorting the thing, one has to get another, much like an addiction
I have any number of vinyl records, the pleasure of reading sleeve notes and handling the records is something that nearly, recently made a comeback, oddly backed by musicians themselves for quality of reproduction sounds. MP3 players are a reduced quality purveyor of recordings due to their inherent compression. I find any MP3 player a distraction as evidenced in the thread about listening to music as one writes.
Maybe I am biased because of an old film made in Britain back when, the film entitled 'Logans Run' came out, but, may I suggest you look up a copy and witness the root cause of my influenced meanderings.

[TanehaCurry]

I have been using my iphone for kindle lately and love the cheap and free ebooks I can get but I find I really miss the feel of a book in my hands and the smell of the pages, one of my fav things in the world. It is also harder on the eye's.

[InOnePhrase]

Basically speaking yes, I give you the factual evidence of a recent Inquest into why young boy died because of earphones stuck in his ears as he cycled along the highway, apparently police found the volume at the maximum level possible. Probably unable to hear the traffic and at independent risk because of his isolation within himself whilst listening to the MP3 player. The classic irritation to others by the incessant squealing and ticking on buses, trains etc as unthinking, invariably youthful people enjoy their selfish pleasures. It has the same effect as transistor radios etc on played selfishly loudly at beaches and gardens, whilst to others surrounding the babel like noise, have to put up with it until tempers fray and court cases ensue.

What is this factual evidence of? That multi-tasking while driving is stupid? That's been true since before cell phones were invented. That people misuse technology in harmful ways? Before gun safety there was bow and arrow safety. You talk of "isolation within oneself," as a modern disease, but surely that's been the effect of art since cave paintings. As for loud technology in public places, there will always be annoying people; though I don't believe, as you do, that they are "invariably youthful."

I personally do not have an axe to grind about technology, I find it rather amusing as 'Lemming like', the populace spend their hard earned on the latest must have for the fleeting moment of their existence, that is, until it gets superceded by yet a more expensive commodity.

I'm glad people reacting to the world as it happens instead of living in the past amuse you. I guess misanthropes need their kicks too.

However, at least people are actually reading however it is done, many do not, either books or electronic versions and, as a result, the educational standards drop away rapidly with each successive generation. The electronically
induced, vacuous mindset of at least two generation now with the preponderance of 'gaming pastimes' that also become a solitary vice that encompasses the person for hours. What is the inevitable result of these people? we shall not know for years, as they shrink into their own worlds of robotic gameplay. The parameters of each game are defined already by the manufacturers, so nothing is actually gained in finding out anything new, just that after sorting the thing, one has to get another, much like an addiction

I don't think I understand your point here; yes, the parameters of a video game are preset, just as the words of a great book are already written. You can't change either but you can certainly take your own meaning from them. You say
"nothing is actually gained in finding anything new," in games, but if the player goes to the game fresh, then it's all new to him, isn't it?

I have any number of vinyl records, the pleasure of reading sleeve notes and handling the records is something that nearly, recently made a comeback, oddly backed by musicians themselves for quality of reproduction sounds. MP3 players are a reduced quality purveyor of recordings due to their inherent compression. I find any MP3 player a distraction as evidenced in the thread about listening to music as one writes.

Not that surprising musicians would support that idea: who would stand to gain more from making music harder and more expensive to obtain? I guess if you listened to vinyls first then mp3, you might be disappointed by the music quality, but I've never listened to a record in my life and neither will the future generations; digital is just fine with us

Maybe I am biased because of an old film made in Britain back when, the film entitled 'Logans Run' came out, but, may I suggest you look up a copy and witness the root cause of my influenced meanderings.

I saw it for free on an iPad, not on the original Dolby Stereo 70mm print, so I guess I'm a lemming, too. It felt to me, watching it in 2011 that it was about the Baby Boomers' fear of getting old and turning into their parents, who were endlessly criticizing them for being different from the previous generation, for expressing themselves and for looking toward a new world. The Boomers solved that by ... turning exactly into their parents, only now the punching bags are the Internet instead of tie-dye T-shirts, video games instead of marijuana, but the fear and hatred of youth culture is the same.

[Alan]

They don't smell good. That's all I can say.

[Lakelander]

Re. Post;#35, I sense we are rather straying from the subject. The point is, eReaders/Tablets are not the latest cause of all the world's ills. Adore 'em or hate 'em, they are undoubtably leading to more and more people actually reading, which in turn utilises and expands people's imagination, as against, for example, simply watching a book's film version, on television. From previous Posts, it has already been established that the advantages of eReading include:-
#1. Financial economy; whereby an eBook priced at £5.99, if purchased as a print book online, would cost £12.95, or £19.95, if obtained from a bricks and mortar bookshop. Some saving!
#2. Environmental considerations; arising from the fact that a best-seller, running to say a million paperbacks sold, requires at least 450 tonnes of finished paper pulp, not to mention, ink, printing and transporation costs. Again, some saving, if only in trees!
#3. The Philosophical aspect; perhaps the most important sea change of all. EBooks, through sites such as Lulu, allow authors like myself, to independantly publish novels without, what is in effect, the censorship of traditional publishers, which in turn provides the freedom for eReaders to decide themselves what is wheat and what is chaff.

[perusaphone]

Comments are totally understandable, generational disputes abound all the time of course. At least we can call this sort of thing dialogue, debate, dispute, social interaction etc and that has to be a plus for the modern age. For my stance, I merely point out the 'so called' technological advancement is in my mind an expensive race against an overwhelming market strategy. We had the easily breakable 78 rpm disc, that got addressed by the vinyl disc, then the album discs, then the CD disc, coupled with the mini disc format, audio tapes, cartridge tapes, we now have the MP3 player.... what next one wonders in the market place ?
How much money has to be spent on reproducing 'music' for the mass market I ask. It's very predictable in content, advancement or no. I recall the valve radio, then the portable transistor radio, the radiogram etc etc, all marketed by large corporations. The advent of the video recorder, a startling revelation for those who do not want to watch mass viewing television, that morphed into multi choice systems, i.e Betamax.... all these things get superceded as a marketing ploy in the name of technological must have's.
Earlier comments on here mention the saving in having to lug weighty tomes about, when with the E.reader I can walk about with zillions of books on one expensive, breakable slab, fine and dandy, but with the Ipod, the Iphone, the Ipad, the Kindle etc etc, we have the same amount of load as the books before them. Books that have survived for thousands of years in essence, now reduced to some digital format, that is at this very moment, liable to be surpassed by further marketable advancement in a way we have not envisaged yet.
Who actually needs this H.D. television these days, the programmes are invariably weak and without consequence, badly written in most cases and as predictable in content as the sun rising and the moon going down, and what about 3D versions, fine if you want eyestrain and are the owner of two working eyes. For example, we had the hokum entitled 'Titanic', it was marketed as a video, then we got the DVD version, now we have the exact same film as a 3D dvd, is that a marketing rip off or what ???
This is where I rail against so called technology, it isn't in real terms, it is simply manipulation by market forces to aid their bank balances and I hate that... !!!! The madness of midnight queues at shops for yet another game, or the advertising campaigns that brainwash the gullible into parting with the old elusive dinero, the frankly, simple minded being sold a pup every day until the next 'must have' comes along....

I look forward to comments !!!

[jeyushka]

I don't like ebooks. I don't know why, I just don't like them...

You just don't know how to cook them properly )

[Lakelander]

Referring to Post:#38, I can't accept that eBooks are no more than, "an expensive race against an overwhelming market strategy." I agree Wall Street's pressure on Main Street in general and on electronic gadgets in particular, is a pain, bordering on the intolerable, yet they would claim, nobody is forcing anybody to buy 'em. Apparently they regard it as democracy. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't stop its rider throwing his/her hard earned cash away, if you see what I mean. Please read the foregoing Post:#37: OK,forget #1, Financial economy. Even ignore #2, Environmental considerations. It is surely however, indisputable that #3, The philosophical aspect, does indeed represent, by means of the technology which allows books of every kind to be published independently direct to the public, a new freedom to both authors and readers equally, to escape the monopoly of big business Publishing Houses deciding what people may read. The new technology of ePublishing means that every scrap of literature in the future, can be read by anyone and everyone, if they so wish. I know this creates the seemingly imponderable problem of how to filter out the wheat from the chaff, but this is easily accomplished, as described in earlier Posts, by selecting the Category of your choice on the ePublisher's websites and then 'Searching' for 'Award winning writers'. A second method, is to check out the ePublisher's own 'Staff Picks', again in the Category of your choosing, thereby reducing millions of titles to the choice of just a relative few of the very latest and best reads.

[perusaphone]

' by selecting the Category of your choice on the ePublisher's websites and then 'Searching' for 'Award winning writers'. A second method, is to check out the ePublisher's own 'Staff Picks', again in the Category of your choosing, thereby reducing millions of titles to the choice of just a relative few of the very latest and best reads.' Unquote.....

Over here we had a daytime television duo of dubious skills, a husband and wife team of hypocritical provenance. They somehow devised a rather sinister 'book of the week' or some such nonsensical title. Zillions of women were thereby persuaded to invest in these selected books. Little stickers on the front covers of these books announced their fame. This in turn made, what is sometimes a rather poor book into an international best seller. Questions were rightly asked in watchdog avenues about how publication houses were jumping on the bandwagon and, possibly paying backhanders to the 'celeb' presenters. A market manipulation was thus disarmed by the protagonists withdrawal from the television station.
I tend to avoid books, films etc that are overly publicised, they are invariably a disappointment at their consumption. So, in the light of publishers self publication and self promotion, the fact of them striving to make sales in any way or form, I would argue that your comments above are a mite risky....

[Lakelander]

Re. Post #41. Sorry you think so. The point I was endeavouring to make, was that the great imponderable of literature, is sorting the 'wheat' from the 'chaff'. One international mainstream publisher I have had dealings with, receives up to 80 unsolicited manuscripts each working day, yet complains he is lucky to find just one book the Company is prepared to risk publishing in any one year. Readers on the Lulu site I used as an example, have exactly that same problem. Take Lulu's 'Romance' Category, for instance. There are currently in excess of 22,500 titles to choose from. Who can possibly browse that number? Their 'Staff Picks', based upon the reviews they have received, distil these titles down to perhaps 20, on a rotational basis as time moves on, which is surely a great aid. Frankly, I don't see anything sinister in this. Equally, by inserting 'Award Winning writers' into a eBookstore/publisher's website's 'Search' box, as advise by the State of Oregon's reading encouragement department, again highlights a relatively small number of books, which in this case have already won various prizes and competitions, proving such books have at least some merit, all of which helps immensely in discovering worthy 'wheat'. Perhaps you could ,in turn, tell everyone how you find a good book.

[perusaphone]

Simply by subject matter. For example, I recently became enamoured with the history of Stalingrad, as deplorably fought for by the Germans in WW2. By, as you say, sorting the wheat from the chaff, together with reasonable fore knowledge, I have been able to ascertain relevant 'good' reads at various bookshops. The browse along shelves is a passion of mine, the quick read of a few pages suffices to either ignore or purchase. I also often buy several different books on a subject, rather than the one, this allows cross-referencing and tends to highlight any disputed item. This very system will finely tune the disagreement or dispute invariably by purchasing yet another book, until the subject is acceptable to me, and complete. I personally do not engage in fiction per se, so, the subjects are much easier to arrange and realise.
Rightly, or wrongly, I choose to pick my books by myself without the aid of safety nets i.e. other people's tastes. perhaps, with all due respect, by alienating myriad titles from the list of publications, the authors may well lose heart in their scribing, thereby reducing the quantity available. I certainly do not subscribe to the prize winning, celebrity avenue of choice, I dislike being manipulated in any way or form, besides which, it is so open to abuse and sameness. I fully appreciate the fact that I, as an individual, can choose for myself.

[Lakelander]

Re. Post #43, I think we are rather at cross-purposes here, if one accepts that literature is split cleanly between fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction readers, as you say, by their fore knowledge of those specific subjects which interest them, are able fairly quickly and accurately, to locate titles dealing with a particular point of study, research or investigation, be it for instance, the chequered career of a well known politician, the tactical aspects of a crucial World War two battle, or the circumstances surrounding some infamous shipping disaster. In short, there are a myriad detailed known subjects, from which the non-fiction reader can choose, to suit and satisfy his needs.
Readers of pure fiction however, have little choice by comparison. Romance, Thrillers, Crime, Mystery, Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, probably cover it. In fact, these are not really choices at all. They are actually seven sub-forums and in any one, there are thousands upon thousands of titles to choose from. Overwhelming and confusing to say the least. Browsing therefore, is not a practical solution, hence the value in looking first at 'Award winning writers/novels' and/or the publisher's/bookshop's own 'Staff picks'. Consensus views can be great time savers and be very helpful to readers at the same time. It is also probably true to say that controversial works of fiction, like, dare I mention, the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, are often either loved or hated, whereas dull, uninteresting, poorly structured books are universally ignored, without any comment or help from anyone.

[jeyushka]

The best way to find the next book to read is the word of mouth , recommendations on Goodreads, not paid praise by the media; then one can check out the recommended shortlist by reading synopsis and first page on the Amazon

[perusaphone]

Quote " Readers of pure fiction however, have little choice by comparison. Romance, Thrillers, Crime, Mystery, Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, probably cover it. In fact, these are not really choices at all. They are actually seven sub-forums and in any one, there are thousands upon thousands of titles to choose from. Overwhelming and confusing to say the least. " Unquote.

If we are talking pure choice here, then the E reader is probably the way to go because of weight of numbers that are indeed overwhelming and confusing. When i said before that I do not enjoy basic fiction, I don't at all in modern type, the exception comes in any book written from say, 1750 until somewhere about 1940ish. The classics of course, the historical relevance and detail is all encompassing for me. However, anything after those dates seems to be rather bland in comparison due to their incipient sameness in all genres. There are a few exceptions added to that though, back to the Stalingrad situation again. In order to get the aforementioned cross references, I purchased the original book 'Enemy At The Gates' of which a rather poorer film was made, I also purchased "War of the Rats" in order to complete the set as it were. There may be others, but, I cannot go back, it is all a work in progress for me, one book invariably begets another, with a subtle side shift in subject matter.
I have never needed the use of other people's recommendations, maybe I am missing something, but I get through an inordinately huge amount of books, very few of which are discarded due to their well written content, much to my wife's chagrin sometimes....