I know, I know: First comments, Facebook, and Twitter, and now this? Where is the real Mrs. M-mv? Heh, heh, heh. For those who like this sort of thing, my first downloads included the tenth anniversary edition of American Gods (Neil Gaiman) and NYT audio digests for yesterday and today from Audible.com and The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs) from the Kindle Store.
Never, ever, say, "Never."
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16 comments:
I know. I said never as well and enjoying the heck out of my nook. thought I'd only use for traveling. Use it 50% of the time now.
(Gasp!) What next? Encouraging us to read Danielle Steel?
Heather in MN
In a grad school publishing course in 1993, I wrote a paper on the trade journal rumors of contraptions called e-readers and concluded that while such clumsy devices might interest a gadget-loving few, I personally (I declared) would never ever ever abandon the satisfying heft of a "real" book, the rustle of paper, the smell of ink, the dogeared corner.
In 2010, with stacks of galleys threatening to crowd my own offspring out of the house, I purchased a Kindle--and was shocked to find myself smitten. I admit that the failing eyesight of my early forties has had a great deal to do with the romance. (And actually--speaking of American Gods--I read a Neil Gaiman blog post last year in which he makes a similar admission, something to the effect of his having thought he was no longer enjoying new books because of failings in the books, but after getting a Kindle he realize my short attention span was due in large part to his no longer being able to read small print.)
We are still, of course, surrounded by towers of books in this little house, but I shock myself sometimes by wishing wistfully that this or that book, purchased months ago but still unread, was on my Kindle instead. Eep.
I've never said never about the e-books, only not yet. My husband and I are still hold outs, but even we've been tempted by the two recent updates to the nook. Everyone I know who has one sings their praises, except perhaps my mother, who prefers to listen to books rather than read them, so who knows what's up with her.
"after getting a Kindle he realize my short attention span was due in large part to his no longer being able"---
::facepalm::
I began that paraphrase as a quotation and revised it to third person--imperfectly. D'oh. What *he* said was coherent and not at all muddled in its prounouns. ;)
I started out with the Kindle and then became a real 'heretic' by reading books on Kindle for iPhone app. But with a young baby it is a lifesaver!
Korinna, I'm just the opposite. I'm still reading on the Kindle for iPhone app and hoping to make the switch to the real thing someday soon.
I don't have an e-reader, but I am a fan of them for the simple reason that my husband, who was previously a non-reader, now reads a dozen or so books a year on his Kindle. His only time for reading is in bed, and he found holding a real book awkward.
I haven't said "never" to my own - especially if we ever take a lengthy vacation. Last time we went on a family vacation, I took two tote bags of books, which became a pain to carry from hotel to car!
I found the Neil Gaiman quote I hamhandedly paraphrased! :) Not on his journal, as I (mis)remembered, but from a New York Magazine review:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/10/the_vulture_transcript_neil_ga.html
What do you think of the state of web comics? And what do you think about the iPad and tablet computers and what kind of impact they may have on comics?
I think the iPad redefines everything. Let me start from personal and then go general. I’m turning 50 in a few weeks’ time, and when I started doing the reading for this book, I went: Oh my God, I have lost my ability to read comics. Why am I no longer enjoying this? I’m not in the comics, this is terrible, these are weird, and having a really bad experience. And it was about four days in on that that I thought, Hang on, and went down to the drugstore and bought the cheapest pair of giant magnifying reading glasses and brought them home and started reading them like this and going, oh actually it’s not the comics. It’s the fact that my eyesight is no longer comfortable with tiny lettering and word balloons. And that simply fascinated me. And fascinated me because I realized that technology is normally driven by the young, and leaves the old and my generation on the sidelines going, "We don’t know what we think about this." Except the Kindle and Kindle technology, which is absolutely being discovered by my age and up from people who are going, “You mean I don’t have to buy large-print books? I can just set the font wherever I like? This is great.” And all these people you expect to be going, “I do not want this modern newfangled thing,” are going, “I have a house full of books I can’t read anymore. This thing is magic.”
When I was handed my first iPad, the friend who showed it to me said, “Look at this,” and promptly showed me my Eternals story for Marvel on the iPad. I loved, was shocked, delighted, and amazed by the fact that the first best seller that DC comics had on the iPad was Sandman No. 1. Just sort of going, this is a comic I wrote 23 years ago, and you’ve got this new technology, and it’s here right now. I think they’re brilliant. I really do. And I think that I do not have the allegiance to paper that I ought to. Perhaps I don’t have the allegiance to paper that I ought to because anybody who invests in The Absolute Sandman, all four volumes, is now carrying 40 pounds of paper and cardboard around with them. And they hurt and they complain, “Oh, I feel guilty.” And I look at it and go, you’re not getting anything that is quantitatively or qualitatively better than the experience you’d be getting on an iPad, where you can enlarge the pages, you can move it around, it’s following the eye, and you can flip the pages. By the same token, I’m loving the fact that the Kindle software on my little iPod touch and the Kindle software on my Nexus phone talk to each other, which is the equivalent of having fairies that run around behind me inserting bookmarks in random copies of books that are at wherever I need them to be. It doesn’t matter what I was reading it on, when I pick it up, it’s on the page that I’m on.
I love my books so much that I wasn't sure I'd like an ereader until a friend gave me one for my birthday. It's not only the font changing. I can download old classic books for free. I can save articles from the internet and have bunches of them made into a file for my kindle so I no longer sit in front of my computer reading articles. I find that I am reading more than I did before because I can bring one little gadget with me everywhere I go. It will never replace my books, but it is a lovely addition to them.
I have a Kindle now, and like it. I don't love it--it's not what I primarily use to read, but I do enjoy having it for travel, or using it to read while I rock a sick baby to sleep (Sigh. yes, I read while I rock my sick kid to sleep. I hate NOT reading).
What I've found most interesting, though, is the trend in articles about ereaders to assume that once a person purchases an ereader, that person will never again purchase a real book. Or that people who use ereaders don't think about the inherent problems with them (can't share the books easily, amazon can take a book away, etc.). I spend a lot of my time thinking through what I'm going to read, and where. New book by Ann Patchett--purchased the hardcover edition to have for my shelf. Young adult novels--purchase book copies so we can have them on our shelves. Non-fiction new releases--request from library. Slightly older fiction recommended by friends--perfect for the Kindle. Law review articles--on the Kindle. Old fiction I never read and is now free--fanTAStic for the Kindle.
We have limited shelf space at this point (small house), and I simply can't subsidize my reading habit so both the library and the Kindle are important to me. At the same time, I loved growing up in a house with lots and lots of books to pull off the shelves. I find it odd that there's very little discussion in the zeitgeist about negotiating the different ways of reading--in that buying a Kindle doesn't mean I only read ebooks. I do enjoy it for what I use it for, though.
If parenting has taught me anything -- and it has -- those times we say "never" come back to haunt us.
The Complete Works of Shakespeare were one of the first downloads my dd and I purchased for our Kindles!! We love it and so many other great books for free or almost!! Welcome to the world of the e-reader :)
Comments are back!?!
(happy)
As to the ereader, I'm not there yet. I'm using the line "I have too many print books in my TBR pile".
Melissa is talking about this over at the Bonny Glen:
http://melissawiley.com/blog/2011/06/24/to-e-or-not-to-e-that-need-not-be-the-question/
And I'm finding the Kindle to be a real treat for my eyes. I'm reading longer and retaining more. And as others have pointed out, it's not an either/or proposition.
MFS
Heather in MN gets my vote for best comment!
My experience is the same as jlt's: A friend gave me his e-reader since he used the Kindle app on his Ipad. I've been downloading free classics like a crazy woman.
So many comments resonate with me. I don't *love* my Kindle, but it is good for reading on the road. I have such a backlog of print books to read, that I don't expect to read much K when I'm home.
Your continuing e-reader musings will be very interesting to me.
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