The Kindle - Why?

[MartinT]

That sounds like a great project, Hamish.

[The Black Adder]

One for this thread

Now this is a thing of beauty... There is nothing like reading old books with mildew on the pages.. lol I love it.

This is probably the main thing I was trying to get at... here you have a book thats got a history to it, the whole thing is totally encompassing regarding the story behind it, it's past and it's future as these olde books are great to read and you just know that hardly anyone has read it.

Ok, I know I keep refering to Jeremy Clarkson here (and it's in jest of course) but if just one of his books lasts for just 100 years it would be a great thing to pick up to know what mankind thought about 'POWER'!.. lol

[synsei]

It's called nostalgia. I get all mushy when I unpack my first computer from its box (a Sinclair ZX81 complete with wobbly 16k ram pack).

3D Monster Maze anyone???

[The Black Adder]

lol...the wobbly ram pack was a total pain in the bottom. Hours and hours typing in lists of machine code for it to just ZIP off...grrr!

Ahem... nostalgia? I'm not 300 years old.. how rude!

You wouldn't want to play 3D Monster Maze now matey... it's utter pants. But I too have fond memories of it being a great game.

[synsei]

Ahem... nostalgia? I'm not 300 years old.. how rude!

It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek mi-lord, in reference to your avatar. Shall I go now?

[The Black Adder]

haha... you have womans hands mi lord!

[jazzpiano]

Hello,

I'm reserving my opinion on e-reading at the moment. My concern is the overall influence of corporations and profit margins and whether my choices get taken away. A few years back I was listening to a conference here on public radio and they had a panel of book trade people discussing the state of affairs. They said that now when a manuscript is handed to a publisher a rejection slip is automatically placed on the cover, and if the reader does not remove it w/in the first page or 2 the book goes... My understanding is the majority of books that get "approved" nowdays are self-help or celebrity tell-alls. Good luck to the poet or short-story writer, no matter how excellent they are. I think when a publisher is considering a book it probably calls the big chains first to see if they'd be interested in selling the book and how many copies they might order. I find this a scary level of control. ( Just like many things creative, we know they may not sell, but that doesn't mean we don't want the choce). One of my favorite authors is the late short-story writer Andre Dubus. I believe in his earlier memoir he states that around the time he was writing 2 of his most highly reviewed books he was making about $25,000/year - and this included work as a college instructor too! So, what does the Kindle mean for our choices? Who makes the decisions vs. who made the decisions in the past? Is there a difference in the values?

Barry

[synsei]

A well reasoned post Barry.

One advantage you do gain with an e-reader, including the Kindle, is the ability to download and read PDF and text files of rare manuscripts from the internet. These can be converted to any e-reader format using software such as Calibre.

[jazzpiano]

Thanks Dave for the info. Maybe I'm too cynical. I know things always change, but some things like education and the arts I prefer it if the accountability police stay away.

Best,
Barry