I'm becoming an old fogey

[jcat]

Originally Posted by laureen227

i AM neck deep in them! i have [at latest count] 8 bookshelves in my house, all full - books in cupboards, plastic sterilite tubs, & piled on top of the bookshelves, on top of the headboard [which also has books in its shelves].


yes, i know - it's an addiction!

You sound like me. Our third floor (and much of the second and first) is full of books. DH makes me start getting rid of some when I reach the 1,000-book mark. He can't wait till Kindles are available here - he's been incredibly relieved that I've cut back on newspapers and magazines because I can read so many online.

 

[zooy]

If our talk show host is having an author on, he gets me to read the books before hand and give him a brief explanation.
A few months ago he gave me a book on PDF and it was so annoying. I spend enough time at my computer I don't want to read books on the computer.

 

[februa]

I agree with both ideas I see here: 1) Something fundamental is lost going from paper to e-books and 2) It must happen

Frankly, it is atrocious how much paper is currently wasted printing books. I know some of the printing is legit, but how many books are overprinted? The answer is most. The Stephen Kings and Johanna Lindseys of the world might not fall into this trap, but almost every novel(and non-fic ) printed has more copies made than are demanded for. The assumption that "eventually" or "one day" they'll sell has cost us thousands and thousands of acres of forest, and thousands and thousands of pounds of trash. Then there is the whole class of wasted printing known as textbooks (especially science textbooks). Our knowledge is expanding so rapidly, that educational texts are outdated almost immediately. People continuing to use them to save $ on newer editions are actually causing more harm than good as they learn incorrect/outdated material. People buying a new 600 page genetics text every 2 years are almost gluttonous in their waste of paper imo. These tomes are much better suited to an online format where they can be updated and viewed in realtime with the most correct information. If it were up to me, Id stop printing all books as of today - all the ones that exist will still be around for many many years (for example, I regularly read books I inherited from my great grandmother, many printed in the late 1800s). The on demand printing idea will make sure those of you who really can only read in print are taken care of, and the electronic formats will be great for everyone else (indeed, especially the generation who never picks up a book at all without being forced to for school, people may be encouraged to read if they could integrate it with their screen addiction).
As for schools, absolutely they should have a computer per student, which is easily (I could have bought at least a computer a semester with the books I had to buy as an undergrad, and then found out that high school texts are often even costlier!) paid for with the money saved by not buying costly textbooks and reference tomes (dictionaries etc). I see it happening in the next 10 years. Already there are several pilot classes at several Edmonton schools who are doing just this - all students get a laptop, all materials needed are online. Classroom is interactive with WiFi to work with the laptops. Has shown amazing response with students, teachers, and parents. And these classes are outperforming their control classes like theres no tomorrow...

 

[pookieboy]

Personally, I would NEVER want to read a novel online. I mean, here I sit in my computer room for the past 2 hrs. and already I'm getting eye tired and my mouse arm/shoulder is killing me, not to mention my back aches too.

I once read read two books, cover to cover, in one day [different days, of course]. They were "In Cold Blood" & "The Godfather". Can you even try to imagine doing that on your computer?

 

[strange_wings]

Februa - Thank you. To see someone else actually gets this is amazing.

Sure, I'll miss books as the amount published diminishes. But I care more about the content than the format. With text there is no loss of information between the formats, just sensation - I suppose. This isn't a good reason to deprive myself.

Whine, fuss, and stop reading. You only hurt yourselves.

PookieBoy - I do, all the time. In 2007 my health wasn't as great, so I read a lot. Most of those 300 or so books (I lost count after 300) I read were ebooks.