Re: E-Readers
No, I don’t own an e-reader.
Won’t have one. My life is filled with far too many electronic gadgets
already without adding to the mess. The only reason I own a cell phone
is to stay in touch with my sons. They practically ordered me to get
one so they could reach me and they wouldn’t have to worry about me.
Besides, I love the feel of a book in my hands. I will always have
my books. E-readers can be broken, run out of power or what have you.
The only thing the internet has done to change my reading habits is
I read a lot more news now instead of seeing it on tv. Instead of
subscribing to a daily newspaper I read the online version. Much nicer,
no messy stacks of paper to recycle.
I was in a bookstore last week while waiting for a friend on a job
interview. It was very small and was attached to a gift store in La
Jolla, Ca. All the books in there that were recommended to me by the
clerk I had already read except for one but I didn’t have enough money
with me so I didn’t buy it. The ones I could afford they didn’t have
in stock.
As for a library, I go often but not to check out books. I have a
bad habit of checking out books and never bringing them back. The
fines get so large I end up just buying the darn thing. Instead I
go there to grab a little peace and quiet, to hide out from the world.
I just wander around checking out any art they have, magazines or
wander through the sections I think may have something interesting
I might enjoy. That includes the childrens section. That’s where I
found the book called,"Walter The Farting Dog." I love that
book. Sometimes I bring my own book to read while I am there. On rare
occasions when the puter is in the shop or when my printer is not
working, I go there to use the computers. And technically I am in
a library right now, typing this up in my own home. Two walls of the
room are covered in floor to ceiling, wall to wall bookshelves and
crammed full of books of all sorts. That is less than half of the
books I own personally. I wonder how many e-readers I would have to
own to contain all the books I have. The expense would be enormous.
Even if it weren’t, they could never replace the few first editions
I own that are signed by the authors.
With the amount of books I have read in my lifetime there is no way
I could choose a favorite or "best." Just glancing at the
shelf right next to me are two that stick out though. One is called
"A Child Called It" by David Pelzer about a man who survives
a horrific childhood of abuse. Actually it’s one of three he wrote
about the subject. The other one is "Marley And Me" by John
Grogan, which was made into a movie with Owen Wilson and Jennifer
Anniston. Reading those 2 books made me cry like a baby, but for different
reasons of course.
I am always reading a book. ALWAYS. It can vary from 25-50 a year,
depending on size, subject, etc. More often than not I have 2 or 3
going at a time. Right now I am reading a book called "Southern
Storm", about Shermans march to the sea during the Civil War.
I am also re-reading "The Lord Of The Rings" books, something
I try and do about once a year.
Hi,
I’m GrammieSammie and I am
A Bookaholic.
P.S. Two of the most influential books I ever read have to be Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury, and Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. I think
the Ray Bradbury one is in large part responsible for my bookaholism.
I’ve had a Kindle
for about a year and really love it. Mine is the smaller paperback
version, not the bigger magazine sized version. In addition, I have
the free app, "Kindle for PC", so that I can read Kindle
books on my laptop. I have about 300 books on my Kindle, and about
250 books in my laptop that are in mobi format, which Kindle takes.
I also have a couple hundred Audible.com books that I can listen to
on my Kindle, and even listen to background music from my Kindle while
reading.
About 3/4 of all my ebooks were free (just know where to look on the
Web). Amazon.com also has thousands of free books you can download.
My Kindle has the complete wireless package, so that I can download
a book in the middle of a cornfield if I want, and it takes me about
30 seconds to download a book. The Kindle is not in color, and does
not need a backlight. I do have a tiny Kindle light I can attach to
it in case I want to read in darkness. It is extremely easy on the
eyes, and the battery can last a week before needing a recharge. I
would imagine the eReaders that are in color, and that have screens
that light up have a much shorter battery life. I love it and would
highly recommend it. Can’t you tell?
I have boxes full of real books that I have read at least once, and
many 3-4 times. I have many real books that I have not even read yet.
I haven’t read a real book in about 4 years. The Kindle for the past
year, and Audible.com books for the previous 3 years. Every time I
walk past my book shelves I tell myself that I need to pick up a real
book, if not to read, at least to touch and feel the real thing. I
love to read and have read all my life. I do read more now that I
am retired and live alone. The library? I guess it’s been 20 years
since I’ve been in a library. I hear they have computers in libraries
now! Sometimes on my Kindle I have 3-4 books open at the same time,
and I switch back and forth between the books. Yup! The Kindle is
a very good friend! - ldo
As a 40-year old, the Kindle
or Nook do not interest me at all. I love going into the store, seeing
all of the books surrounding me. In addition, Borders e-mails me coupons
all the time whereas Barnes and Noble doesn’t. As for the best book
I ever read…anything by Robyn Carr (Virgin River series), J. D.
Robb and also that latest book by Ken Follett (can’t remember the
title right now, though). - Cassandra in New York
I would be devastated
if I couldn’t buy books anymore. There is a whole experience that
I enjoy that would be missing with an e-book. I buy books and eventually
donate them to the church, but I also have many shelves of books .
The books I enjoy most are the local history books and would never
part with them. And I don’t think looking at the pictures of old neighborhoods
on a Kindle would be the same! And yet, I have developed tendonitis
in my thumbs and have a hard time holding a book, so, who knows, I
may wind up with an electronic device after all. The one book that
I loved so much was called "Open Season". That was back
in the sixties and I still remember that it was so intense that I
read it in one sitting. There was a movie more recently with that
name, but I don’t think it was based on the book I read. The story
line involved men kidnapping people and taking them to their hunting
lodge and then hunting them like wild animals. I would love to find
it and read it again. - Mare in Mare-land
I have been giving a lot
of thought to e readers, and have decided that, for now, I don’t want
one. I LOVE my books! I love bookstores (our local one closed about
5 years ago, as it couldn’t compete with Borders, but Borders doesn’t
have a giant gray "store cat", and dammit, I miss that cat!!).
I was last in one less than a month ago. I currently have 5 or 6 books
on the end of my sofa, waiting their turn to be read. I am in the
middle of a book, actually 2, now. Sometimes I have 2 or 3 going at
once (like now lol). I can go for a month or so without reading anything
more substantial than the local newspaper, and then, something comes
over me, and I plow through 3 or 4 a week! I’m also a really fast
reader (and yes, my comprehension is good), which kind of helps in
reading so much.
I hope books never go away. All y’all with e readers are gonna be
out of luck when a solar storm hits and wipes out all the electronics
in the country, you know. And it could happen - southern China has
been having trouble with the latest storm, and solar activity is on
the rise, to peak in, I believe, 2025. Hard copies of everything,
books included, are a really good idea.
Anyway, we built tons of shelves in our loft to hold my books, and
they are filling up fast. My shelves would be lonely without them!
- OhioKat
Patti asked, "Do
you own an e-reader? What brand?"
I
own a Kindle. My husband got it for me for Christmas.
Would you recommend it to others?
I certainly would!
What is the best thing about it?
It can hold an entire library inside it. My friend has more than
6,000 books downloaded into his. Do you have any idea how much room
6,000 paper books take up, even in paperback? I do, because at one
time I owned 1,000 books mixed between paperback and hardback. Finding
someone to help you move when you own that much is pretty hard.
When is the last time you were at a book store?
It has been years. Since then, the local Barnes & Noble has
moved and I can’t get to it easily any more.
A library?
The library hasn’t moved; it’s right up the street from me. It’s
probably been 15 years since I visited it, mostly because they aren’t
open during the hours that I would want to visit and their selection
is quite limited.
When is the last time you actually read a book?
Actually, I read every day. I get real cranky if I can’t read
for at least 15 minutes a day, excluding spiritual devotions and necessary
stuff for work.
Was it a physical book or something via an electronic file?
Currently reading a real book via my Kindle.
Have your reading habits changed since the proliferation of Internet
sites?
My reading habits haven’t changed, but my shopping habits have.
I had to give up buying paper books years ago because I can’t afford
them any longer. A high priced book on the Kindle goes for $8.99,
not more than $35.00 for a hardcover book or whatever paperbacks are
going for these days. I believe that book publishers have priced themselves
out of most people’s markets.
And just out of curiosity, what is the best book you ever read?
The book that comes to mind when you ask that is an old one from
my mother’s library, "Lives," by Hendrick Willem Van Loon.
It takes place in the old Dutch fishing village of Vere before WW
II. Hendrick and his cousin live there and have interesting discussions
about the things that interest them. One day they speculate on what
it would be like to invite the 600-year-old town tower to dinner and
ask it about all the interesting things it had seen and people it
had met. One thing led to another, and they finally found out how
to invite real historical people to dinner. That’s the premise, and
they proceed to invite. The cousin doesn’t remember much about the
folks they invite, so Hendrick sends him a brief story of their lives
before every dinner. The book gives you the menu they plan for each
dinner and even some recipes, but it’s the biographies that held my
interest. It was an almost painless way to learn history. - Peg
I don’t own a Kindle
or any other kind of e-reader, but I loved your question about favorite
books. One of my favorite books of all time is "The Stand"
by Stephen King. I wanted that book to go on — I wanted to know what
happened to the characters. Another book that made a huge impact on
me at the time was a book called "Five Smooth Stones" by
Ann Fairbairn. I also loved "The Postman" by David Brin.
Back in the day, I loved reading Tolkien and the Dune series was also
very good. I absolutely love the Jean Auel series beginning with "Clan
of the Cave Bear." I enjoy reading biographies too but I don’t
have the time to read as much as I used to so I tend to read novels
rather than non-fiction these days. Thanks for making me think about
this! - Marsha in Michigan
Nope,
no e-reader. I am always reading. Real books. I love books. When I
was a child, I made frequent use of the Library, but not anymore.
I like to keep books. I don’t like to give them back. I nearly always
have at least 20 books "in progress" at any one time. And,
I could never narrow it down to just one favorite book. Not even one
favorite author. I like Ken Kesey, John Irving, Rudolfo Anaya, Tony
Hillerman, James Michener, I could go on. I’ve been in both Borders
and Barnes and Noble, and they are nearly indistinguishable. It just
seems that no business today has a chance without nearly limitless
financial backing and a monopoly in the marketplace. Look at how few
hands the media is in. Just a handufll of companies own all print
and visual/audio media. It’s like a reverse pyramid scheme. Shop local.
Bank local. - L&K, herm
I, my husband,
and the son who lives with us are all currently reading stacks of
books or have some on order with our local library, where I am going
to volunteer soon as a page (book shelver, basically). Because we
moved a few months ago, I still have about thirty boxes of books around
our new house that are waiting for shelves to put them in. We rent
a storage shed in OKC that has the rest of our things we had to leave
there, including about the same number of boxes of books, not duplicates,
that we have here. And yes, I recently purchased a device to read
ebooks on, while playing music! I have a virtual stack of ebooks stored
on our computer to read on them–gotta love Gutenberg for making available
many books I haven’t been able to find in print because they are oldies
(but goodies)! I love to read when I have time, though with one computer,
paper and ink still rules in our house. - Ruth in WA
I haven’t
had time to sit down and read a book since forever. I used to get
audio books from the library and play them in my work van, but when
I moved, I got too far away from a library to make it practical any
longer. I really miss that.
I have considered one of the newer electronic readers. I doubt I’ll
get one simply because electronic voices reading to me are as boring
as an accountant giving a lecture on the double-entry bookkeeping
method. - Cliff
Great timing on
this subject Patti. My wife and daughters gave me a Kindle for my
birthday Tuesday.
I
bought Kindles for the girls for Christmas and after seeing them I
got the Kindle app for my PC and started collecting free books from
the many sites that provide them. Anything that is old enough to be
out of copyright is available. I have read Frankenstein, Dracula,
The Time Machine, Treasure Island, A Journey To The Interior Of The
Earth (original translation rather than the later translations titled
A Journey To The Center Of The Earth), Gulliver’s Travels and a Stephen
King book titled UR which is only available for the Kindle.
A
lot of the free books you find online are in formats
that aren’t compatible with the Kindle, such as EPUB, but there are
free programs to convert them to MOBI which is compatible. The program
I use is Calibre.
One
of the things I like about using the Kindle is that when you run across
a word you don’t know all you have to do is highlight it and the built
in dictionary will pop up the definition. This is handy reading the
older books since many of the words aren’t in common usage these days.
I
am currently reading a political autobiography, in "real"
book form, and it’s huge. I have trouble holding it and my arms get
tired before my eyes do. But I just started Duma Key by Stephen King
on my Kindle. Although King is known for writing massive books, since
it’s on the Kindle I can easily hold it with one hand.
I
love the Kindle. I can’t believe I waited so long to get one. - Mike
P.S. There
is a link on the web page to Amazon. When you make a purchase
using this link, RGQ gets a small portion. Helps pay the bills!
Thanks.
Re:
Flight
Cliff,
Technically more of a plane that is street legal. www.terrafugia.com
- rich
Oh, yes, I would
fly if I could. My hubby does regularly, in his dreams. I’m jealous.
My design capacities, in this instance, are lacking, so I won’t go
there. But I’d be a bird of prey of some sort - a hawk, or perhaps
a huge, great horned owl. Or a falcon. Not an eagle, doesn’t fit for
some reason, but the three I’ve mentioned feel comfortable. I do have
an owl totem, so maybe that’s why. And there are a bunch of hawks
that live in my area, so I see them almost every day. Once again,
I’m jealous. - OhioKat
Knowing
my luck, I’d still be a bat. - Lucille
(Took
me a minute to figure that one out Lucille. Seems we have the
same bizarre sense of humor! LOL)
Re:
Civil War
Larry, you’re doing
just what so many others do. You’re offering a revisionist view of
slavery, and in fact there area a couple of places where you sound
like you’re actually supporting it.
You can look at the Declaration of Secession of each of the seceding
states and see for yourself that slavery was the primary mentioned
issue.
Georgia: For
the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint
against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to
the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our
security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently
refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to
us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in
the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment
of the common Territories of the Republic.
Texas: We
hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States,
and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the
white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race
had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held
and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition
only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial
or tolerable.
That
in this free government *all white men are and of right ought to be
entitled to equal civil and political rights* [emphasis in the original];
that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States,
is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized
and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will
of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while
the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as
advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities
upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.
South Carolina: We
affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have
been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive
of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States
have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic
institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in
fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have
denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted
open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is
to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of
other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves
to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries,
books and pictures to servile insurrection.
I already offered Mississippi, and if you don’t believe me
you’re free to do your own homework and look up the rest of the states
yourself. For you to claim that the Civil War "was,
in part, about slavery" is a gross understatement.
Whle there were certainly other issues, it was the single looming,
unresolvable issue between the two groups of states and it was prominently
mentioned in every single Declaration of Secession. You said,
"It really was more about maintaining states rights",
but that’s a huge smokescreen, too. The reality is that it was
primarily about one states’ right…the right to allow slavery.
Read the declarations. Quoting them verbatim and in context
is not revisionism. Trying to minimize what they said or pretending
they said something else is.
You say that since the North didn’t emancipate slaves until 1865 it
couldn’t have been that important to them, but you’re ignoring the
fact that it wasn’t the North who laid out their grievances and seceded
from the Union. It was the South that did that, and I’m doing
nothing more than reprinting those grievances as they stated them.
You tell us, "Contrary to the popular view of slave ownership,
It was rare that an owner did not take proper care of his slaves.
A slave owner that mistreated his slaves was looked down on by others."
Are you really trying to paint a picture of benevolent massas
and happy slaves? GMAB.
You also said, "To maintain that political power, the wealthy
few led the southern states to war with the north with a cry about
States Rights. They used slavery as an example of the Federal Government
subverting the Constitution to allow them to tread on the rights of
the States to govern themselves."
What is unusual about that? Which war has not been fought to
the benefit of the wealthy at the detriment and expense of the poor?
And by your own admission it was the "wealthy few" who owned
slaves, too. Do you really think that’s a coincidence?
Sorry, Larry. I put my piece out asking how the 150th anniversary
of the founding of the Confederacy and the beginning of the Civil
War should be commemorated. I laid out verifiable facts, from citing
slavery as the primary root cause of the war to the history of Davis’
inauguration, its route, and its proximity to sites that are hallowed
ground to the Civil Rights movement, the antithesis of what the Confederacy
stood for. I acknowledge that even a century and a half later
emotions are raw among some people, but there’s no political correctness
involved in slavery. It was a horrible, dehumanizing institution,
and had there not been slave holding states it’s unlikely the war
would ever have been fought. - Bruce
