5 ms·

I used to worry about the dad thing (well handing books to my son, to be more precise). However - I don't read that many books from my own dad, so maybe my son

I used to worry about the dad thing (well handing books to my son, to be more precise). However - I don't read that many books from my own dad, so maybe my son won't be bothered that much. Also, many books will be in the public domain by the time he might want to read them. Or there will be subscription models where he can just read them for free. Or, I would just have to buy it for him a second time, again, realistically speaking it won't be that many books anyway. How many books do you own, and how often have you moved? Both numbers tend to increase with age, and usually don't increase the love for paper books.

ghaff 11y ago
I'm definitely sympathetic to the DRM and dad thing. And, in many ways, it applies more broadly to digital assets (whether DRMd or not) vs. physical ones. OTOH, I've spent way too much effort throughout my life lugging stuff around and I'm currently trying to, however slowly, systematically digitizing things I care about that are amenable to it.
- facepalm 11y ago
  What I would like, in terms of the dad thing, is a nice UI to my library so that my kids have a chance to browse and discover good books in my collection. I don't think there is a solution for that yet. Maybe it would also be the future of book shops (same problem of serendipity).
Nav_Panel 11y ago
Nah, I understand -- though I'm still fairly young, I collected a lot of records in high school and college. I recently moved into a Manhattan apartment. Guess what? Most of my records are now in my parents' basement. Book-wise, most are also at my parents' house, though I have a couple of fairly large art/photography books lined up precariously on the floor of my apartment. I mostly brought up the dad thing because it actually happened a few months ago. I was visiting my parents and my dad, out of the blue, asks if I've read any Hemingway. I tell him I haven't, and he replies in a very out-of-character way that "Do you wanna be a Real Man? Real Men read Hemingway. Hold on..." He goes to the large bookshelf in another room, grabs a book of short stories, and plops it on the table. Out-of-character because the standard arrangement is me lending him sci-fi books for him to slowly read as he dozes off over the course of a few months. I've been slowly reading through the Hemingway stories on the train and I sometimes notice inscrutable/unreadable notes and underlines on some of the stories.

ghaff 11y ago

I'm definitely sympathetic to the DRM and dad thing. And, in many ways, it applies more broadly to digital assets (whether DRMd or not) vs. physical ones. OTOH, I've spent way too much effort throughout my life lugging stuff around and I'm currently trying to, however slowly, systematically digitizing things I care about that are amenable to it.

facepalm 11y ago
What I would like, in terms of the dad thing, is a nice UI to my library so that my kids have a chance to browse and discover good books in my collection. I don't think there is a solution for that yet. Maybe it would also be the future of book shops (same problem of serendipity).

Nav_Panel 11y ago

Nah, I understand -- though I'm still fairly young, I collected a lot of records in high school and college. I recently moved into a Manhattan apartment. Guess what? Most of my records are now in my parents' basement. Book-wise, most are also at my parents' house, though I have a couple of fairly large art/photography books lined up precariously on the floor of my apartment. I mostly brought up the dad thing because it actually happened a few months ago. I was visiting my parents and my dad, out of the blue, asks if I've read any Hemingway. I tell him I haven't, and he replies in a very out-of-character way that "Do you wanna be a Real Man? Real Men read Hemingway. Hold on..." He goes to the large bookshelf in another room, grabs a book of short stories, and plops it on the table. Out-of-character because the standard arrangement is me lending him sci-fi books for him to slowly read as he dozes off over the course of a few months. I've been slowly reading through the Hemingway stories on the train and I sometimes notice inscrutable/unreadable notes and underlines on some of the stories.