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I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" c

by gjkood 11y ago

I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" circa 1995 (or so), is still untouched. Just never got the necessary 24 hours to learn it. Maybe I can sell it by the tonnage sometime. I thought that going the Kindle and digital media route would have saved me from adding to my "Tsundoku", but I am back in collection mode again. There is something about a physical book that the Kindle reading experience could never recreate. In fact I find myself spending almost twice the money because I want both formats.

skimpycompiler 11y ago
Yeah, I've noticed that ever since I've got Kindle my collection increased enormously, and there's still a stack of around 300 ebooks I haven't found time to read.
- gjkood 11y ago
  The best part of the Kindle, is the ability to buy collections of the classics for $0.99, which would otherwise have been massive tomes in the physical world. Now taking the time to read them is another matter...
  - zokier 11y ago
    Kinda weird, I have not (yet) felt the compulsion to shop ebooks on Kindle that I won't begin reading immediately. And I do have ridiculous Steam backlog and relatively many unready physical books, so I definitely am familiar with the phenomenon. But with Kindle buying books as you go is so easy and pre-buying books does not really seem to give similar benefit like for example Steam sales or having the book available like with physical books. With Kindle if I find an interesting book I can just click it to my wishlist (which is very convenient) and I can generally trust that when I want to actually read it it is still available and not significantly more expensive. In contrast if I see interesting game on Steam at -75% the rationale for buying it is that the day I want to play it it will probably cost a lot more if I don't buy it now.
  - ctdonath 11y ago
    The "Electric Monk" chapter of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency comes to mind, the convenience of buying e-books being that the computer will read them for you.
deathcakes 11y ago
C++ but yeah same deal, as unread as the day I bought it! Having said that I have fallen so hard for the kindle, to the point where I have been known to complain about the really poor ui of books - two hands to operate? Pshah! I find it helps with the obsessive compulsive, in that I can organise things into collections, which helps, and can more easily binge on a specific author.
veidr 11y ago
I have 100+ unread books on my Kindle, but in stark contrast the piles of physical books I used to have sitting around, having them on my kindle is awesome. Any time I need a book, I know I have several great ones to choose from. So I think the advent of digital books[1] transformed my 積ん読 from a huge and ugly pile of heavy artifacts — that ultimately had to be sold at a yard sale in 2005 ($1 for all 3 gigantic hardback volumes of Comer's Internetworking with TCP/IP!!), with the remainder ending up in a landfill — into an invisible, weightless trove of knowledge and entertainment. I haven't bought a paper book since I bought a paperback copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance at an airport, just before the airplane rules changed to allow reading electronically even during takeoff and landing. But I also spend twice the money (or maybe even ten times the money) that I used to -- but that's because I buy way more books. I tend to google for books I think I might like when I am drunk late at night, and I also buy any book which somebody I know forcefully recommends. [1]: I mean what Amazon did: making almost all books available in convenient[2] digital form. I read digital books on my Newton and Palm devices back in the old days (1990s, Peanut Press and others, but the selection was extremely limited [2]: convenient if you don't care about removing the DRM, which I usually don't, since I rarely read a book more than once EDIT: Here's a visual representation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/om9xdox53rcl1g9/Screenshot%202015-09-27%2008.23.40.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/om9xdox53rcl1g9/Screenshot%202015-... Some of the notably awesome books on that screen: The Son, Spin (and really, almost anything by Robert Charles Wilson, but especially Spin), The Dog Stars, Blindsight and Echopraxia, Station Eleven, Seveneves and REAMDE, Nightwoods. Bonus: gut-wrenchingly awful books I started reading and aborted (or worse, read to the end on the misguided hope that somehow they would redeem themselves): California, The Buried Giant, Avogadro / A.I. Apocalypse, Wool, Mr. Mercedes, Terms of Enlistment. Probably half of them I still have not read.
- heleph 11y ago
  I have started sending samples to my kindle as a kind of place holder for books I'd like to read when I have time. It's saved me heaps of money!
hudibras 11y ago
One main advantage of the Kindle is that my tsundoku is now not as visible to my wife. No more raised eyebrows at the latest Amazon box to appear on the doorstep. Still have to be sure that she doesn't look too closely at the credit card statement, though...
- gjkood 11y ago
  Oh yes, the raised eyebrows and the disapproving looks. I have mastered the art of unboxing and recycling the amazon packaging within a few seconds of it reaching the front door. One must learn to manage under adverse conditions.
  - binarymax 11y ago
    Wow I must be lucky. Every order of mine brings welcome encouragement coupled with optimism. Of course I will shortly be conquering the world with my newfound knowledge. No questions asked when the first chapter gets read excitedly and then shelved for eternity.
qb45 11y ago
I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" circa 1995 (or so), is still untouched. Just never got the necessary 24 hours to learn it. Maybe I can sell it by the tonnage sometime. All the bad press that Visual Basic gets despite its popularity in the late XX century may spark some historic interest in this language in the future. Don't lose hope :)
mdemare 11y ago
I collect ebooks instead - better yet, I collect Kindle Samples, which are free. I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that all books that I want to read are on my Kindle, and when I actually want to read them, I start reading, and buy them when I get to the end of the sample (and plan to continue reading).
facepalm 11y ago
Every book should come with an integrated solar powered Bitcoin miner :-)

by gjkood 11y ago

skimpycompiler 11y ago

Yeah, I've noticed that ever since I've got Kindle my collection increased enormously, and there's still a stack of around 300 ebooks I haven't found time to read.

gjkood 11y ago
The best part of the Kindle, is the ability to buy collections of the classics for $0.99, which would otherwise have been massive tomes in the physical world. Now taking the time to read them is another matter...
- zokier 11y ago
  Kinda weird, I have not (yet) felt the compulsion to shop ebooks on Kindle that I won't begin reading immediately. And I do have ridiculous Steam backlog and relatively many unready physical books, so I definitely am familiar with the phenomenon. But with Kindle buying books as you go is so easy and pre-buying books does not really seem to give similar benefit like for example Steam sales or having the book available like with physical books. With Kindle if I find an interesting book I can just click it to my wishlist (which is very convenient) and I can generally trust that when I want to actually read it it is still available and not significantly more expensive. In contrast if I see interesting game on Steam at -75% the rationale for buying it is that the day I want to play it it will probably cost a lot more if I don't buy it now.
- ctdonath 11y ago
  The "Electric Monk" chapter of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency comes to mind, the convenience of buying e-books being that the computer will read them for you.

deathcakes 11y ago

C++ but yeah same deal, as unread as the day I bought it! Having said that I have fallen so hard for the kindle, to the point where I have been known to complain about the really poor ui of books - two hands to operate? Pshah! I find it helps with the obsessive compulsive, in that I can organise things into collections, which helps, and can more easily binge on a specific author.

veidr 11y ago

I have 100+ unread books on my Kindle, but in stark contrast the piles of physical books I used to have sitting around, having them on my kindle is awesome. Any time I need a book, I know I have several great ones to choose from. So I think the advent of digital books[1] transformed my 積ん読 from a huge and ugly pile of heavy artifacts — that ultimately had to be sold at a yard sale in 2005 ($1 for all 3 gigantic hardback volumes of Comer's Internetworking with TCP/IP!!), with the remainder ending up in a landfill — into an invisible, weightless trove of knowledge and entertainment. I haven't bought a paper book since I bought a paperback copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance at an airport, just before the airplane rules changed to allow reading electronically even during takeoff and landing. But I also spend twice the money (or maybe even ten times the money) that I used to -- but that's because I buy way more books. I tend to google for books I think I might like when I am drunk late at night, and I also buy any book which somebody I know forcefully recommends. [1]: I mean what Amazon did: making almost all books available in convenient[2] digital form. I read digital books on my Newton and Palm devices back in the old days (1990s, Peanut Press and others, but the selection was extremely limited [2]: convenient if you don't care about removing the DRM, which I usually don't, since I rarely read a book more than once EDIT: Here's a visual representation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/om9xdox53rcl1g9/Screenshot%202015-09-27%2008.23.40.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/om9xdox53rcl1g9/Screenshot%202015-... Some of the notably awesome books on that screen: The Son, Spin (and really, almost anything by Robert Charles Wilson, but especially Spin), The Dog Stars, Blindsight and Echopraxia, Station Eleven, Seveneves and REAMDE, Nightwoods. Bonus: gut-wrenchingly awful books I started reading and aborted (or worse, read to the end on the misguided hope that somehow they would redeem themselves): California, The Buried Giant, Avogadro / A.I. Apocalypse, Wool, Mr. Mercedes, Terms of Enlistment. Probably half of them I still have not read.

heleph 11y ago
I have started sending samples to my kindle as a kind of place holder for books I'd like to read when I have time. It's saved me heaps of money!

hudibras 11y ago

One main advantage of the Kindle is that my tsundoku is now not as visible to my wife. No more raised eyebrows at the latest Amazon box to appear on the doorstep. Still have to be sure that she doesn't look too closely at the credit card statement, though...

gjkood 11y ago
Oh yes, the raised eyebrows and the disapproving looks. I have mastered the art of unboxing and recycling the amazon packaging within a few seconds of it reaching the front door. One must learn to manage under adverse conditions.
- binarymax 11y ago
  Wow I must be lucky. Every order of mine brings welcome encouragement coupled with optimism. Of course I will shortly be conquering the world with my newfound knowledge. No questions asked when the first chapter gets read excitedly and then shelved for eternity.

qb45 11y ago

I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" circa 1995 (or so), is still untouched. Just never got the necessary 24 hours to learn it. Maybe I can sell it by the tonnage sometime. All the bad press that Visual Basic gets despite its popularity in the late XX century may spark some historic interest in this language in the future. Don't lose hope :)

mdemare 11y ago

I collect ebooks instead - better yet, I collect Kindle Samples, which are free. I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that all books that I want to read are on my Kindle, and when I actually want to read them, I start reading, and buy them when I get to the end of the sample (and plan to continue reading).

facepalm 11y ago

Every book should come with an integrated solar powered Bitcoin miner :-)