5 ms·

Since this is a prominent argument may I humbly ask, why would you want to take a library with you? You can only read one book at once. The only use-case for a

by xtho 16y ago

Since this is a prominent argument may I humbly ask, why would you want to take a library with you? You can only read one book at once. The only use-case for a portable library would be writing a scientific paper at the restaurant or coffee shop. I have my doubts though that this would improve the quality of the paper.

jseliger 16y ago
I actually have a Kindle and seldom use it any more: http://jseliger.com/2010/04/13/kindle-land-with-requisite-ruminations-on-the-ipad/ http://jseliger.com/2010/04/13/kindle-land-with-requisite-ru... , but as someone with ~1,000 books I can answer: 1) Moving is a pain in the ass, to put it lightly. No, excuse me: to put it heavily. Very, very heavily. Especially cross country, though I've acquired a lot of books since starting grad school. 2) Shelving is expensive. 3) At scale the right book can become harder to find. The other day I spent 15 minutes looking for Tom Perrotta's Election because it wasn't quite where I thought it was. 4) Most of us don't have infinite room and therefore eventually run out of space. 5) Searching is still pretty nice. That being said, why do I still read paper? 1) The note-taking function on the Kindle sucks ass, and I compulsively fill margins. 2) Page turning is still too slow. 3) I actually flip back and forth between pages quite a bit. 4) I'm not convinced that DRM isn't going to bite me in the ass 1 to 20 years from now. 5) Anachronistic attachment to paper. 6) I'm a grad student, and the citation / edition situation hasn't been sorted out for the Kindle. This is very important when writing academic papers. Note that I'm not making some kind of moral argument about whether electronic reading is good, bad, or indifferent. To me, it just is. I foresee eventually moving chiefly to electronic reading, but I'm not sure when or how that shift will happen. I'm also not interested in the iPad because I spend enough time staring at LCDs as it is.
- nl 16y ago
  2) Shelving is expensive. This is so true. Or if it's not expensive, it's not strong enough. I have a wall of Ikea shelving, and have to stabilize it using old Oracle books (our floors aren't totally flat, so I use the books to adjust the lean angle against the wall). I guess that proves Oracle is good for something though. 2) Page turning is still too slow. This is a big problem. I have a Kobo, and the slow startup time and page turning time are the biggest issues.
  - jseliger 16y ago
    On shelves, the best solution I've found is the Elfa shelves from the Container Store: http://reviews.containerstore.com/1626/3/elfa-reviews/category.htm http://reviews.containerstore.com/1626/3/elfa-reviews/catego... . See mine here: http://jseliger.com/2009/09/07/bookshelves-offices-and-neil-gaiman/ http://jseliger.com/2009/09/07/bookshelves-offices-and-neil-... . They are better looking and more convenient in real life than in pictures. The only real way to understand how they work and which ones you want is to call the Container Store (they're insanely helpful) or walk into one.
  - gjm11 16y ago
    >> Shelving is expensive. > That is so true. It is, but it's missing an even bigger cost. Walls are expensive. Housing space is expensive. Space for all our books has been a major consideration every time we've moved house. Crudely, I estimate $1-2/book for good shelving and $5-10/book for the space to put the shelves in, even taking into account the fact that the rooms whose walls you fill with books will have other uses too. Of course it depends where you live. I'm in a part of the UK where housing costs are heinous. In San Francisco or New York it would be even worse. In, say, North Dakota, I expect it's a different matter.
- frossie 16y ago
  Interesting list. I do want to highlight this one: Moving is a pain in the ass It's worse than that, at some point the physical books actually affect your willingness to move - which is just wrong, books are mean to be empowering not restrictive. Of your six down sides, at least four of them (1, 2, 3 and 6) are technological issues that I can only believe will be solved soon - it's kinda like calling a circa 1995 PDA "clunky". Sure it was, but one day the iPhone came along. As to 4 (DRM) - I understand and espouse all the arguments, but I can't help looking at my attitude to music. 10 years ago I bought music and DRM issues really vexed me. Now I subscribe to Pandora and.... I just can't quite care as much. It's not that I don't have the same issues with DRM as I did, it's just that in a subscription model they don't get in your way. I look at Netflix and Spotify and wonder how long before the same service exists for books (yes I know it's called "a library", you know what I mean). Can't help you with 5 - it turned out not to be a problem for me. Disclaimer: happy e-book convert (I have a nook)
  - jseliger 16y ago
    Yeah -- I think the problems I'm noting are chiefly technological / price. But it's not obvious to me if they'll be solved in a year or two or five years or longer. I didn't use a PDA until I got an iPhone in 2009 -- a long time after 1995. As for the technology, I wrote this bit with the tech issues in mind: "Note that I'm not making some kind of moral argument about whether electronic reading is good, bad, or indifferent. To me, it just is. I foresee eventually moving chiefly to electronic reading, but I'm not sure when or how that shift will happen." It's worse than that, at some point the physical books actually affect your willingness to move - which is just wrong, books are mean to be empowering not restrictive. Very true.
jamesbritt 16y ago
"You can only read one book at once" Well, yes, I can really only hold one book and give it my eyeballs at any given moment, but I;m usually working my through several books over any given time span. Most of my serious reading is happening in the bathroom, and I have five different books in there. Oh, and I usually my G1 with me as well (with assorted PDFs on board). Having a choice of what to read at any given moment is a Good Thing. If nothing else, having a Kindle might save some trouble in deciding what books to pack for a trip.
msh 16y ago
If you travel a lot, its nice to allways have books with you.
nagrom 16y ago
I just returned from two months living in a different country, where English is not the native language and any English-language book costs an extra 50%. I can take all my books and buy new ones on my iPad just fine. Now I got home and my house is covered in dust, a large portion of which comes from my books. A large library isn't just a pain to move, unless you have a cleaner or sealed cupboards, it's a pain to maintain in a clean manner. Other advantages to eBooks that I found: I want to read a book. I don't need to go to the store or wait for it to be delivered - it's there right now; I want to find a particular passage but I cannot remember the book - I can search through the entire library in the time it would normally take me to search a single book; It's dark - not a problem with an iPad. The drawbacks are obvious, but the advantages are not until you give it a try with a portable device. I bought an iPad, but I'm thinking of buying a cheap Kindle as well to take on camping trips - despite never using eBooks before three months ago. To a certain extent, one can't persuade you that it's a good idea; you really must just try it.
cageface 16y ago
I'm going to be travelling for the next several months so this is actually essential for me but it's also a big plus for anybody that reads a few books in parallel.

by xtho 16y ago

jseliger 16y ago

I actually have a Kindle and seldom use it any more: http://jseliger.com/2010/04/13/kindle-land-with-requisite-ruminations-on-the-ipad/ http://jseliger.com/2010/04/13/kindle-land-with-requisite-ru... , but as someone with ~1,000 books I can answer: 1) Moving is a pain in the ass, to put it lightly. No, excuse me: to put it heavily. Very, very heavily. Especially cross country, though I've acquired a lot of books since starting grad school. 2) Shelving is expensive. 3) At scale the right book can become harder to find. The other day I spent 15 minutes looking for Tom Perrotta's Election because it wasn't quite where I thought it was. 4) Most of us don't have infinite room and therefore eventually run out of space. 5) Searching is still pretty nice. That being said, why do I still read paper? 1) The note-taking function on the Kindle sucks ass, and I compulsively fill margins. 2) Page turning is still too slow. 3) I actually flip back and forth between pages quite a bit. 4) I'm not convinced that DRM isn't going to bite me in the ass 1 to 20 years from now. 5) Anachronistic attachment to paper. 6) I'm a grad student, and the citation / edition situation hasn't been sorted out for the Kindle. This is very important when writing academic papers. Note that I'm not making some kind of moral argument about whether electronic reading is good, bad, or indifferent. To me, it just is. I foresee eventually moving chiefly to electronic reading, but I'm not sure when or how that shift will happen. I'm also not interested in the iPad because I spend enough time staring at LCDs as it is.

nl 16y ago
2) Shelving is expensive. This is so true. Or if it's not expensive, it's not strong enough. I have a wall of Ikea shelving, and have to stabilize it using old Oracle books (our floors aren't totally flat, so I use the books to adjust the lean angle against the wall). I guess that proves Oracle is good for something though. 2) Page turning is still too slow. This is a big problem. I have a Kobo, and the slow startup time and page turning time are the biggest issues.
- jseliger 16y ago
  On shelves, the best solution I've found is the Elfa shelves from the Container Store: http://reviews.containerstore.com/1626/3/elfa-reviews/category.htm http://reviews.containerstore.com/1626/3/elfa-reviews/catego... . See mine here: http://jseliger.com/2009/09/07/bookshelves-offices-and-neil-gaiman/ http://jseliger.com/2009/09/07/bookshelves-offices-and-neil-... . They are better looking and more convenient in real life than in pictures. The only real way to understand how they work and which ones you want is to call the Container Store (they're insanely helpful) or walk into one.
- gjm11 16y ago
  >> Shelving is expensive. > That is so true. It is, but it's missing an even bigger cost. Walls are expensive. Housing space is expensive. Space for all our books has been a major consideration every time we've moved house. Crudely, I estimate $1-2/book for good shelving and $5-10/book for the space to put the shelves in, even taking into account the fact that the rooms whose walls you fill with books will have other uses too. Of course it depends where you live. I'm in a part of the UK where housing costs are heinous. In San Francisco or New York it would be even worse. In, say, North Dakota, I expect it's a different matter.
frossie 16y ago
Interesting list. I do want to highlight this one: Moving is a pain in the ass It's worse than that, at some point the physical books actually affect your willingness to move - which is just wrong, books are mean to be empowering not restrictive. Of your six down sides, at least four of them (1, 2, 3 and 6) are technological issues that I can only believe will be solved soon - it's kinda like calling a circa 1995 PDA "clunky". Sure it was, but one day the iPhone came along. As to 4 (DRM) - I understand and espouse all the arguments, but I can't help looking at my attitude to music. 10 years ago I bought music and DRM issues really vexed me. Now I subscribe to Pandora and.... I just can't quite care as much. It's not that I don't have the same issues with DRM as I did, it's just that in a subscription model they don't get in your way. I look at Netflix and Spotify and wonder how long before the same service exists for books (yes I know it's called "a library", you know what I mean). Can't help you with 5 - it turned out not to be a problem for me. Disclaimer: happy e-book convert (I have a nook)
- jseliger 16y ago
  Yeah -- I think the problems I'm noting are chiefly technological / price. But it's not obvious to me if they'll be solved in a year or two or five years or longer. I didn't use a PDA until I got an iPhone in 2009 -- a long time after 1995. As for the technology, I wrote this bit with the tech issues in mind: "Note that I'm not making some kind of moral argument about whether electronic reading is good, bad, or indifferent. To me, it just is. I foresee eventually moving chiefly to electronic reading, but I'm not sure when or how that shift will happen." It's worse than that, at some point the physical books actually affect your willingness to move - which is just wrong, books are mean to be empowering not restrictive. Very true.

jamesbritt 16y ago

"You can only read one book at once" Well, yes, I can really only hold one book and give it my eyeballs at any given moment, but I;m usually working my through several books over any given time span. Most of my serious reading is happening in the bathroom, and I have five different books in there. Oh, and I usually my G1 with me as well (with assorted PDFs on board). Having a choice of what to read at any given moment is a Good Thing. If nothing else, having a Kindle might save some trouble in deciding what books to pack for a trip.

msh 16y ago

If you travel a lot, its nice to allways have books with you.

nagrom 16y ago

I just returned from two months living in a different country, where English is not the native language and any English-language book costs an extra 50%. I can take all my books and buy new ones on my iPad just fine. Now I got home and my house is covered in dust, a large portion of which comes from my books. A large library isn't just a pain to move, unless you have a cleaner or sealed cupboards, it's a pain to maintain in a clean manner. Other advantages to eBooks that I found: I want to read a book. I don't need to go to the store or wait for it to be delivered - it's there right now; I want to find a particular passage but I cannot remember the book - I can search through the entire library in the time it would normally take me to search a single book; It's dark - not a problem with an iPad. The drawbacks are obvious, but the advantages are not until you give it a try with a portable device. I bought an iPad, but I'm thinking of buying a cheap Kindle as well to take on camping trips - despite never using eBooks before three months ago. To a certain extent, one can't persuade you that it's a good idea; you really must just try it.

cageface 16y ago

I'm going to be travelling for the next several months so this is actually essential for me but it's also a big plus for anybody that reads a few books in parallel.