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Vanity, mainly, along with the fun of pulling and exploring a title, and the feel and smell of a volume; and as others have mentioned, much of my scholastic hea

Vanity, mainly, along with the fun of pulling and exploring a title, and the feel and smell of a volume; and as others have mentioned, much of my scholastic head start came from the books in our family library. Was I precocious, or just a curious kid with a great resource at his fingertips? The latter, I think. (I moved into my father's study when my youngest brother was born and three boys age 4 and under in a small room was problematic--so I literally slept with books when I was learning to read.) I also know my kids don't read nearly as much as I did, so encouraging them to peruse the media server just isn't the same as letting them chill in the home library, and procrastinate from formal assignments by checking out the old man's books. (I will admit to dog-earing the naughty bits of some of my parents racy paperbacks.) Once expansive touchscreens are cheap, of course, we can display a virtual wall of bookshelves and instantly load a text on the device of choice, or even print on demand. And I also know I haven't bought a hard copy book in several years and I love being able to travel with a substantial library (and music collection). All I'll ever need is a little electricity to keep a tablet charged. (Assuming an easy way to move my collection to the next gen device.) Choice. Choice. Choice. (EDIT: Oh yeah--merci, Calibre.)

mikevm 13y ago
> Once expansive touchscreens are cheap, of course, we can display a virtual wall of bookshelves and instantly load a text on the device of choice, or even print on demand. This is exactly what I had in mind when reading some of the comments. "Discoverability and serendipity", as DanBC pointed out is fixable by this technology. But you don't need huge touchscreens. A medium-sized one (55"?) with something like Cover Flow, where different books slowly move across the screen might be a pretty good solution.

mikevm 13y ago

> Once expansive touchscreens are cheap, of course, we can display a virtual wall of bookshelves and instantly load a text on the device of choice, or even print on demand. This is exactly what I had in mind when reading some of the comments. "Discoverability and serendipity", as DanBC pointed out is fixable by this technology. But you don't need huge touchscreens. A medium-sized one (55"?) with something like Cover Flow, where different books slowly move across the screen might be a pretty good solution.