The American Spectator : E-Books? No Sale

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E-Books? No Sale

By Christopher Orlet on 10.13.11 @ 6:07AM

Sometimes the latest technology comes with too many strings attached.

In normal situations embracing the latest technology is a no-brainer. The telephone was an obvious step up from smoke signals and African drums. The personal computer left the typewriter eating dust. But when it comes to the switch from paper books to e-books, I'm far from sold.

Last week I sat down to draw up the requisite list of pros and cons of purchasing an e-book reader. On the pro side was convenience. I can download books instantaneously. For once I can actually purchase a Stephen King book quicker than he can write one.

With a Kindle or a Nook I can download public domain books for free. Want to read John Locke's Of the Conduct of the Understanding? No? Okay. But it's free. Still no?

There is nothing like an e-book for ease and comfort of reading. A few days ago, I cracked open a 900-page hardcover edition of The Gulag Archipelago. The cover was loose. It was difficult to hold. The damn thing was so heavy my forearms kept going numb. Reading that book was like wrestling with a fat woman.

Another thing. I tend to change living quarters about as often as a family of gypsies. All that boxing and lugging around my library is a pain in the sciatica. The thought of simplifying my life by having all my books digitized on one little gizmo the size of birthday card has a definite appeal.

Finally, when the black helicopter guys come to burn my Friedrich Hayek and William F. Buckley e-books, they will have a much harder time of it. Ever try tossing tiny zeros and ones onto a bonfire?

CURIOUSLY, CONVENIENCE ALSO TOPPED my con list.

You see, I am an irresponsible, compulsive book buyer. Sometimes I see a book on Amazon and I think I've just got to have it. It doesn't even matter what the book is. It's just so easy to buy books. In fact, it's too easy. There should be a waiting period for book purchases, sort of like when you want to buy an M-16 from your local gun shop.

Of course, no sooner have I purchased a book than buyer's remorse sets in. What was I thinking when I bought Amanda Knox, My Story? But it's too late. The book is already in the mail. Or in the ether, as the case may be.

With e-books you lose the benefits of a physical home library. If you are like me, you tend to judge people by the books on their book shelves. The advent of e-books means we'll actually have to talk to people before we decide if we really want to talk to them.

Last, but not least, good old-fashioned paper books don't shut down in the middle of a paragraph when you forget to recharge them.

Then, early last week, Amazon made me an offer I couldn't refuse. The company came out with a $79 Kindle. I was sold. Or so I thought.

The first thing I did was check out Amazon's e-book prices. Let's say I wanted to purchase David Brooks' latest bestseller The Social Animal. The Kindle price is $13.99. But what's this? A used hardcover in great condition, plus Amazon's absurdly high shipping is only $12.42. Hmm. Or say I wanted to read Phillip Caputo's A Rumor of War. I could buy a good used paperback, plus shipping, for $4. The Kindle version? $9.99. Even better, I could stroll down to my local hipster used book emporium and head shop and buy a copy for $2.

I could be wrong, but I thought the whole point of e-books was that everyone would save on paper, printing, and mailing costs. To make matters worse, you don't really own your e-books, at least not in the traditional sense that you would own a paper book. If you try to trade, resell, or even give away an e-book, a black helicopter will land on your roof.

As for me, I think I'll stroll down to my local hipster used book emporium and head shop and see if there is anything good on the shelves.

About the Author

Christopher Orlet writes every Thursday from St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (102) | Leave a comment

Kitty| 10.13.11 @ 6:19AM

I never wanted a Kindle, but I got one for Christmas last year. I like it; I've got quite a few books, and a ton of samples of books, stored in it. And I still lots of books. E-readers will never replace books.

Y'know, you could hide the Amanda Knox stuff on your Kindle and buy the upper crust stuff for your book shelves.

Brian Mc| 10.13.11 @ 6:31AM

Just a sidenote, Christopher; in 8 years that I've been an employee we have never sold an M-16 at our gunshop. In my state there is no wait for the purchase of a long gun as defined by the ATF, (such as an AR-15), and one must have a permit to acquire or carry for the purchase of a sidearm. If someone were to walk in to this gunshop looking to unload their M-16, I believe that I would consider calling 9-1-1.

Darin| 10.13.11 @ 6:45AM

Ever drop a book? Maybe you scuff the cover and bend some pages. Worse case you crack the spine and some pages come loose. But you can still read it. Ever drop an e-reader? That $100 (or more) is likely gone. Unless you've got a Borg interface, you're not reading anything off it.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 10:15AM

I dropped my Kindle no harm done. Granted, it was in a very nice case that allows me to still access the buttons.

I don't know why, but the Kindle doesn't come with a case. Even a cheap camera comes with a basic case. Do an ebay or froogle search and you can find some very nice faux leather cases for about 4 bucks. As an added bonus, there's flaps for me to store notes. When I'm at a hotel and reading at the pool, I put my cardkey in it.

Riff Raff| 10.13.11 @ 5:25PM

I dropped both. The book hurt my toe far worse than the Kindle. Next time I'll read something "lighter" like "Dreams From My Father" (hardly any "weight" to it at all!) instead of "Twelve Caesars" by Suetonius.

By the way, is reading with a "Kindle" called "Kindling?"

Occam's Tool| 10.13.11 @ 7:00PM

I drop my kindle all the time. Pretty tough.

A good bookshelf to hold your books will set you back several hundred. Think of a Kindle as a place to hold 3500 books, plus an infinite number in the clouds. Plus, expense is different from item to item---for example, complete Mark Twain is 99 cents.

I also have groaning bookshelves.

Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.11 @ 6:45AM

UH, Christopher,
I am an author. "Major publishers" are the dumbest marketers on earth. I put buy back clauses in each of my sales to them.

The cool thing about publishing an E-book...is that ink and paper and shipping overhead translates into more cash for marketing and uh profits for author and distributor.
www.americaalonesaidno.com
Oh, you can also get it at amazon.com

idalily| 10.13.11 @ 9:44PM

Also an author. Multi-published in paper books and e-books. Agree with Ken totally. And authors get a higher royalty on e-books, which means we actually can make a living at this writing thing. What a nice change of pace. BTW, used books make an author NOTHING. Sorry, but I'm not feeling the love for used books, folks. And consumers shouldn't either. In an ebook world, I can pay $.99 for a book, which is cheaper than driving my car to a used book store. It's a win-win. E books rule. Just my opinion.

Jordan| 10.13.11 @ 7:15AM

I will NEVER buy an e-reader or anything like it. There's just something about a paperback book that is irrestible compared to that of a downloaded copy on some I-pad looking machine. Maybe I just think the type-written paperback is such a middle choice; right between these digital books of the future and hand-written manuscripts of the past. Even if paperback books go out of fashion and major publishers do not print them, there will still be specialty publishers catering to people like me and Mr. Orlet that will, for a significantly higher price, publish a paperback book with a cover and everything. I don't care if one of these specialty books costs as much as a Kindle, i'll still buy two of each; that way I can treat the "reading" book however I want to and the "display" book can just sit on my bookshelf.

Richard Baker| 10.13.11 @ 7:21AM

When I was a High school teacher my kids talked about everything I'd want to read being on a laptop. I said great but can you sit and soak your bones in a hot bathtub for three hours with a laptop on your belly? I then said I can with a book. Hooray for Gutenberg.

numerian| 10.13.11 @ 4:21PM

Just try dropping a paperback into a hot bathtub and tell me what happens to it.

DaveD| 10.13.11 @ 4:54PM

Depends on whether you have it plugged in or not ...

Bunky| 10.16.11 @ 6:47PM

I've dropped several books into a tub.
After the books dry the pages are stuck together, but with a little work they do come apart.
I dropped a cell phone into a toilet, it never worked again.
I don't think I would attempt to salvage a paperback I've dropped into the toilet. I don't know if I'ld try to save a Kindle.

Occam's Tool| 10.13.11 @ 7:02PM

As long as you don't drop your kindle IN the tub, you can read in the tub with it.

Appleby| 10.13.11 @ 7:31AM

I want my books to be the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Doctor Doolittle has been sanitized for your protection; the version you download is not the version my 1950s editions purvey. A cute childrens book called *Its a Book* (explaining books to the Kindle Kids) has already been sanitized -- fortunately I got one of the originals with the hilarious last page that offended somebodys Mommy.

I do not want Big Nanny reaching into my library and changing my books, whether to protect the sensibilities of putative ignoranti or just because they can. My books on my bookshelves (I have 6 bookcases and overflow) will remain the same.

KyMouse| 10.13.11 @ 7:59AM

That's an excellent point, Appleby. I have lots of old books that no one else wanted when relatives died or moved away. I hate throwing books away, and I have a number of them that are absolutely, positively unacceptable today. I don't like what many of them say, or the way they say it, but they are period pieces.

A friend of mine has a large book that I covet. It's called "Toasts for All Occasions," or something like that, and it's about three inches thick of jokes about ethnic stereotypes. The ones I remember most are about the Irish, the Scots, Jews and blacks, and they make me cringe, but they are fascinating as a reminder of what used to be acceptable.

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 1:31PM

While the e-book system may be useful, even desireable, for recreational reading I am left with an uneasy concern about the preservation of the Western Canon or Great Books. What if, in the perhaps not so distant future, the grid fails. Recall the failure of technology to preserve knowledge that H. G. Wells time traveler experienced and the condition in which he found the Eloi. What becomes of human knowledge and history should 2500 years of experience and thought be lost by dependance on a failed technology?

The survival of classical works, the Greeks and Romans, was solely bu chance often through single manuscripts. We know of lost works but not of their richness. Without the existence and preservation of physical records would our heritage survive if the e-bok technology were lost?

KyMouse| 10.13.11 @ 2:08PM

How do color illustrations do in these e-readers? I enjoy good-quality illustrations in books about, say, travel and history. An e-reader would have to make them so much smaller, for one thing.

I doubt, therefore, that e-readers will replace coffee table books anytime soon.

Occam's Tool| 10.13.11 @ 7:03PM

The Kindle Fire is coming.

By the way, I own a few K in stock in Amazon. I also have bought almost every iteration of the Kindle.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:28PM

Are we supposed to be impressed by your stock portfolio?

Ned| 10.13.11 @ 12:40PM

"Ignoranti" - LOL, I had not heard that one...

Robert Pinkerton| 10.13.11 @ 7:42AM

The speed and depth and breadth of our embrace of computerization, has made the West uniquely vulnerable to any lowlife with a grievance and a means for generating electromagnetic pulse. Electromagnetic pulse will kill automotive electronics (And what car is free from electronics these days?) DEAD! Electromagnetic pulse will kill most commercial electronics DEAD; and woe betide the firm that has gone essentially paperless, for its records no longer exist. Electromagnetic pulse will kill medical electronics, along with the myriad of patients who depend critically thereon, DEAD Electromagnetic pulse will kill your recreational electronics - including your Kindle - DEAD!

I enjoy my computer immensely, but for me its use is only recreational. For reasons stated above, though, I remain attached to print on bound paper. If that makes me a shellback, then so mote it be.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 4:32PM

Ok Hank Hill. Better buy your wife that grandfather clock. It will keep running even after Y2K I tell you what!

Melvin| 10.13.11 @ 7:51AM

Hey Christopher, whats up with your bias on wrestling fat women. Its kinda one of those things that ya have to be there to really appreciate.
I had the bejesus scared out of me the other night. I built a bookshelf above my bed on the wall. Since I am blessed with the arms of an Orangutan when I finish reading a book for the evening and about to retire I reach up and place the book on the shelve in which there is too many books anyway.
As customary I reached up put the book on the shelf and I heard this loud pop and then I saw the entire book shelf shift towards me. I must have had the look on my face when the Captain of the Titanic saw all that water. "Damn this is going to hurt." It wasn't so much the physical pain part it was picking up all those books off my bed.
The good Lord must have had great mercy upon me, because of completely falling the book shelf stopped and I finally had the courage to peek out from beneath the covers and see that I was spared from a monumental mess.
I must love tempting fate because three weeks later that book shelf is still on the wall albeit at a angle, and I still haven't taken the books off and reattached the shelf.
My wife has regulated me to my man cave and I am under strict orders to not have one book placed in any other part of the house, I negotiated with diplomatic skill to exempt the bathroom.
I to have a Nook, a great little device, to augment my books, holding, "Atlas Shrugged" while laying down is difficult to read, but the Nook allows me to take hundreds of books anywhere I wish.
I would like to imagine that when I sleep at night all those books in my room talk to me, while I dream of history.
One of my Grandsons summed a description of my man cave perfectly. "Grandpa this isn't a bedroom its a museum.
All four of them used to pile into my room ages ranging from 2-12 years old and sit there while I read them, "Treasure Island."
Sometimes there is wonderful things in life that even a video game cannot recreate, and that is the human imagination.

Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.11 @ 8:57PM

Melvin,
That was a hoot! Thank you.

"In my study" (man-cave), I have about 400 books on paper...but now another 200 on kindle.
A lot of people don't even know that one can get a kindle book right on your desk-top computer.

...no hard disk space taken up unless you are actively reading the thing. Pretty cool.

dustoffmom| 10.13.11 @ 7:56AM

I have favorite books, one I have read and reread many times over. I love them, they are part of my life in an odd way. I just enjoy caressing the cover sometimes, while reading I get a bit of a tingle of anticipation simply turning the next page. Same thing while reading one I have been anxiously waiting to get my hands on, the excitement of finding what's on the next page. Just the 'feel' of a book in my hands can be a comfort. I do enjoy my gadgets and can't imagine how things would be were my trusty computer to suddenly be gone but an e-reader has never appealed to me. I can't imagine getting that tiny thrill I get holding a beloved book from holding another 'machine'. I'll always prefer the paper and ink.

vb| 10.13.11 @ 7:58AM

Why does it have to be either or? I buy books and I download books on my Kindle. I travel quite a bit, and I love having months worth of reading material on one little gadget. With the waiting times in airports these days, it's great not to have to schlep 10 pounds of books to get you to boarding time. And there is not always a high-quality bookstore around the corner to replenish your supply, especially if you find yourself in a non-English-speaking country. Think also of people who are spending a longer time abroad with their kids.

Lesser Weevil| 10.13.11 @ 12:31PM

Yes, you can't beat it for travel, especially for long trips. I used to agonize about how many books to bring, whether to take the big fat one that interested me at the moment or a slim paperback that might turn out to be a disappointment, and so on. Now, I've got a cornucopia at my fingertips. The other nice thing if you read a lot of technical papers is that you can download PDF's onto it.

For me, the negatives are (1) the selection in the Kindle store is still a small fraction of what's available in real books, and doesn't include a lot of the offbeat stuff that I like; (2) many of the Kindle books that I have bought have wretched, mangled formatting; (3) I prefer the feeling of a real book, for instance, being able to flip through the pages to look for something (search is in some ways better but is not a substitute).

Anastasia Mather| 10.13.11 @ 8:31AM

I want to get a tablet and download my textbooks to it. At 55, I cannot be lugging around 50 pounds worth of textbooks and survive.

I get the pleasure one finds in holding a real book, but there are definitely uses for readers and tablets.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 10:19AM

One comment nobody seems to made yet, the kindle allows you to adjust text size. For geezers er, I know, that means I, or they can adjust the text size if we have reading glasses or not. Also, you can get to see all the fine print.

Another super cool feature is the built in dictionary for those of us who aren't, er, so literate. When reading higher end books, I needn't feel bad if I don't know a word. I can look it up just by tabbing to it!

I don't buy into the hoity toity library game. When I'm done with a book, I give it away. Re-reading is for people who can't find new, interesting books. There's a hilarious Seinfeld episode about George trying to recover his used books from his ex-girlfriend...

Paul| 10.13.11 @ 8:58AM

I have the same concerns when purchasing a Kindle book that costs the same as the paperback book; if I'm paying that much for the book, then I feel like I should just go ahead and get the complete package, rather than just an electronic stream of characters. I've given Amazon some feedback in that regard, but, of course, they are somewhat hamstrung by the publishers. At present, aside from the free public domain books, I don't have very much on my Kindle.

Alice Moore| 10.13.11 @ 9:00AM

Christopher, I agree with so many of your articles. E Readers aren't meant to replace books.

I have the B&N Nook. I also have limited space. I have my keeper books in hard copy. I have the latest best sellers on the Nook.

As for the instant downloads of the book you may not want after due consideration; there is the required password step that is an option.

For those whom space is at a premium, the Armed Services come to mind, the E Reader can be a boon.

Alice Moore| 10.13.11 @ 9:02AM

Many E Readers have local Public Library access agreements. Kindle and Sony have this feature.

Fredx| 10.13.11 @ 9:04AM

African drums? Fat woman? Family of gypsies? I truly admire anyone who is blithely tone deaf to political correctness, and I really mean that! I have been so totally sensitized by PC that I think twice before saying anything at all, even this. Congratulations!

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:29PM

>African drums? Fat woman? Family of gypsies?

This article is not about the Wall St whining protest babies.

Alice Moore| 10.13.11 @ 9:12AM

So, The Gulag Archipelago is in E Book format? If Solzhentsyn's works are in that format, that would be a great thing!

Just think! you download that, Tom Clancy, George RR Martin, and Leo Tolstoy and your E Reader , all of a sudden, feels quite heavy....:-)

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 2:12PM

The russian translator on google is getting progressively better. I now find many web pages are readable albeit not optimal to enjoy a classic book translated that way.

In 10 years or so, this should not be a problem.

Alice Moore| 10.13.11 @ 9:28AM

It seems the Kindle brings out the inner Luddite in otherwise sensible Conservatives.

Christopher, I can hear your 15th Century counterpart saying in the vernacular of that time, "There's nothing like a hand copied illuminated manuscript! Gutenberg and Caxton are cheapening the reading experience! It will never replace the writing of the Venerable Bede.".

Mike C| 10.13.11 @ 11:50AM

Sometimes the luddites are right.

and truly there is nothing like a hand copied illuminated manuscript, but let's not quiblle; a book is a thing, 3D, solid, static, etc.

an ebook is virtual, ephemeral,.....digits.

What a watered down reality it will be when everything is virtual. No thanks.

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 4:13PM

Mike C, Alice:
There is a reason my screen saver reads, "Genl. Ludd was right". Fighting windows (and a couple of bad application programs) all day at work makes me a fan.

Harry the Horrible| 10.13.11 @ 9:33AM

I would have never bought a Kindle, but my wife bought one for me, and now its the first thing I go to when I read.
Right now, I have years of backlog on it and tons of samples waiting evaluation. The only thing I'm lacking is time... The Kindle is the best thing that ever happened to books.
And, if I'm good, my wife will get me a Kindle Fire for Christmas...

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 10:21AM

Indeed. Consider that the public domain library is huge and something you would be hard pressed to find in a library much less a bookstore. Plus, there's FOREIGN libraries to consider. In the very near future, you could download a good Russian book, translate it to English, and read it.

Despite the twitter generation being, well, twits, the web and e-readers are advancing literacy. I now go to the public wiki encyclopedia all the time and have used it to research stuff I wouldn't have considered in the old days of physical encyclopedias.

Southern_Comment| 10.13.11 @ 9:35AM

I have an ereader, a Nook - went with the Nook because they said if it needed any repair I could just bring it in - instead of shipping to Amazon. I like it for some things - keep my copy of the Constitution on it, and it's pretty handy for trips and to throw in the car in case I have to wait in line for something. Then I bought the Samsung Galaxy - LOVE THAT - it has kindle on it and being a developer, I download books and listen while I'm doing code. I don't think it is a replacement though - nothing like wasting a rainy Sunday in a bookstore roaming through all the covers and topics.

Ed| 10.13.11 @ 11:38AM

I agree. I just bought a Nook Color and I plan to use it while traveling. It also has a basic Web browser, so you can surf the net at airports, hotels, coffee shops, and so forth. It is not going to replace my book collection or my laptop PC, but it is handy to have because it's portable. On the other hand, spectator.org does not run on the device (too many directions off-site, apparently).

Harry the Horrible| 10.13.11 @ 9:35AM

BTW: A major reason for the Kindle is that we were running out of space for books...

Stefan Stackhouse| 10.13.11 @ 9:40AM

One of the big reasons why I love my Kindle is zero eye strain. As you and your eyes age, you will likely discover that reading gets more difficult, even with the aid of eyeglasses. The text on the Kindle is crystal clear and the font side can be adjusted to the most comfortable size for reading. I do not experience any eyestrain while reading on my Kindle. That was the single biggest selling point for me.

Yes, it is convenient. I can wake up each morning, and in less than a minute I've downloaded the Wall St. Journal. I can take it with me and read other periodicals and books any time, any place. If it is available on the Kindle, I can instantly purchase and download. Yes, the prices for newer books are not cheap, but neither are the paper editions.

While I have loved books all my life, as I near retirement and prepare to downsize I've been having to pare down my home library more and more. Having things available on my Kindle makes this quite a bit less painful.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 10:24AM

In theory, the "license" agreement for books could be that you would be required to destroy them after reading them and used bookstores would be illegal. Think that's a joke? Darth Brooks tried to blackball CD stores that sold used CD's (which is hilarious. Who uses store bought CD's anymore? :-)

So I say, without guilt, that after I buy a book, I strip off the encoding similar to me tearing off the warning label from my mattress or copyright page from a used book. It's mine.

Josh Marihugh| 10.13.11 @ 11:52AM

I used to buy a ton of used CDs.

This is actually what I thought the article was going to be about. As far as the publishers are concerned, your $10 for the eBook copy of _Atlas Shrugged_ didn't actually sell you the book; it simply licensed you to use and read it. If they still own it, they can take it away.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 12:25PM

I love the centi-I-Pad episode of South Park. In theory, Steve Jobs would have had the right to make us into Cent-I-Pads if we didn't read the whole license agreement before refusing to accept it. Also, I chuckle over those credit card terms that we get in the mail every year or so in fine print you'd need a microscope to read. Does anyone here actually read those each time they're sent out?

UnrepentantCurmudgeon| 10.14.11 @ 12:51AM

Are you talking about Garth Brooks, or Darth Vader? Or are they really the same guy?

UnrepentantCurmudgeon| 10.14.11 @ 12:53AM

In line with what others are saying, if I have it in print I know what the author actually said. If I have it in some online format, I know what the online source put out there. And I know from experience that the two are not necessarily the same. As computer savvy as I am, I have long since learned not to be complacent about what the internet gives us. There's a lot to be said for knowing that you have the real deal in your hand.

POST American| 10.13.11 @ 9:42AM

---------------------------BTW---------------------------

Our sources in Canada report that, under
the auspices of some UN mandate, libraries
are dumping massive stocks of scholarly
books to 'make space' for PCs and coffee
lounges.

Not incidentally, many, many volumes of
pre-1920 histories (ie pre Globalist CON-trolled)
are targeted.

They will disappear to hide the
scandal of their 'suck-cess'.

DON'T rely on the web ----it's also
selectively editing and deleting things
and, or course, is designed to addict
and surveil and can be completely
withdrawn at any moment.

NON 'Agenda 21' smart people have
already gotten the PCs out of their
personal spaces ---and are pulling
those insidious, surveillance tool
'smart meters'.

In short, keep your eyes out, and grab
the volumes if you see them anywhere.

One day they'll be worth their weight in
gold. -------REAL gold.

Rich Berger| 10.13.11 @ 9:47AM

I love books and libraries - many fond memories from childhood. Now I go back and forth between the iPad, purchased hardcopy and library books, depending on cost and whether I will reread/refer. With a high-resolution display like the iPad illustrations and charts work fine. Physical books are heavy, especially if you are commuting with them. Libraries are getting into the ebook lending business which will only pick up steam. Hardcopy books will be around for a while, but ebooks will be the future.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 10:35AM

I have unpleasant memories from my childhood of having to cart a soldier's worth of books on my back.

If an ipad can hold college and high school textbooks, that's the wave of the future.

POST American| 10.13.11 @ 10:14AM

Important to remember, nay, to keep
in the forefront of your mind, tech dependent
text ------is highly vulnerable.

FACT IS, Financial Times years ago
reported 70% of ALLLL data put on
computers up to the 70's ---has been
'lost'.

At any rate, it puts the text in the
ultimate control of the 'server'.

Beyond that, its also fact that
reading off lit screens blanks the
mind. Recall is considerably
compromised.

That was the little inside joke of the
'memory stick' schtik in 'Men in Black'.

SO------don't be marks for the SAP OPs
of the 'EEL-eats'.

Dan Mathewson| 10.13.11 @ 2:12PM

And yet, you use a computer to post your screeds. Hypotwit?

JohnMc| 10.13.11 @ 10:21AM

First of all, ditch the Kindle. Get a good tablet, say the Xoom. Load a good cross platform eReader. Put Calibre on your PC and store your eMaterial in ePub format. You now OWN the book.

The rest? Stop being a compulsive buyer! :)

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 10:36AM

I won my kindle in a contest. Otherwise, I wouldn't have joined up! :-)

JP| 10.13.11 @ 11:20AM

Don't need all of the bells and whistles of a tablet. The Kindle is lighter and because it has a flat black and white screen, the battery life is on average 30 days. I bought my Kindle for $149 in 2010. A iPad or Drois tablet is much more expensive, and both have less functionality than my laptop.

Petronius| 10.13.11 @ 10:31AM

What's a bookaholic to do? In this time of crumbling economy and crumbled values, choosing wisely between ethertext and the real thing ought to be a utilitarian consideration. I have a three tier acquisition program. Bookshops for first editions I want now, Hamiltons catalog for titles I won't buy retail, and Dunway for out of print and or vintage copies. I don't have an e-reader yet because I want a model that will have real time web based bridge and scrabble instead of Angry Birds. Just asking...

moovova| 10.13.11 @ 10:43AM

One word...library.

Cheap (free), generally convenient, moderately good selection (eventually), solves your storage problem.

Not that I don't like "having" books. I still have my extensive collection of John D. MacDonald/Travis Mcgee novels...not to mention ALL of my college major texts (history). Pretty much canned everything else. :-)

GregA| 10.13.11 @ 10:49AM

My thoughts exactly. What I don't like about e-readers is the apparent demise of the bookstore. The local Borders went under. Seriously, the closest bookstore is now 18 miles away. Wandering through bookstores is one of my favorite pasttimes. Try wandering through the Kindle store. Boring. I used to buy books that I stumbled upon in a bookstore, because they looked interesting. No such experience in the Kindle store.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 11:07AM

Greg, you probably miss the video store too.

Borders went under apparently because they provided the functionality of a FREE library with a coffee shop. It was like porn for readers. Not enough people who browsed and read in the coffee shop bought the books. They should do it like to George Castanza and make people who bring the books into the bathroom buy them! :-)

JP| 10.13.11 @ 11:18AM

I buy books to read. Bookstores (esp local ones) have limited inventory, thier prices are outrageous, and they evolved into faux intellectual meeting places for the eterrnal grad student.

Twenty years ago it was almost impossible to find out-of-print books. One of the great benefits of the Internet is global supply chain in used books. A bookseller in India can upload his inventory to Amazon, which allows someone in Idaho to purchase the out-of-print 1924 biography of the late Field Marshall von Kluck. The Kindle is just an extension of this. With permission, someone can take the book and create an eletronic version of it and upload it to the Kindle Store. A win-win if there ever was one.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 11:42AM

I have a good friend who ran a local bookstore. They were run out of business by big business. B&N and Borders could negotiate fantastic deals with the publishers including the right to buy the book at the lowest possible price. For example, if a new Stephen King book came out and retailed on the cover for $20, B&N would be guaranteed the lowest price at $10.

They would tell the local bookseller that if they wanted to sell the book, they could buy it wholesale for $16. Take it, or leave it!

On the positive side, the small bookseller didn't have the overhead of the corporate infrastructure, the coffee shop to run, etc. He told me his profit came almost entirely from Romance novels and SCI-FI (says a lot, doesn't it?) and the rest was all loss leader. Philosophy? A waste of space but there for the shopper to feel he has a choice before he buys a back print of Arther C. Clarke. And romance novels? He brought them in wheelbarrows he picked up at garage sales. Sold them for about 2 bucks each.

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 5:41PM

Alibris.com

WJW| 10.13.11 @ 11:04AM

How do you loan an ebook that is on your Kindle to a friend?
Can you go to the library and download an ebook onto your Kindle?

Plus side, if you put the book down for a couple of days, then start reading it again and come across again a character introduced many pages ago, on an ebook you can search for him/her and find out who this character is.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 11:46AM

Actually, Amazon allows that. You can go online and "lend" your book to the friend and they will send him an encrypted version of the book that expires in the time period you specify.

Harry the Horrible| 10.13.11 @ 1:31PM

Most books purchased on Amazon can be loaded. It is up to the publish to decide if loaning is enabled. You do have to this through the Amazon website. You send an email to the person to whom you are loaning the book. When the accept it, it become unavailable to you, until they are done.

My local library has started loaning eBooks, too!!!

JP| 10.13.11 @ 11:11AM

I've had my Kindle for over a year and never regretted it. Witha Kindle you can have a book purchased and downloaded in under 5 minutes. I'm not one for color screens and embedded browsers. A typical book is in black and white, so the orginal Kindle model is right up my alley. And because I don't need a color screen, the battery lasts over a month without a charge. My biggest complaint is that there are not more books in Kindle format.

I still buy used books when the Kindle format is unavailable. Otherwise, almost all of the books I purchased the last 12 months are the Kindle e-books.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 11:45AM

JP, download Calibre. However... you will then need to run a program to unprotect the book before conversion. However, if the book is public domain, you can immediately import it and convert to mobi format which works great on the Kindle.

Also, you can email any unprotected books to Amazon and they will email back the conversion for you. It's in your Kindle User Guide (assuming you haven't erased it for space!)

ElPuma25| 10.13.11 @ 11:50AM

I'm still holding on the kindle. Generally, I'm the first one to embrace new technology, usually with mixed results. I went for the Betamax, missed the Laser Disk, have a huge collection of CD's that I transfered to MP3, and still have my DVD's and Blue Rays gathering dust in a cardbox somewhere in the garage (thanks to the XBox and Netflix) together with all the Nintendo Cube games.

Now, in 2002 I went head first into the CE devices (anyone remember those?), and started my collection of MS-Reader books. I upgrade my CE device 3 times and kept my MS-R books, all and all happy times. Then in 2010 my last device went dead. And I couldn't replace it because they don't make them anymore. So there I am with a truckload of MS books that I can only read in my laptop. Once bitten, twice shy.

Dave| 10.13.11 @ 12:12PM

The sky is falling! Ebooks are the devil! Run!

Wow.

Dai Alanye| 10.13.11 @ 12:26PM

"I wanted to purchase David Brooks' latest bestseller..."

That urge to read David Brooks tells us all we need to know about your eccentricities.

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 2:54PM

Are Dai Alanyes' latest on kindle or nook?

What??!!| 10.13.11 @ 12:39PM

That is typical of an anal retentive conservative! Michele Bachmann tried to rescind the transition from light bulbs by proposing a bill in the House of representatives earlier this year. You were not willing to accept inevitable change. Grow up, conservatives!!

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 12:57PM

The transition to the Kindle and ebooks is via market forces and technological innovation. The leftist transition away from regular light bulbs is via government regulation.

Indeed. Perfect example.

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 4:18PM

Thank you PK:
Some people never get that free markets are about Liberty and choice, not coercion.

MOS was 71331| 10.13.11 @ 5:57PM

That change from incandescent light bulbs only became "inevitable" when congress made incandescent bulbs illegal. Michelle Bachman was right in attempting to get that law repealed.

Franco| 10.13.11 @ 12:46PM

A thick paper-printed book is comforting and weighty, like a gold coin. 'Cept you don't want to bite it.

dennis2j| 10.13.11 @ 1:18PM

My extensive library was gathering dust. I gave away all but a handful of my "real" books last year and bought a Kindle. I now read three or four times as much as I did before I got the Kindle because it is so danged convenient. Yeah, I sort of miss printed books, but not enough to consider going back to them. (Incidentally, I dropped my Kindle on a concrete floor a couple of weeks ago and no harm befell it.)

Harry the Horrible| 10.13.11 @ 1:27PM

I managed to break mine (don't know how). Amazon replaced it in 4 days with a new one, for $40. Best. Service. Ever.
Go Amazon!

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 2:14PM

One of the great things about the Kindle is that the recharger AND USB connector is the same port. Somehow, you can plug in the USB connector right into A/C power and not fry the thing. Amazing.

ALL electronics should be USB standard so we don't need a drawer full of adapters.

IX-XI| 10.13.11 @ 1:27PM

I love my kindle for classics of the hefty variety. But I'm also attached to my local used book shop. The owner there has me in his cell phone contacts along with a list of books I'm waiting on. I refuse to pay $10-$25 for a book I can't even give away, much less resell, when I'm done with it. I keep a select few that will fit on two bookshelves in my home. The rest go to said used-book emporium, usually as part trade for new reading material. The whole arrangement is dirt cheap, and I have many very nice books on my shelf that did not cost more than 3 or 4 bucks.

The Kindle, however, is the most wonderful public-domain reading device ever invented. The thousands of classic titles you've been intending to get to sooner or later are at your fingertips, free. If you are a reader of philosophy or history or just The Great Books, a huge number of the greatest books ever written are public domain and so are free Kindle downloads.

Furthermore, I read many American Spectator articles on my Kindle, which painlessly syncs up to 20 articles at a time on my Kindle. So I can pull up all of today's articles on their own browser tabs and then instapaper them. Then I can let Instapaper do its daily update or hit the site and update it instantly, so that next time I open my Kindle, there are all the articles I wanted to read, available when I am instead of having to read them on a laptop or worse, an iPhone.

I think I spend as much time reading on Instapaper on my Kindle as I do reading articles online as I pull them up. It's a wonder. And my Kindle 3 Wi-Fi cost me 70 bucks used.

So no, I don't buy retail Kindle versions of current bestsellers. But yes, I love the Kindle and will always have one.

cicero| 10.13.11 @ 1:43PM

Both print and electronics have a place. Now that the libraries are allowing you to check out books on the tablts, rather than the print copy, more people will avail themselves of the service.
Polish Knight stated in one of his early blogs on this site that he never reads a book twice. Too bad. Some of the classics are thus because they are worth the re-read. For instance, I took the time to readd War and Peace when in college. Great book. I read it agian in my 40s. Great, but different book. I read it again in my 50s. A different book again. All three times, I was seeing it through different eyes. That is the beauty of the great works - they are worth a re-read.
Try Kipling again, now.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 2:09PM

OK, Cicero. Valid point about the classics. I got a whole new perspective reading them again 30 years later.

But then... unless you bought a home in your 20's and kept a library, you'd be lugging those volumes around with you. Oh, and impressing your friends with War and Peace on the mantle. "I read it from time to time ol' chap." :-)

Otherwise, with the non-classics, I find that knowing I'm giving away the book afterwards or shredding it via the shooting range helps to put a sense of urgency into the read. I read slower, but better.

I like the scene in Up the Air where Ryan lectures the attendees that if you run into your burning home to grab family photos, then you really need to remember things better.

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 4:22PM

Cicero, PK:
Are the Loeb editions available on Kindle or Nook or whatever? Not arguing, just curious.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 4:31PM

Is this what you're looking for?
http://www.edonnelly.com/loebs.html

Al Adab| 10.13.11 @ 5:34PM

Thanks for the link. I have a CD edition (old tech) of Great Books and many hardbound Loebs. This answers the question. It is fun to read and compare the original language to the translation.

PolishKnight| 10.13.11 @ 4:31PM

Is this what you're looking for?
http://www.edonnelly.com/loebs.html

John.in.Georgia| 10.13.11 @ 2:55PM

I have seen people reading a Kindle, most recently while wasting a day away with dozens of others awaiting the call to fulfill my civic duty as a juror - I didn't make the cut ;-) -- and I thought they were rather cool looking, but when I delved into the idea of purchasing one, I came away with a lot of the same thoughts that you have expressed here. And, there is just something about falling asleep with a book on your chest and enjoying the smell of paper and aged leather, as opposed to having another electronic gadget to deal with. However, if the manufacturers of Kindle like products had a scratch and sniff pad on these gadgets, I might change my mind. :-))

Chris| 10.13.11 @ 7:20PM

You can't buy an M-16 in your local gun shop.

PolishKnight| 10.14.11 @ 10:29AM

I know someone whom I think did but a civilian semi-auto version.

http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....344AA2aIAW

Shrewsbury| 10.13.11 @ 8:51PM

Amazon's shipping rates for used books, while daunting, are in fact far from exorbitant. Consider that the cheapest rate for mailing a book weighing more than one pound, with delivery confirmation (assuming computer postage) is $3.01; more than two pounds, $3.42; and that padded envelopes or boxes, even when bought in bulk, will run you about $0.50 apiece. So a boxed book weighing two pounds, one ounce, costs the seller $3.92 to ship.

Leonie Alemann| 10.13.11 @ 10:34PM

Also, Amazon can yank any e-book out of your Kindle at any time. They did it months ago when they sold an e-book version for which there was no legal permission to sell as an e-book. *PooF* it was gone from everyone's Kindle. This disturbs me on a deep and fundamental level. Books are valuable; too valuable to risk like that.

PCP Smoker| 10.13.11 @ 10:35PM

Lose the attachment and you gain some space. Not only do ebooks are easy to store and travel with, they don't even have to be on your device. It's all in the cloud, and that saves you space.

POST American| 10.13.11 @ 11:06PM

---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------

ANYTHING on the line can disappear
in a flicker.

YOU do NOT own anything on the web.

There is NO privacy on the web.

---SO---

Keep eyes out for discarded quality
volumes in good condition. Grab them,
collect them, study them.

One day you WILL find yourself REAL-eye-zing
not only that the web is there for data collection,
control and EUGENICS -----but, that in and of itself,
---it's a MIRAGE.

UnrepentantCurmudgeon| 10.14.11 @ 12:48AM

I hear ya, Mr. Orlet. I think there's a place for Kindle or iBooks, especially when traveling, but when I want a book I want a book, paper or hard cover, I want a book. I want a spine I can crinkle and a page I can put a dogear on. Yeah, I know ... dogears are a symbol of the collapse of western civilization, but so it goes. And if you spill a little coffee on a Kindle? Fugeddaboudit.

M.Nielsen| 10.14.11 @ 11:37AM

Interestingly enough most people get surprised about the pricing of the eBooks.
I think we all can agree they probably should be cheaper than their physical counterparts as the publishers can leave out some of the production and distribution cost associated with physical books.
One option is of course to try your local library for the books you want. Unfortunately only 65% of libraries in the US stock eBooks and most of them only a limited selection.

The above are only some of the reasons I am launching my startup www.flatleaf.com – a subscription service for eBooks. Initially we will focus on connecting readers with good books, and letting our members (free membership btw) rate, share and discuss their favorite reads. However as we get publishers on board we will roll out the subscription service. It definitely will not replace buying eBooks, but will allow you more casual reading habits.

Dennis Bedard| 10.15.11 @ 4:00PM

Agreed. However, the e books sites are in their infancy. The economies of scale have yet to be realized. Give it another 5 to 10 years. I buy a lot of old books that probably will never be available on Kindle or Ibooks. They are available on Amazon for normally less than a dollar. In this area, the physical book will continue to exist until no copies are available.

Mister Grady| 10.15.11 @ 8:01PM

Kindles and Nooks are lame. An iPad is the only way to go. Besides all the other things you can do with an iPad that you can't do with Nooks or Kindles, the book experience on an iPad is graphically superior. And you have many more choices for reading on an iPad; you have access to iBook books, Kindle Books, Nook books, and independent book apps.

Yes, yes, you can't read in direct sun on an iPad, but that doesn't bother me since I don't consider getting skin cancer while reading to be a good thing.

At the end of the day, doing your books on an iPad is far superior than physical books. Physical books get dusty. They get musty. They get damaged. The bindings come loose. Pages fall out. They age. They yellow. Thick ones are difficult to spread out to see the inner part of the page. Big ones are heavy. Some page or ink types are very smelly and give people headaches.

Meanwhile, my iPad has interactive animated children's books (the Alice in Wonderland is amazing, as are others). And I've got "several hundred pounds worth" of books on it, many of which were free.

Of course, if you enjoy being a curmudgeon with a silly book fetish, then the iPad is probably not for you.

Fred| 10.15.11 @ 10:51PM

This is one of the most clever, humorous and factual articles I've read in a long time (and I surf a lot) . It jives with everything I know about Kindle and Amazon books (we have a kindle) . Well said!