Monday, December 24, 2007

BATTERIES

Reading Stephen King's year-end best book list he mentioned one aspect of the eBook topic that hasn't been considered in our discussion here...BATTERIES. One nice thing about a "real" book, it doesn't run out of charge. Though, at this time of year in Wisconsin, there are precious few hours of daylight for reading. And of course shoveling snow takes precedence over reading...right?

Chris' comment about the paucity of reading at the high school level is saddening, but at least there is a trend toward graphic novels.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, especially to you Larry, and to everyone and all, a good night.

2 comments:

Larry said...

Snow, again. We've had more this month than the first 3 months of winter last year.
Hope your Christmas was merry. We are celebrating tomorrow (saturday).

One other thing about REAL books... they just smell, and feel better than an appliance. I can "curl up with a good book" but not with an ebook....
and chris' comment about "saving the environment".... whatever.... put people out of work too.
Some things just shouldn't change.... I still read the "paper" paper, even though I can get the highlights for free online. I'm an online junkie, but I still have to have my pen & paper, my typewriter, my pencil and sketchbook... and my real books, magazines, and newspapers.

chicagocandy said...

If you own any important tech tools/toys and want to keep them going, you should be sure to stock up on extra batteries. I wouldn't be without extra batteries for my ever-present digital camera, even if they're fairly fresh.

The same goes for any kind of electronic book readers that will appear over the next several years. They'll be great space-saving devices. Wonderful for traveling, (if you're prepared to carry extra batteries). Now you have to decide whether it's lighter to carry an electronic reader and extra batteries or to carry the paperback book when flying.

However, I agree with Larry that even though we have such instant access to electronic reading through our computers and phones, I still need to read the Chicago Tribune from giant cover to cover, getting ink on my hands, and feeling the weight of the paper. And then there's a feeling of completion after you've read it.

If I start reading the news from a webpage, will I ever finish reading the internet news? No, I'll go to some other site that's related to the story to read more, and I'll keep on reading and reading... there's never a sense of completion while using the computer.

Books are like newspapers - you have a sense of completion once you're finished. You can put it on the shelf and add it to your collection and look at it from time to time and remember the story you liked.

So we all need to buy more books!!

If you've collected too many for your space, give them away to someone you know will appreciate them. Donate them to schools, hospitals, libraries, and other places who will re-use them.

But keep buying more because reading is good for you!

Even though I'm an online junkie like Larry, I agree that we all need to have the comfort of the paper in our hands, the slickness of the photos in high quality magazines, and the ability to reuse the daily newspaper in many ways.

Books are old friends and we'll still need them in the future.

Keep up the great work in publishing, Mike! I know that Savage Press will continue to make many people happy readers in 2008.