Environmental Responsibility: Books vs. Digital Readers

[CKS]

CKS, what kind of fanfic do you read? I read a lot of Star Trek, some Highlander, some Tudors, and just finished a 26-chapter novel about the Borgias. This is all on fanfiction.net, but I also have a growing collection of physical fanzines - mostly Star Trek (Classic only; I don't care for most of the Next Gen stuff), some Highlander, Doctor Who, and crossovers.

These days I mostly am reading Stargate, Xena and Xena ubers, Lois & Clark, and random crime show stuff by authors I recognize. Long stuff I'll put on the Kindle; short stuff I read on the computer. I've discovered that I really want to download it onto my desktop and copy over rather than use the Kindle browser, though. Since a lot of the older stuff is text files, it is sometimes convenient to reformat it before putting it on the Kindle, too. Otherwise you can end up with weird line breaks in almost every font size.

I'm not big on illustrations, but some of my fanfic has cover artwork, and it looks just fine on the Kindle to me. It has plenty of resolution for me - my eyes couldn't deal with a smaller font anyway.

 

[Furiey]

I love books and never thought I would switch to an e-reader, however I have run out of space and finally purchased a Kindle (keyboard version, no touchscreen). I love it. Loads of free books available, I have purchased only a few, sometimes after reading the first in a series free. The screen is great for reading text, no glare, just like reading a printed page and I can change the text size to what suits me. It's great for reading in bed - you only need one hand to hold it and the book doesn't fold shut on you, plus if you fall asleep reading it saves your place - no more hunting for bookmarks! I convert reports that I need to read and copy them to it - better than printing out wadges of paper. You can put pdf files straight on, but being a fixed line length format you loose many advantages so I use Calibre if necessary for the conversion (and to back up my library so I'm not comletely reliant on Amazon. The only thing I don't use it for are textbooks, I prefer to flick from page to page, comparing several books on the same topic and that is still easier with a paper version.

 

[Tecknojock]

I have a reading list that I prefer to have hardback books that require the erection of huge shelves. Other than that, I try to do most of my reading electronically and run my office as paperless as is practical. I am hoping that someone will put out a dedicated ereader with the screen size of an ipad (or larger). A lot of my reading (court cases, law review articles, continuing legal education material) works best in pdf format and that requires a bigger screen than the ereaders out there.

Have you looked into the kindle DX? Its screen size is a 9.7" which is fairly close to the ipads 10.1"

 

[Ondskan]

I'm not going to stop reading paper books until copyright laws are changed significantly. I can't lend, sell or feel those crappy E-books and they still cost as much or more than a normal pocket book.

Enjoy being raped by the corporate machine in the name of "environment" while their CEO flies a in a private jet burning all that extra money you just gave him.



( I do read E-Books).

 

[Glassfan]

Some nice books.

 

[Rashiminos]

Books sink carbon and are rarely consumed, save for the elusive bookworm.

 

[Glassfan]

My WW II shelf...

 

[JohannaK]

Hmm... if I had a photo with my grandfather's WW2 shelf... and his Spanish Civil War shelves... he's got like a crapload of those books.

 

[Glassfan]

Hmm... if I had a photo with my grandfather's WW2 shelf... and his Spanish Civil War shelves... he's got like a crapload of those books.

A little Moderator Action: <snip> or a great big dump?

Moderator Action: you know the drill, if you need to insert weird characters so a word doesn't get autocensored, don't use the word to begin with - Grisu

 

[JohannaK]

Like walls wrapped in WW2 (and especially SCW) books.

 

[Glassfan]

Like walls wrapped in WW2 (and especially SCW) books.

Some of those might be valuable - rare editions and such - better than old comic books.

 

[JohannaK]

Comics? I doubt my grandfather ever knew what those are

 

[Ondskan]

Lovely collections gents.I am profoundly jealous of them!

 

[Ondskan]

Comics? I doubt my grandfather ever knew what those are

Have you seen this movie?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_and_Freedom

Reminds me a little
Did your dad fight in the war?

 

[JohannaK]

Sorry, misunderstood. But no, he didn't. He was 13 when the war started... and that was my Granddad.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Does anyone here belong to Library Thing? I took out a lifetime membership to take advantage of unlimited space to catalogue my books, fanzines, needlework patterns, etc.

And to think I used to be able to carry around a catalogue of my books in a couple of small notebooks in a side pocket of my purse...

 

[Ondskan]

Yeah sorry I meant your granddad.

I agree, libraries are one of the last and perhaps most valued pieces of collective wealth.
But having a book just at arms length is nice ;-)

Plus it fills out all that space. The space we would otherwise fill out with more useless stuff.

 

[Glassfan]

A few books on my Kindle, but I mostly use it for music (Pandora). A Book is forever. A digital reader lasts three or four years.

 

[Ondskan]

That actually looks quite good. How is the text? how much is the kindle?

 

[Glassfan]

That actually looks quite good. How is the text? how much is the kindle?

With the Otter shield, just over $300.00. Unlike my daughter's ipad, the speakers are poor so I have them hooked up to my computer speaker.

The text is clear, and you can vary the font and size to your liking. Music reproduction is excellent, but as I said - inadequate speakers.

Internet is a problem - the pages are tiny and you need a stylus.