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just call me lemming #20091
I lost my fight to the virtual book world last semester, although I didn't actually realize it at the time. It was just a little thing - a book I needed that our library didn't have, a book that I wanted but couldn't find in bookstores, was available via Google Books for purchase. For like $9. So I bought it. And used it in my paper on women in Japan.
What I didn't realize then was that my steadfast adoration for actual, printed books was slowly being eroded by the wish for their information to be available to me instantly. Every time I searched for something in our school library and found it only on Amazon, that little 'available right now on kindle' would blink at me, taunting.
My stepmom got a kindle last year and has been utterly addicted to it (not only because she likes to read everything written by a single author, but because the back catalog of cheap little paper backs that are her favorite, are available at the press of a button for pennies, and she doesn't have to find a place for the books on the bookshelf after it's taken her two hours to read them.... it really is her crack cocaine). And when I first looked at the little device on her coffee table I viewed it with suspicion and not a little mistrust, because it looked like an electronic thing, not one of my beautiful, spine bent, smells a little funny, comes in odd shapes if it's trade paperback, but hey cool cover BOOKS.
Yet I was taunted. Plagued. And then I heard about things like the dumb free app for PC that kindle now gives out. And I priced my books for a single class today, even buying used, and the difference between the printed version and the digital version for those books I could get that way? $50 not including shipping (and shipping does actually add up when you're a student and buying used books that amazon will not group together under free super shipping because they're coming from different sellers).
So I caved. And now I have this app on my computer that has the books on it. I'm a little bewildered because it all happened so fast - just 'click here' and there's a book there and i can make annotations in it and it all seems a little insidious.
I'm consoling myself with the fact that three days ago, in muted terror that i might not have my computer back, I organized my *real* bookshelves and found that, if I would like to actually have my books sit on the shelves not double-stacked, or not turned horizontally and stacked that way, I would need at least three full 5-shelf bookshelves, so it's not like I'm out of the printed book business all together.
but it feels like an awfully slippery slope.
What I didn't realize then was that my steadfast adoration for actual, printed books was slowly being eroded by the wish for their information to be available to me instantly. Every time I searched for something in our school library and found it only on Amazon, that little 'available right now on kindle' would blink at me, taunting.
My stepmom got a kindle last year and has been utterly addicted to it (not only because she likes to read everything written by a single author, but because the back catalog of cheap little paper backs that are her favorite, are available at the press of a button for pennies, and she doesn't have to find a place for the books on the bookshelf after it's taken her two hours to read them.... it really is her crack cocaine). And when I first looked at the little device on her coffee table I viewed it with suspicion and not a little mistrust, because it looked like an electronic thing, not one of my beautiful, spine bent, smells a little funny, comes in odd shapes if it's trade paperback, but hey cool cover BOOKS.
Yet I was taunted. Plagued. And then I heard about things like the dumb free app for PC that kindle now gives out. And I priced my books for a single class today, even buying used, and the difference between the printed version and the digital version for those books I could get that way? $50 not including shipping (and shipping does actually add up when you're a student and buying used books that amazon will not group together under free super shipping because they're coming from different sellers).
So I caved. And now I have this app on my computer that has the books on it. I'm a little bewildered because it all happened so fast - just 'click here' and there's a book there and i can make annotations in it and it all seems a little insidious.
I'm consoling myself with the fact that three days ago, in muted terror that i might not have my computer back, I organized my *real* bookshelves and found that, if I would like to actually have my books sit on the shelves not double-stacked, or not turned horizontally and stacked that way, I would need at least three full 5-shelf bookshelves, so it's not like I'm out of the printed book business all together.
but it feels like an awfully slippery slope.
no subject
I'd never wish head pain on anyone but I'm vaguely grateful for them after reading this. I love my smelly, crumpled, crammed books so much that I'd be disturbed and heartbroken to find myself on your slope of digital doom. *stands at the bottom with pompoms to cheer on your fight against it*
(the irony is that this was posted via the technology currently consuming me. Damn you, apple, and your world of shiny)
no subject
and yes, complaining about technology while we both use it is always a little funny isn't it? but hey, also life!