the way it ustabe

[calimac]

Here's an interesting article on cultural resistance to e-book readers. Jonathan Franzen is particularly vehement: "Literature isn't data. The difference between Shakespeare on a BlackBerry and Shakespeare in the Arden Edition is like the difference between vows taken in a shoe store and vows taken in a cathedral."

And neither, I should add, is like hearing Shakespeare performed by actors in a theatre, which as far as I'm concerned is the only way to experience Shakespeare. (Though Shakespeare is one of my favorite authors, I have almost never sat down and read a Shakespeare play from end to end.)

So the reading - or listening - experience really matters, and sometimes not even in a way you'd guess. It took me years to figure out that the double columns that F&SF used to print its fiction in was making it read choppily. (Maybe that's why they stopped doing it.) Which is why, though I don't fetishize the book, I remain skeptical of the e-book reading experience, despite the efforts of the electronic equivalent of the "Why go to Italy when there's Pizza Hut?" crowd to argue that it'll be just as good, Real Soon Now.

There are other examples of the "Other people can do what they want, but I want it this way" principle. kateyule wants to keep her CDs, even though the files are on computer, even if (she doesn't raise this issue) the sound quality is the same (it can be, but in practice, for file-size reasons, it usually isn't). I would grieve at giving up my CDs too; in a computer my music files would be chaos. I know because my document files are.

I just received an invitation from the Registrar of Voters to become a "permanent absentee" and vote by mail. I don't want to vote by mail. I want to go to a polling place and vote there. I don't want to have to fill out my ballot before election day, and I don't want to worry about whether it'll get delivered. (I could take it to a polling place on the day, but then why not just vote then and there?)

Comments

[mithriltabby]

I’m well-pleased with having my music collection in a computer. I can easily navigate to individual albums, or just organize music into playlists that are far more than I could cram into a CD changer.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I don't do mix-and-match playlists for my own listening, and in order to properly organize my music files, the way I'd want them, on a computer I'd need to use about six levels of subdirectories, which would be a nuisance to navigate.

[mithriltabby]

If someone implemented a music player that let you navigate by a Web 2.0-style tag cloud, that might work for you, but I have yet to see that kind of interface.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I hate tag clouds! They're annoying, and sloppy, and nobody has yet made one that works well.

[mithriltabby]

I like the one on LibraryThing. (Here’s one of mine.)

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

Ebooks work for me, mostly. It helps to have 100 books in my pocket that I can read in the dark (like too many hotel room beds), or under water (and are only somewhat less readable in bright sunlight).
I read the Barchester Chronicles on my last trip to the Pacific, and have all 20 POB novels available.
But some of that may be because I can and do read them on a PDA the size of a slim mass-market paperback. The mass-market PB size is becoming rare, at least for the books I want to read.

Note that while it's minimal, there is information on the CD and the insert that can be useful. Sigh, remember real liner notes? Of course you do.

Being a permanent absentee voter just gives you a another option, without having to think about it.

You can always turn in your absentee ballot and vote the conventional way.
Take both your absentee ballot AND the envelope in which it's supposed to be returned if you do that, or be prepared to fill out the provisional ballot form.

And if time runs short on election day (or before), you can still vote.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Does the e-book that's the size of a mass-market pb show as many words per page as the mass-market pb does?

[ckd]

I buy CDs, and pack them away once they're ripped...but I keep them.

I buy ebooks, many of them duplicates of paper books; I have a non-negligible number of books in hardcover, paperback, and ebook.

The hardcover is for cocooning, and archival, and the joy of Holding The Book.

The paperback is for everyday reading, reading in bed (when dropped off the bed onto the floor, it goes 'thunk' and maybe bends the cover), or on aircraft below 10,000 feet.

The ebook is for reading on the bus/in line/at lunch/wherever I happen to be, because I always have it with me.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

I have some ebooks, well because I always have the pda with me. Other types of printed material are more iffy.
I am also thinking of putting some of my cds on the computer and then transfer them to the pda. Because I always have the pda with me.
Some of my cds are begging to be ripped. I only like some of the songs. It would be nice not to have to listen to the ones that I'm not so crazy about.
Luckily, all of that is rock and roll, and will not suffer too badly if compressed.

[redbird]

You're right about the large difference between seeing a play and reading one.

As for the difference between vows taken in a shoe store and vows taken in a cathedral, that's all sorts of stuff about class, parental budget, and whether you want to bring a god into the equation. People can take, and keep, binding vows in a shoestore or their own living room; the cathedral may make them more hesitant to divorce later, but it doesn't in itself strengthen the relationship. (I'm an atheist, but I think most theists would agree--it's not as though they believe God is excluded from shoe stores.)

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

...Shakespeare performed by actors in a theatre, which as far as I'm concerned is the only way to experience Shakespeare. (Though Shakespeare is one of my favorite authors, I have almost never sat down and read a Shakespeare play from end to end.)

I [Perri] agree that seeing Shakespearean plays actually performed is the only way to really understand them [assuming that they're decent performances]. However, I will usually read a play all the way through immediately after seeing it performed to help 'set' the words in my mind; this mainly because I have a brain that is more retentive of the written word than the spoken one.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

...in a computer my music files would be chaos.

And as I'm sure you would agree, many people find ID3 tags such as "Artist," "Title" and "Album" sufficient (or at least a good start) for indexing popular music, whereas for classical music this scheme is as adequate as is a thimble for bailing out a sinking canoe.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I keep my CDs, even with stuff in the computer. I didn't throw away my vinyl when I made cassettes.

Sometimes Shakespeare is better in a theater, and sometimes it isn't. There are all sorts of degrees of ability to be found. I have ebooks on my iPod for emergency reading (oh no! nothing to read!), but I don't try to read all my books that way. I have radio shows on there that I will listen to for entertainment before that, usually.

[lynn-maudlin.livejournal.com]

I think I'm something of a book purist... I discovered the pleasure of a REALLY GOOD book, the buttery quality of the paper. I'm so glad that when I had the money I bought LOTR and The Chronicles of Narnia from the Folio Society in England - lovely, lovely editions that make the re-reading such a pleasure--

Did you hear my almost-latest song, opens with "In the still of the night I curl up with a book but I'd rather be curled up with you--"

How can one curl up with an ebook? Just not the same... on the other hand, makes it easier for kids to stay up reading under the covers!