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Post by admin on Dec 4, 2009 17:44:39 GMT
has anyone here got one?
are they any good?
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aubrey
WH Member
Seeker for Truth and Penitence
Posts: 665
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Post by aubrey on Dec 4, 2009 18:59:12 GMT
I really don't like the idea of them. Pure prejudice, I know.
(But it had to be 1984 that Amazon (was it?) wiped from their users' readers after it was discovered that they didn't have the rights to sell it.)
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Post by marchesarosa on Dec 5, 2009 11:33:22 GMT
Luckyfredsdad posted this on worralorra recently
.........
Having been a reader all my years since going to school at the age of three or five and having been a collector since being about fourteen, the time has come when I must sit and think just where I should store my collection. When I had a house with plenty of big rooms, it was no problem. There was a place for everything so it was accessible and everything was in its place.
But a family illness put a stop to this happy affair. Two or three years ago this dreadful blight struck my family again and I could no longer afford to pay my rates. Poverty is endemic in my family and I finally had to face up to a bleak future! Friends rallied around, but the offer of a flat succumbed to the sight of my dog Fred, a charming German Schnautzer. He's totally house trained, but built for comfort on the style of a thirteen hands pony!
In the end I was forced to buy a small five roomed house for Fred and me. Most of my books had to go, but I retained the core of my interests, History, Religion and Anarchism all these were retained and a somewhat cramped home was found for them.
Then I became aware that the shelves and spaces were filling up again. In Lancaster a second hand bookshop opened and I motored on with some redundant publications. Five or six black bags full. But I was finally forced to admit book buying had to stop!
Then, in the Guardian I came across the idea of electronic books. The idea of putting books in small computers repelled me. What about the smell of old dried paper, what about the dust and the thrill of finding old letters and cutting, even money used as book markers long ago. I don't even mention the excitement of old photographs and faded smiles and places.
But the eReader, got the thumbs down from the newspaper columnists that I read and enquiries showed that books couldn't be downloaded from computers. They had to be bought from various bookshops and publishing houses at exorbitant prices.
So the collecting went on. Did you know that just outside Lancaster, Carnforth, there's a marvellous 14 room Second hand bookshop. History and religious books abound. I used to go at weekend and book in to the Railway Hotel, [sold brilliant bar meals] stay the weekend going over the stock, buying what I liked or fancied, then retiring to the hotel for a meal, a drink,[of tea,] and then a read. Then back to the shop. I even bought a folding stool, for comfort and ease in my search.
But it wasn't to last, nothing does really, change is built in. When my sister pointed that books piled behind the bedroom door didn't make for easy access (one couldn't get in with a tray, d'ye see!) I knew something had to happen. Things were so bad that even Fred wouldn't come in. Just shows, you can't trust anyone or anything, I remember when I saved him from a fate worse than death and he turns his nose up at my books.
It was then that an article on the tv, news brought this vision of a hand held eReader in to my mind. I phoned the Company, could I down load things, books and articles from the internet? Of course you can this lovely young woman said, but we can get you all the latest novels and best reads. [Some of them cost more than the original paper back.] I said no thanks and went back to the internet.
Google Books collected old, out of copyright, books. There was the Gutenburg Library that specialised in republishing them on the internet for free! They were all there, the books of GA Henty, With Buller in Natal, With Lee in Virginia, Bonnie Prince Charlie and at least a hundred or two others. These were written when Britain was great and it is easy to see why we laughed at the rest of the world. All you had to do was buy the eReader and download .
It took me five days to learn how to do that. Luckily a friend of mine managed to put about 20 of them into the memory before he had to go back to London. I pursevered and though it took me five days to do what he did in fifteeen minutes, [he was lucky] I did it.
Now I've got 30 or 40 books on my reader - Barrow's book on the Papacy, Denny's "Papalism" and about ten of G.A.Henty's all stored and ready. With about 60 more waiting to go on. My book storage problems appear to be solved and if I do move to this flat, which appears to be problematical, I need nor bother about storage of books. But another problem looms. I've started wakening about 4.30 for a read in the comfort of my bed. Fred comes up when he hears me stir, he's expecting to go out, but as the Greek Poet said in the fourth quartrain, Bugger Him, I'm having a read.
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aubrey
WH Member
Seeker for Truth and Penitence
Posts: 665
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Post by aubrey on Dec 5, 2009 16:24:12 GMT
I've stopped buying books as I don't go out much any more (I used to be in the 2nd hand - very cheap - shop every dinner time; I lived on cuppa-soup and books). But I still manage to pick them up - birthday presents - random gifts from fine people. Our lass tuts at them and says we need another shelf.
I still don't like the idea of an e-reader, though. The stuff I've found in old books - IE, a cat book we got had little biographies of 2 or 3 generations of the previous owner's cats - "Today we got a new kitten - Jason." Then later "Today Jason died, at 15." I'm filling up now, as I try to recreate it (I'm guessing as I don't know where the book is).
Nicholson Baker did a nice essay about the way index cards in libraries are being replaced by computerised records. You'd think a computer would be able to hold more information about a book, but they don't. Even when the cards are copied, they only copied one side, and left off any notes the librarians had made about the book. I think e-books will be like this. Just the bare minimum.
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Post by luckyfredsdad on Dec 5, 2009 19:10:33 GMT
I've found my ereader to be great, it isn't everything I thought it would be, but I wouldn't like to be without it! Some times it doesn't get the printing correct, mixes letters up and misses out funny ones. But my read in bed late at night has been revolutionised. [Important that when your over 60!] Good books, all in comfort and warmth, who said there's no Christmass and Father Christmass has cleared off,rubbish! It's all there and nothing to lose. eReaders even extend your hobbies and pastimes, I don't particularly enjoy modern literature, there are some good ones ,but on the whole I find them lacking in content and style. But , on the internet there are several what are termed Free Book, sites, or E-sites where free e books can be downloaded! Can spend hours searching. The best are Gutenburg and Archive Books. Gutenburg has over 30,000 out of copyright books, just waiting to be downloaded. Archive Books are from the national Libraries of America and Canada and they are choc-a-bloc of good stuff. It's like living in dreamland. A Cornucopia of good things. They say, you can't take them with you, what a tale, who do we know who even tried? Well the ones who didn't gave them to the two places I mention, either that or they found them, but either way they are free to aquire. They've been a Godsend, both ereader and books.! I'm thinking of getting another for Christmass, I've always been a believer in the old saw, 'you can't have too much of a good thing!'
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Post by jamesjosh on Dec 12, 2009 11:01:51 GMT
Finished a biography of John Stuart Mill, a bit heavy going but interesting the discussions of feminists and societies attitudes to women.
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Post by luckyfredsdad on Dec 13, 2009 12:33:10 GMT
Go on Gutenburg or Archive Books, they have some good ones there and some bloody awful ones as well, but there are literally thousands to pick from. Fiction and non fiction. I've been refighting the Boer War since mine came, they don't mention grandad Howarth , (He and a chap called Buller, won the thing, in spite of the other generals,) but I enjoy the trawling. There are other sources for free Books besides the above.
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Post by luckyfredsdad on Dec 31, 2009 19:27:55 GMT
I've always liked books, I enjoy owning them and knowing that when I get up,, they'll be there ,just waitng for when I need them. That's when I'm fed up angry or upset. When I worked in engineering, my boss came and caught me reading,"we pay you for working here", as if I didn't know! The thought flashed through my mind, would anyone ever go there for for nothing, by choice as it were? Any how , I'd worked through my dinner. He went on about reading at work, so I replied, "Don't knock it, if I weren't doing it I'd knock you!" I was tranferred in two days to another part of his empire. It didn't matter the books went as well. Trouble is today, price! I can remember ,not too long ago when we paid 7/6p for an expensive book, then the price rose gradually,[overnight it seems to me,] but I'm assured by a friend in the trade, over a period. The first 30/- came, it was a book on Jacobites, by Sir Charles Petrie. I got more milage from that one book, than Leeds buses get from their whole fleet. Two Years ago, I ordered, with the help of a book token, a Book on the Civil War in Lancs. I waited and waited , then in the end gave upon it. Just before Christmas the book seller phoned to say that it had arrived. I was over the moon. Till he told me the price was £30.00! The two days it took me to come around were cold and quiet, I was alone sobbing in my bedroom £30.00?? It was a good book , well written and informative, well produced as well as easy to read. I just couldn't open it because it was so expensive!! That was till the store owner called again, he'd found a copy of another book I'd ordered, It was £97.00. I'd raised £30.00 through donning my saffron robes and begging in the centre, I thought of going again,over new year, but I don't think they'll stand it twice in a month!
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Post by jamesjosh on Jan 9, 2010 12:33:18 GMT
Lucky - I can certaily empathise with you over books. They keep me company and are very useful when waiting for a train.
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Post by sweetjessicajane on Jan 14, 2011 13:05:49 GMT
I like to read books, I like the feel of the paper and the smell etc of them, however my husband bought me a Amazon Kindle for my birthday though initially disappointed (I wanted a new handbag) I am beginning to like it. There are a number of free books available for it - out of copyright i.e. Dracula. Otherwise I just download new books from the Amazon site and the cost is charged to my credit card , or at the moment the cost is coming off a gift certificate I was given as a present.
The advantage is that I can have a number of books available to me to read, but not be bothered by having to carry them all - weight and space.
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