It's like they've met me.

[clo_again]

A large number of literate westerners spend most of their waking hours at computers, and those computers are connected to the web. The characteristic activity on such a computer has been given the pleasing name "wilfing", adapted from the acronym WWILF, or "What was I looking for?" You work a bit. You check if it's your move in Facebook Scrabble. You get an email. You answer it. You get a text. You answer it. Since your phone's in your hand, you play Angry Birds for five minutes. You work a bit. You go online to check something, get distracted by a link, forget what you were looking for, stumble on a picture of a duck that looks like Hitler, share it on Twitter, rinse and repeat.

-from Guardian article here


eta: Oh, this comment is wonderful. It's why I don't own a Kindle yet, and why buying one isn't even close to the top of my list. It's why I buy books even when I have ten or twenty sitting as-yet unopened on my shelf. It's why I read. It's why I own copies of books that are selling for £20 or £60 or £100+ on Amazon, but I won't sell them because they're my books.

Wonderful. I'd love to buy that person a coffee. Or better yet, a book token.

Comments

[scoobydumblonde.livejournal.com]

That's kind of awesome.

[clo.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? :D

[scoobydumblonde.livejournal.com]

Really is. And also, the Kindle thing. I own one, dl'd a few books and now? I don't even have it charged! I would rather pick up a good book, then pick up my kindle and HOPE I have it charged enough to read for as long as I want to.

[clo.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And I worry that if I bought a Kindle, I'd just end up buying double copies of every book; one to go on the Kindle to take out with me and one for reading in the bath or over the sink while I clean my teeth (I do this every night)/to match other books I have in a series etc. Plus I lend books to family and friends all the time which is impossible with a Kindle so, eh. E-readers are a great idea but until they can replicate everything a book can do, I don't think I'd use it enough to be worth having one. :)

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

I'm entirely biased, but as such I know that books will never be replaced because digitization is the worst method of preservation. Hard drives crash, portable storage lost, files become corrupt, formats become obsolete, DRM, zombie apocalypse, EMP, etc. ;)

As an ereader owner, I can say it's totally convenient, especially when traveling/commuting. And if you've got space limitations, it can be great instead of having to store physical books. But I've also never spent a dime on an ebook that had DRM, don't plan on ever doing so, and I read way more print books than electronic ones. (Honestly, I got the ereader for work reasons, probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise.)

[clo.livejournal.com]

Oh I know. Every so often I find that a fic I loved has vanished from the internet and I wish I'd printed it out (I still have a vague idea that when I have spare cash someday I should get my favourite fics printed into paperbacks that I can carry around. I guess I could just use a Kindle to do it but like you said, it's not like that's totally safe). I worry about Amazon having the access to delete books from Kindles too. It's not as if someone can come around your house and snatch books off your bookshelf just because you bought them secondhand or from the dodgy store in the market etc.

I suspect if I'd known that my job-with-a-long-commute was going to last a year, I would've bought a Kindle last year to fill all that journey time but it was always "just one more month" and it never seemed worth it. I'd definitely get one if I go backpacking again; it would've been brilliant,so I totally get why they can be useful. But now, without a proper justification to splash out on one, £150 just seems like money that'll buy me an awful lot of paperbacks. ;D

[clo.livejournal.com]

When I finish a book when I'm out/away, my usual approach is to buy another book. ^_^ The luggage weight would definitely be a bonus though (I wish I'd had one to take backpacking, especially with the price of books in Australia) and the PDF files is what make them most attractive to me - there's a *lot* of times when I'm halfway through a fic and wish I had a physical copy of it to take with me to read on the bus etc. What worries me though is that, essentially, I'd spend £152 on a Kindle and then use it to read fic which is just ridiculous; I'd like to read fic on the bus but not £150's worth of like. And I definitely would've used it as a student but since it's looking very unlikely that I'll do a Masters anytime soon, I can't really use that as a justification either.

Idk; I do totally see why they're useful and a good thing to have on hand but...like I said above, £152 will buy me a lot of paperbacks which I can lend to friends and my mother. Een with a Kindle I'd still need to collect books because I love signed books, I'm halfway through series that I'd want to complete etc.. I guess I'm mostly not willing to exchange £150 worth of books for something to read them on when I'm not convinced I'd use it.

And even if I do get a Kindle (which I probably will at some point) I think I'll always like the tactile sensation of reading a print book too much to give it up. ^_^

(I love your icon. ^_^ It's very, very true.)