si should i stay, o should i go

[rocknload]

I dislike a lot of what's going on in this post. And what the hell is happening in this thread: "What's sad is that even Fahrenheit 451 is coming true. They aren't burning the books, though. They're digitizing them, making them into convenient little travel sized bits that slowly but surely are never getting read again." What. Is Project Gutenberg really where the brutal, fascist dystopia begins?

Barely related, bitchy tangent: whenever someone brings up ebooks, someone else without fail brings up the wonderful ~smell~ of an old paper book. Dude, we get it. You wish you lived in a used stationary shop. Me, I sort of enjoy carrying dozens and dozens of free classics with me wherever I go, and I do it everyday. I guess that means I don't love books like you do, and I'm sorry for that.

In other news, I have school, it's terrible. Okay no, not really, but I think it might involve like, work and stuff, boo.

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Comments

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

Oh godddddddddddddddddddd.

All of my Library Science Masters friends would be like "STFU" to that whole thing.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

I don't even know how they got there from the intensely irritating original topic, which was something about how the LOL RUSSIANS were destroying society with LiveJournal. And Facebook. Or, uh, something. Also, KIDS THESE DAYS.

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

Fucking pseudo-intellectualism how does it work

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

apparently all it takes is a complete lack of self-awareness

like bitching on a public post in an Internet community about how you don't want anyone else listening in on your conversations, ever

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

Between this and having to listen to too many people whine about how they don't care about things that they obviously took time out to complain about, I'm kind of full of hate for most Internet people this week. :P

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, the I DON'T CARE SO MUCH I WON'T EVER SHUT UP ABOUT IT tactic, which has never worked in the history of anything. Who was it this time?

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

A couple of people on my F-list responding to the Writer's Block about the VMAs.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Did anything worthwhile even happen? I tried to search for news about what people were talking about on Twitter but it all came up in Mandarin and I didn't care enough to force Google to spit stuff out in English.

... SHIT I JUST DID IT DIDN'T I

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

Taylor Swift apparently whined through song about how Kanye was mean to her but it's okay she forgives him and the hostess was unfunny and apparently Florence & the Machine kicked ass beyond all reason. That's all I know.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

THAT'S WAY MORE THAN ME I don't even know who Florence & the Machine is, and I don't mean that in an I AM TOO COOL TO KNOW POP MUSICIANS way. I have seriously never heard those words in that order.

[unicorn]

THEY'RE PRETTY OKAY

THEY WERE IN THE JENNIFER'S BODY SOUNDTRACK

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

Which reader do you use? I tried a kindle, and was annoyed at my inability to easily get back to different chapters.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

I have a nook, now! I have previously had a Sony Reader, and I liked that one too. I personally wouldn't get a Kindle because it horrifies me that they don't support EPUB, which is super nice and also the format that virtually every other ebook seller uses. Amazon tries to lock you in like iTunes does.

[nellasaur.livejournal.com]

I AM TOO LAZY TO READ YOUR LINKS, SORRY.

I will say that I really like dead-tree books. I like the smell, and I also have a weird fetish for...book...sizes? I cannot articulate this, but it exists. I have been known to purchase notebooks when I didn't need them just because they were the "right size" IDK.

But I also have no problem with ebooks! Because they are CONVENIENT and stuff. I prefer dead-tree books, but that is just that! A preference! Because I have a fetish. The format of the text doesn't change the text and how much it may or may not be loved by the people reading it!

/can has earth logic?

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

YOU KNOW DUE TO THE MAGIC OF THE INTERENT FOLLOWING LINKS IS VIRTUALLY EFFORTLESS

Yeah I don't get why liking paper books apparently justifies the hatred of ebooks to so many people, like one should automatically follow the other. It's not like my lost for ebooks has me burning paper books or anything. Unless of course you're arguing that digitizing books is as terrible or worse than burning them, WHICH, YEAH. THIS PERSON IS DOING THAT.

[nellasaur.livejournal.com]

OH, IT'S NOT THE FOLLOWING I HAVE TROUBLE WITH, IT'S THE READING ONCE I GET THERE.

THAT IS A STUPID ARGUMENT. There is really nothing else I can say! Ebooks and paper books are not mutually exclusive. Liking one does not invalidate the other. Sheesh, internets!

[unicorn]

I like old books because I don't have to be disturbed by covert terror when I do stupid things with them like read them in the bathtub. Though if they make a waterproof Kindle I can take to the beach with me without worrying about dropping it in the ocean with my cell phone, I suspect my feelings will change.

hey apparently lj did some stuff did you hear about it

that lj

edit: holy shit I'm going to download the entire folklore section of Gutenberg. yes.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

GUTBENBERG IS FREAKING AWESOME though you might want to check for some of them at feedbooks.com, since in some cases they take texts from Gutenberg but put it in a format that looks nicer. They sometimes look nicer on my nook, anyway.

also my main thing is this person is comparing digitizing books to burning them

IT IS NOT LIKE BURNING BOOKS

CONSIDERING THE MOTIVATIONS FOR DIGITIZING BOOKS, WHICH ARE USUALLY TO PRESERVE THEM, MAKE THEM EASIER TO READ, AND TO GET THEM TO MAN PEOPLE EASILY, IT IS LIKE AS FAR FROM BURNING BOOKS AS IS ACTUALLY POSSIBLE, CHRIST

I don't actually read in the bath and I never have, I don't get the appeal for one and anyway I'm just as worried about wrecking a paper book as I would be about wrecking my reader around water. THOU SHALL NOT DAMAGE OR RUIN BOOKS was like the eleventh commandment in my house while I was growing up, even when we were toddlers me and Bryce never so much as lightly crayoned a book that I can remember. THE BOOKS MUST BE PROTECTED.

[unicorn]

I'll do that!

Yeah I didn't even really address that because hahahahaha

I THINK I'VE RUINED LIKE TWO BOOKS IN YEARS OF READING THEM IN THE BATH, my record is pretty good. There's just always that niggling fear!

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

I don't get why the bath is where people choose to multi-task. BEING SUBMERGED IN LESS THAN CLEAN WATER IS, I DON'T KNOW, A PRETTY LIMITING THING.

[unicorn]

This seems like a strange mental disconnect for someone who owns a hot tub.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Okay, I will give you that it does not interfere so much with drinking and talking. But you do neither in a bathtub! Also bathtubs are not usually places for socializing.

[unicorn]

Hot water is nice...?

[theeternalmind.livejournal.com]

Uhhhhh, I don't see how keeping books in paper format would prevent them from being read either. If you want to read, you will read; if you don't, you won't. It doesn't matter what format the book is in. I really don't think that books will stop being printed in paper at any point during our lives, either; while digitizing is convenient, there are not enough people who can afford a reader to wipe out all printing forever. There were those who thought the internet would be the death of newpapers, but those are still getting printed too, and it doesn't seem like they're going away anytime in the extremely near future either. I personally prefer having a paper book, myself, because sometimes I get tired of looking at a screen; a book has texture, and also I can carry it around without worrying (as much) about it getting broken (getting wet is still a no-no, natch), and I don't have to worry at all about it running out of power. But I see the obvious value inherent in one, i.e. being able to carry around a whole goddamn library in what would otherwise be the space of a single book. Hell, maybe if I were able to afford a reader, I'd quickly realize I prefer that, but at no point would I say that one or the other is awful.

Oh well!?

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Yeah there's no way paper books are going out of fashion anytime soon. I do think newspapers will die, or are dying rather, but it's a really slow death, and newspapers are way less permanent than books

[theeternalmind.livejournal.com]

The only way paper books are going out of fashion is if we destroy all our trees, and if we destroy all our trees I rather imagine we'll have bigger problems than paper vs. electronic books.