Dead Trees, Pixels & Soundwaves.
Well, to be fair, I always was, there’s no becoming about it. My imagination requires feeding, and I go through stories like a …like a thing that goes through things, to coin a discworld type metaphor.
My eReader has gone the way of the dodo. I hauled it everywhere and then when I upgraded to my shiny Ipad I handed it over to Neice C who made appropriate purring noises. It finally kicked the bucket a little while back. I think the e-ink wore out. However, just managed to get a good deal on a reconditioned kindle to replace it for her. My eardrums havent recovered yet. We’ve just done the setup by phone/email and voila. All done.
It kind of brought home to me the fact that the advent of technology has not reduced the number of books that I buy at all. No. Now if I really like them, I buy them THREE times.
Dead Tree – for reading in the bath and hoarding
Pixels – for portability, buses, trains, planes, lunch breaks and in bed.
Soundwaves – for long drives and sleeping.
I’m not really sure where the RealBook(tm) folks are coming from. Yes, I have a handful of actual books that are precious to me for one reason or another. I’ve got a copy of Carpe Jugulum, signed by terry pratchett – made out to Frogjuice ( cough ). I have some out of print and out of any sort of print format books that I can’t replace, and I have an awesome books of british myths and legends that I adore that was given me by my grandparents. For me the value of most of my books is the black scribbles in the middle that allow me to disengage my brain from the outside world and start it going elsewhere and elsewhen. I get that not everyone thinks like that, but I’m able to disconnect just as easily with pixels and soundwaves as ink.
It’s a fairly safe bet that I’m going to buy things in paper and short of a tree killing apocalypse, I’m not going to stop. I’m even being very good these days, and I even give some of them away. If they seem to be of the type that I’ll not read again. I do miss Borders though. Civilised bookstores. Open till 11pm, with armchairs and coffee and us paperbacks that I couldnt get anywhere else. Moving from headingley has reduced the casual purchases from the oxfam usedbookstore as well. Which is a shame. Ahem. Nowadays its just amazon and waterstones.
Ideally, I’d like for somewhere like THIS
This is a second hand bookshop in Inverness.
Want.
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