Holiday Book Club
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In the comic it was an attempted rape.
You're quite right (either way, it's a seriously nasty scene and has an even uglier pay off down the road), but either way I do wish folks on the PR trail wouldn't be glib about any representation of sexual violence.
I don't have too much disposable income.
Nonsense, Steve. Stop eating. :)
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BTW, Russell, nice Media7 tonight and the panel about the "future of the book" was interesting. Would anyone here be willing to put down a serious chunk of change for the Kindle if it ever comes to market here?
I'm in the no camp, because like Stephanie Johnston I'm wedded to the book as object; and an e-reader is no damn use in the bath or bed or when the battery goes flat. As far as I can, there's not much of a price advantage in e-books either.
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E-books just don't appeal.
Although that may change as my eyes get worse, as it would be easier to change the size of the text I"m guessing.
A book has something though - from the cover through to physically turning the pages, which just doesn't seem to be replicated by an e-form.
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Answer to Craig's query apropos ebooks (kindle #ZO): NO.
There are 2 major problems: battery life. & screen size (and continuance of material thereon.)
Sure, you can download - stuff (much of which requires additional use of your cred card) and most of it - limited.)
Books have sensory qualities no ebook (yet) can have. Books are more permanant than cities.They'e there, in your pocket, bed, bag, shelf,van - where-ever. And you can give them to anyone, copy bits at your leisure (hey! I"m a writer! I'm allowed to advocate this! STRICTLY limited copying!) Long after I'm dead, some of my books will be around.
Kindles will thrown away - like the unnecessary diamond ring - by Wall-E cohorts-
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So wonderful to have Freeview and be able to watch Media7 without interminable downloads. (And so many good programmes on Freeview generally and no ads, only promos).
I agree with Craig. But I was on a packed plane recently and a guy had a Kindle and everyone on the plane wanted to have a look - so it will become mainstream before long. But not to those of us who like the holistic multi-sensory book experience.
In one of the shots in the Media7 book story I noticed 'The Lieutenant' by Kate Grenville which I would recommend along with her other Australian identity and history books, The Secret River and Finding the Secret River. The Lieutenant is based on a notebook that still exists recording probably the earliest British attempts to write and understand the local Aboriginal language, and the young lieutenant whose interest it was. He was part of the first fleet of convict ships to arrive in Sydney.
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(agrgh!)" Kindles will be thrown away "(te mea te mea) - or more likely very quickly superceded. Would I buy one? No way, even if I win Lotto on Saturday - they are inefficient low tech and not heeded by booklovers (for people wanting sci. papers, tech stuff - I think they will be brillant. The mistake is - MARKETING THEM AS SUBSTITUTE BOOKS!)
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steven crawford - waterproof books (or, at least, notebooks, exist...I used to get them from a Brit supplier, but I am sure there are many more.
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I agree with Craig. But I was on a packed plane recently and a guy had a Kindle and everyone on the plane wanted to have a look - so it will become mainstream before long.
@Hillary: Oh, I can coo and want to poke the latest gadget as eagerly as anyone. And I'm sure the Kindle (or something like it) is going to become "mainstream" eventually -- no use being a purist Luddite about it.
And now that I think about it, something like the Kindle would be rather attractive if I wanted to invest in those two scholarly monoliths of the Oxford University Press: the Complete Dictionary of the English Language (20 wrist-snappingly stout volumes) and the Dictionary of National Biography (60 more, and counting). Even then, an e-reader is hardly friendly to idle browsing, in much the same way you hardly have the same experience of the happy accidental discovery in an on-line archive like Project Gutenberg as you do in a bookshop or library.
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The mistake is - MARKETING THEM AS SUBSTITUTE BOOKS!
Nicely put, Islander. Supplementary technology, sure. But not a substitue.
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Your average external hard-drive can handle the complete OED (believe, I've got it) and much much more - plug into your laptop and ptuui!
who needs something like Kindle?
As I wrote earlier, Kindle is missing it's market - it's a readable info storage unit- but shouldnt be aimed at books. Most BOOK readers want books. Travellers (which, I'd suggest. should be the target market) may want a combo- -
Ooops! Agreeing/overtaken by reponse!
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waterproof books (or, at least, notebooks, exist
I used this stuff back in pre-Photoshop days, when I was an airbrush animation jockey. Rugged as hell, didn't bubble and distort when sprayed. I bet they make banknotes out of it.
Only waterproof book I've ever seen was in someone's shower in Sydney - Aussie songs for the shower. A slim tome I wouldn't recommend.
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Your average external hard-drive can handle the complete OED (believe, I've got it) and much much more - plug into your laptop and ptuui!
Do you shell out for a subscription -- which is quite expensive at £195+VAT p.a., though the regular updates must be pretty tasty for word geeks -- or get the 2nd edition on CD-ROM?
I must hang my head in shame, because a laptop is behind replacing the rather skanky shower stall in our bathroom on our list of fiscal priorities in this time of Global Economic Crisis (tm). One day... :)
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And Russell also brought up Neil Gaiman as an author who uses technology very well to connect with his audience, and wondered how many authors could do the same. Quite a few, but I wonder if Gaiman's actually the best example -- he's said himself that J.D. Salinger-types don't make any kind of living as freelance journo (which he did for a long time), nor do they function very well in the comic book industry. He's genuinely an awesomely nice and gregarious person, adores his fans, which is probably a nice fit for living your life on Twitter.
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I have the CD-ROMs(translated to an external hard-drive), and, as I am a contributor, get up-dates -actually, wordgeek blushes installed here, I also contribute to and get updates from 2 other major dictionaries - there is an ongoing omnivorous search for new words in English/quasi-English. Most coinings are *very* ephemeral but the word hoarders, self included, like to note them.
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Neil Gaiman is on a par - for me - with Terry Pratchett.(Not for nothing did they collaborate on the "The Nice & Accurate"etc.: I lurrrrve their work (have pretty well all of it - but have never met either, nor want to - their work is sufficient.) And both of them are genuinely awesome & nice & publically available & use pretty well all the resources of the internet whereas - others... like our quiet & solitude...I actually dont like meeting my favourite writers (an unfortunate number are dead just now) but I have corresponded with a few (from Tolkien to Sutcliffe. Janet I just talked with, on the rare occaisions we met.)
-humans! Whenever will they learn?
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WH,
I recently finished The Best and the Brightest, which tells the tale of how the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations escalated US involvement in Vietnam. Halberstam intertwines the main narrative with brief sketches of the key personnel. It's interesting.
I came away thinking about how people come to commit their energy to causes and ideas that may or may not turn out amazingly well (which is the point of the book, I suppose).
And I found this great house track on Youtube! (Off topic, I know)
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Only waterproof book I've ever seen was in someone's shower in Sydney - Aussie songs for the shower. A slim tome I wouldn't recommend.
Fish identification guides and so forth have been around for a bit. Meanwhile, a quick prod on Amazon reveals - is every thread going there this week? - Aqua Erotica, for reading in the bath.
The world does need some sort of bath-reading technology, but I don't think dedicated book formats is the way to go. Something like a plastic bag that somehow allowed pages to be turned would be more my speed.
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Oh yeah, I bought some cheap-as Wordsworth Edition paperbacks.
I am now ploughing through The Newgate Calendar , which is a bunch of 18th century true crime stories, as circulated in the pamphlets of the time. It should be compulsory reading for the hang'em high brigade. Death was the penalty for almost everything under the Bloody Code, but viciousness of crime was no better, and maybe worse than what we see today.
The whole thing is in loving detail and wrapped in sanctimonious prose (obviously the reader is only interested for moral instruction, yeah right). $2 new from Real Groovy Wellington.
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I actually dont like meeting my favourite writers
It's funny you should say that, because I did in fact meet Terry Pratchett. I didn't know him from a crowbar at the time (91 or 92) but a friend of mine liked him so when I found out that he was doing a reading in a Edinburgh bookshop I queued up to get one of his books signed for said friend back home. The reading was amazing, the man affability itself, and I became a convert.
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If kindle encourages people to read, then why not? I have never held one so it is hard to say that I wouldn't use it. I never thought that I would use audio books, but I do. I never thought I would read on the computer, but I do.
There is, I agree, something about holding a book, smelling, turning pages, but is it always possible for all of us to access/afford the books we want, no. I think kindle has it place.
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steven crawford - waterproof books (or, at least, notebooks, exist...I used to get them from a Brit supplier, but I am sure there are many more.
Only waterproof book I've ever seen was in someone's shower in Sydney - Aussie songs for the shower. A slim tome I wouldn't recommend.
The world does need some sort of bath-reading technology, but I don't think dedicated book formats is the way to go.
Y'all may wish to get acquainted (if you haven't already, it's a bit ancient by now) with Michael Braungart's Cradle to Cradle.
The book was printed on DuraBook technology, meaning plastic pages - but the wonder of it is that it feels and smells so good - not just like paper, but close enough for a dead-tree reader to seriously wonder whether or not it might eventually be a good format to use.
Yes, it's waterproof, and yes, you can dog-ear pages if you're a philistine (they spring back though over weeks, not seconds). And, notably, it's designed not to be recycled into something worth less, like Coke bottles, but to remain a book throughout its lifetime. The idea is that eventually the book can be returned to the publisher, the inks lifted off, and the book structure itself reprinted by machine as a completely new title.
Did I mention that the contents are really interesting and provocative too?
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With Waitangi Day coming up it would be good to have some suggestions for appropriate and enjoyable reading. One of my favourite pre-Treaty NZ sources is 'Letters from the Bay of Islands: the story of Marianne Williams' edited by Caroline Fitzgerald (Penguin, 2004).
Marianne was one of the small group of missionaries who settled in Bay of Islands in the 1820s. These letters give some insight into the daily lives of this group which were fascinated by the locals, while despairing of their possible corruption in nearby Korerareka (Russell). It puts the Treaty development in a local context.
A depressed Charles Darwin drops in for a visit at Christmas 1835.
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I just came across this quote from PJ O'Rourke:
"...always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of the night."
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@Russell: That Francis Wheen book is a great read. Something to annoy and delight everybody.
I think he's a little unfair on Thatcherism (although not totally unfair - the evangelical side didn't appeal to my sceptical Tory instincts).
The index alone is hilarious, eg:
Tycoons.. sexiness of, 40; superstitions of, 56; weaking socks in bed, 60.
The index entry on God is too long to quote in full but examples include 'arrives in America...asked by Khomeni to cut off foriengers hands....believed to have created humans 10,000 years ago...could have made intelligent sponges....doesn't foresee Princess Diana's death...helps vacuum cleaner saleswoman...'
@Jolisa: yeah, James Wood caught my attention when I read a rave review of The Irresponsible Self which is a collection of essays about humour in literature.
It is a very serious book.
The thing which interested me about How Fiction Works was his examination of how writers tell stories from different perspectives and how that can be moved around in quite subtle ways.
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