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monkeon writes, "People tend to seek things that back up already held beliefs, but what books, films, or real-life events have actually changed the way you think about a subject?"
( , Thu 2 Apr 2015, 15:27)
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I love reading books, there is just something about the joy of a book that is special, the feel of the pages as you turn them and then if it is an old book it has that certain smell. A while back I heard of these things called e-Readers and I scoffed at the idea. How could you replace the most exquisite learning tool of all time, the book?
Now I understand. I bought my Kindle two months ago after a friend said I should give them a try. With in three hours I was a convert. Amazon have released hundreds of Classic novels for free or for less than a pound. I have so far read Horace Walpole, Edgar Allen Poe, HG Wells and am desperately trying to complete my George Orwell collection in e-Book format. The other great thing about them is that new writers can have a place to self publish and I really like that aspect of it because I have tried too.
It is true that there is a lot of weird and frankly peculiar erotica on the Kindle store, but there are also some really good books there by people who are writing some really inspired stuff. I have just read a series by Michelle Muckley and it was really well written and thoroughly enjoyable.
TLDR : Kindle, used to hate, now like.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 3:18, 49 replies)
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Still, nice Amazon sales pitch.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 8:48, closed)
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But please take a look around at your other options.
There are loads of sites offering free eBooks, such as https://www.gutenberg.org/ You have to manually drag them into your kindle via something like Windows Explorer, but once on there they work just like any other books, and you don't have to pay Amazon for something in the public domain.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 10:08, closed)
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Calibre works well on most OS's including Android. And it's free!
Here's my goto for textbooks. Search reddit/torrent sites for others.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 11:21, closed)
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kindles might have their place for travelling etc. but if they kill off bookshops, i will find them all, and i will burn them all.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 11:49, closed)
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then what would happen to second-hand book shops? Or charity shops, who do a roaring trade in books? I agree wholeheartedly that a book has a distinct personality of its own and its text on a Kindle (or equivalent) just doesn't compete. I've still got one, though.
My guess is there'll always be the market for books themselves. A Kindle's not for life, just for holidays.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 15:34, closed)
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people who fetishize the medium rather than the content are tragic old duffers
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 15:54, closed)
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everybody needs a hobby.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 16:42, closed)
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vinyl can fuck off though
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 16:45, closed)
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what have you got, what have you got, what have you got???
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 16:50, closed)
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Two sets of the D'Artagnan romances. A bunch of hilarious Victorian housewife guides. Most of Les Rougon-Macquart. Dunno ... other stuff.
I don't read any of them. I've got technology to do that.
edit: except the household guides ... they're excellent toilet browsing after a heavy night
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 16:57, closed)
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Lib Gen. Tons of books. Mostly academic, but have a browse.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 13:52, closed)
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...so I got myself a backlit Kindle, having previously been strongly averse to the idea of getting an ereader. If you're prepared to combine the idea with wholesale piracy, you can download pretty much every book you've ever wanted to read - for example I've got about 200 Warhammer 40K novels on mine right now.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 13:59, closed)
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( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 15:55, closed)
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( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 16:40, closed)
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Collecting and painting an army, and playing the games is fine; the miniatures are fun hobby, and the games are well designed and fun.
But the novels? If you like sci-fi, you could be reading the Hyperion Cantos, or The Culture Series, or pretty much anything by Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Greg Bear, Alfred Bester. I don't mean to sneer (although I know this is coming off as that), but there are some amazing authors out there, producing sci-fi that is also quality literature, with genuinely amazing ideas, and I cannot recommend them enough.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 17:22, closed)
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Plenty of Asimov, Dick and Vonnegut (and Heinlein as well, 'cause there would obviously be no 40K without Starship Troopers)...it's just that every now and again I want a straightforward story in which about 20 billion people are needlessly slaughtered on some distant planet.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 17:29, closed)
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Seriously though, go and get Hyperion, and the 3 sequels to it... they're really fucking good.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 17:32, closed)
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though I am going through all of Banks again chronologically so it'll probably be another one of his next
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 19:33, closed)
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( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 21:28, closed)
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Just how much Dick do you have on there?
( , Wed 8 Apr 2015, 8:15, closed)
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All the Dick, I'd imagine
( , Wed 8 Apr 2015, 12:40, closed)
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( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 16:57, closed)
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we all know what happened the last time you went full walrus
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 19:46, closed)
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Taking 3 or 4 books with me when working away to pass the time sitting in airports etc. Now I have my Kindle with 1500 books on it, all in something small enough to slip into my pocket.
Also a big fan of Calibre for sorting my collections (biggest bug bear on the Kindle is not being able to easily sort collections).
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 14:36, closed)
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I have found the 'page turning' to be a bit buggy - but was fixed when I dl'ded the script and installed rather than using the package.
( , Tue 7 Apr 2015, 22:23, closed)
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A lot of people seem to think that buying and using an e-reader means that you stop buying and using physical books. The two forms complement each other very well and I wouldn't be without either.
( , Thu 9 Apr 2015, 13:28, closed)
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What I like most about reading is when you might have been reading for 30mins and then it is as tho you are no longer reading but pictures and events are forming in your mind like a movie as you read. I get this a lot with ebooks. Weird I know.
( , Thu 9 Apr 2015, 15:19, closed)
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