i've done both... i still like the paper side of things.
i've done both... i still like the paper side of things.
Both, but if I have a choice, I enjoy most reading the old fashioned way. It's more fun, and comfortable. After a while of reading books in the computer, my eyes start getting sore. Typically, I read texts online for university or if I can't get a copy of a particular book in paper.
paper paper paper! i've only read one thing (or some other bits) from the computer but my eyes hurt after a while, then i spend too much time at the pc anyway, and anyway a book can be taken anywhere, i read often on the bus...or in my room anyway, and the computer isn't.
I've only done the online thing once, and I didn't get beyond chapter 4. I don't like reading off a screen, it hurts me. And you can't curl up in the corner of a big chair with a computer, like you say, Koa. Not to mention the way books smell, feel, look...it's all part of the experience.
i agree completely. for me, one of the best parts of reading a story is the ability to get totally lost in it, and relax and forget about my worries. i love to be able to curl up in a comfy chair, or under a tree in the park, or even the bathtub and relax and enjoy it. i cant really get that sitting at my computer.
i have used my palm pilot to do reading for school when im on the go, though. its kind of nice, because it's practical. but it is in no way the method i choose for pleasure reading though.
The ability to digitally produce the written word was once predicted as the gateway to obsolecense as far as paper as a medium was concerned. The future, it was predicted, would herald the computer screen as the new Messiah of literary archive. What is commomly referred to as a 'book' was deemed to be going the way of the dodo bird (now extinct). Around the same time, as science became societies new 'God', predictions that every family would have two flying cars was also very popular.
Humans have a tactile sense, are as driven to use it as birds are driven to fly. A book printed on paper can be held, sensed, weighed. Books will never be replaced by any other currently known format. When we stop killing all the trees perhaps books may be made from some more easily renewable fibre (hemp has so many..........WONDERFUL uses). The physical printed book is here to stay. Other formats can only pale in comparison on their best days!!!!
I can and do read short works on computer (e.g. essays, poetry up to epic length). This is mostly a function of convenience: they're easy to access and easy to read that way. I much prefer books and for anything longer than, say, a novella, I'll only read printed matter.
well i think i must specify even more. obviously the computer screen will give you head-aches. what i meant was those portable e-book devices. sort of like this:
http://www.gemstar-ebook.com/ebconte...es/default.asp
think about it... instead of carrying around thousands of pages of a book you like you carry one panel (like they do on star trek) and the LCD display on that makes sure you don't get eye strain. if more titles were available on those things i would choose that over paper but the fact is there aren't enough titles to warrant them. it's kind of a chicken+egg question. no one wants to buy those devices and therefore there aren't demand for titles. publishers aren't in a hurry to publish e-books cause there aren't enough demands. ah well. people still like books/paper.
Texas Instrument has designed a paper-thin device that you can fold and put in your pocket (like real paper). on that device you can display all types of multimedia information (including video/music, etc.). you can read books on there as well i think but it hasn't made it to the consumer-end yet... still in R&D+prototypes.
the reason i like those devices is you can store thousands of books instead of just one! for a device under 1 lbs you can have not only war+peace but the complete works of tolstoy. not only hamlet but complete works of shakespeare and both of those authors' complete works and you can store thousands of times even more!!! yeah... the future doesn't come soon enough for me =(. 2slow.
I do a lot of `reading' on computer for work. I get eye strain often even though I use reading glasses that are supposedly glare and strain-free :eek:
So, when it comes to reading for fun to get my mind off of work etc. , I much prefer to get cosy on the couch or in bed with a real book, it's just not the same reading print-out from the `net and I don't have a lap-top.
However these are very cool! I want one...
Quote:
Originally Posted by JediFonger
Am I alone in finding books made of paper being referred to as "old fashioned" somewhat misleading? Granted, technology has come a long way, introduced some fascinating and ultimately useful new-age 'mousetraps', but books printed on paper are not old fashioned, nor the technology past prime. Nothing 'modern' has been invented to replace the 'book', the better mousetrap not invented. And like so many other rituals, a book performs more duties, has more uses than merely a rest stop for words. Who among us hasn't displayed their literary treasures on shelves as comforting wraps in a room, shared the printed word knowing the book may not return to the master, and not minding.
Lend/give your laptop to an aquaintance, a stranger so that they too may see, accept the fact it may not be returned, ever, and accept it's loss as easily as that of a paperback misplaced...
how about no more lending? but simply emailing?
I love paper version, i love putting book marks between pages, i love putting that yellow piece of "post it" paper between pages and i love putting some drawings between pages, which are expressions of my thoughts after i read some interesting lines.
SO PAPER RULES!!
Si Jedifonger, muy bein, emailing. But the consensus (see poll results above) is one of discomfort pertaining to the reading of books on a monitor/screen. A book should never give discomfort, or at least a discomfort stirred by words should be limited to emotion me thinks....
well by screen/display there are a number of disparaging technologies now which make that head-ache less. a LCD display will give you less problems than CRT for reading.