I use both. The Kindle is very useful for when I go away, or when I find myself at a loose end in work and haven't brought my current book with me.

I know many find them practical and I have no problem with this but I have now been reading for
some 37 years and know that what a book gives me just cannot be substituted or improved upon

I watched the Germaine Greer documentary earlier this month and was surprised to hear her say that nobody buys books
any more. This from a woman who is most famous for writing a book. I would have taken all of hers off her immediately
The good ones I would read. The bad ones I would put on a bookshelf to get acquainted with dust. And all of the copies
I would donate to a bookshop [ there were a few of those ]

The computer was supposed to be the death of paper but paper is still here [ ubiquitously so ] and shows absolutely no sign of dying out. And exactly the same can be said of books wrt kindles. Thousand years from now our descendants will still be reading them. They have been around for millenia. Kindles have been around for five minutes. I think lots of Kindle owners are in love with the technology rather with than its actual function. So after a while they get bored with it and it becomes superfluous to requirement. I am glad more people are finally reading the real thing. I hope the trend continues I really do

Germaine Greer's a tool. I am interested to see whether you get through the entirety of The Female Eunuch, because it's one of the very few works that I have not finished. Incidentally, I have it in Kindle format.

I'm someone who has literally not had a single week go by without being in the process of reading a book since I first learnt to read. I've said before here that it's my addiction, and I was being quite serious. Take my books away from me and I would suffer a definite downturn in my quality of life. I too prefer printed copy to digital media, but I still really like having my Kindle, precisely because it is the content of the medium that I'm addicted to, not the medium itself. I don't mind how I get my drug, as long as I get it.

My house is packed to the rafters with books. There is no way to realistically accommodate more new books, but that doesn't stop me from acquiring them at the same rate I always have. A Kindle is a good way for me to continue to add to my library without having to think about where I'm going to put the books, and as I previously mentioned, you can carry hundreds of them with you at once. I look back without fondness to the days when going away meant lugging a rucksack full of books along too.

Printed books are with us for the long haul. I will definitely keep buying them. I'll also keep downloading content onto my Kindle, because my idea of Hell is to find myself in the predicament of not having at least 10 unread books to choose from. Both have their place, and I hope both stay viable.

I know you had a clear out of your attic a couple of years ago but I did not know your whole house was flooded with books
You said you do not like clutter so I am presuming you do not think books constitute clutter or they are all on bookshelves

I always assumed given the ridiculous speed reading capabilities of Sloth that he reads exclusively from a Kindle
You would have no room for anything if he read hard copy given the rate at which he actually gets through them
Obviously in both your cases you need a Kindle as the pair of you are serious bibliophiles with only limited space

I am not exactly sure what poor old Germaine has done to you but I will read Eunuch as it is both short and famous
I am far more likely not to finish fiction which is usually less important but the serious stuff nearly always get read

I am not quite as obsessive as you but still need literature as a means of educating myself which is really why I read
One can also learn from fiction although obviously it is not as a general rule going to be as profound as non fiction is

nope, i don't get on with a kindle at all - the only time i'd read one is on my phone if i'm waiting in the car for somebody...i much prefer a book...on the table next to me at the moment i have a stack of 12 books to choose from next, most from my recent birthday...

most of the books are on bookshelves...most of them...

Nearly finished Fifth Season and have so far found it alright given that I usually avoid fantasy altogether. I wont however be re reading it or reading the sequel for that reason but it was not as bad as I thought it might be. Could be a bit more tighter plot wise and a bit more graphic for the sake of realism. So slightly superficial for my taste in general although not so much
that I wont be finishing it. Is it YA ? Well it certainly reads like it is regardless of whether or not that was her intention. And
it reads like a first draft. An adult version would invariably be deeper and darker and so more realistic and therefore better

Well then you haven't a clue what the trilogy is about since you can't be bothered to finish.
What the fuck could ever be "realistic" about orogenes????
and the book is about as dark as you can get.

I agree, it's very dark - a whole 'race' of people who are generally hated and feared through no fault of their own, and are subjected to enforced training, abuse and lifelong surveillance.

As for non-fiction being generally more profound than fiction, I strongly disagree. You're forgetting the whole area of the message in fiction.

Fallible wrote:...literally not had a single week go by without being in the process of reading a book...

Most of the time the word "literally" is used inappropriately, and at any rate, it has become seriously overused in the past few years, but without being able to put my finger on the reason why, this amused me.

Having noticed quite a bit of discussion about novels set in highly detailed historical contexts, I'd like to recommend two. Both were written by Aldous Huxley. Grey Eminence takes a look at France during the 30 year war, focusing on François Leclerc du Tremblay, a monk and an advisor to Cardinal Richelieu, who in turn was foreign secretary and a chief minister to Louis XIII, predecessor of the Sun King. Tremblay, and later on Richelieu became known as the unseen movers and shakers behind the throne. Hence, the label Éminence grise.

To me, Huxley makes the dead figures of school books come alive without in the least neglecting his task of explaining the history they made and the history that made them. He is quite adept too at explaining the web of interconnections between religion, politics and social life. About ten years later he succeeded again on hand of a very different scenario when The Devils of Loudun was published. Here he looks more at how changing political dynamics changed church "morality", and what impact both had on the fate of one town due to the King's relentless drive to centralise as much power as he could in his crown. Without that drive the later king, Louis XIV, could not have said: "L'état, C'est Moi".

My recommendation is not at all objective. Despite Huxley's regrettable tilt toward New Ageism, he has been my favourite author for decades. His first three novels were marvellous satire of the dry and wry kind. I so wish I could write like he did. Nobody has managed to combine economy and vividness so well. (IMO, of course.)

Hermit wrote:

Fallible wrote:...literally not had a single week go by without being in the process of reading a book...

Most of the time the word "literally" is used inappropriately, and at any rate, it has become seriously overused in the past few years, but without being able to put my finger on the reason why, this amused me.

I didn’t say ‘literally reading’. I mean it as it is meant to be used. I have actually had a book on the go every week of my life for as long as I can remember.

or two or three is the norm. One reason I read 99% exclusively on the laptop ( occasionally on the phone ) is too have a few at hand instead of piled by the bedside as the dead tree versions would be. I recall as a kid I'd hit the adult shelves of the ( small ) local library and get 6 out for the week and another 4-6 the next week. Librarian was the mother of a classmate and let me borrow in the adult section ....I'd go through genre by genre except romance and detective.
Nice to have the time to bury myself in a book and read straight through ...happens on occasion now. SeaBiscuit was memorable as finished the book and saw the movie in a 24 hour period.

Hard time knowing what to do with the several hundred books in paper format ...looks like it will be 5-7 more years for move permanently to Australia and I won't take any but a few favs as partner also has a large library.

I've got one hard copy and one electronic copy on the go at the moment.

At the back of Fifth Season is the intro to Speak by Louisa Hall which I want to read. A novel set across time about how humans and machines communicate with each other. Her latest book Trinity is a fictionalised account of seven peoples meetings with Oppenheimer. Definitely a novel I am interested in so another name to the list of authors I need to read

Also Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and anything at all by David Icke and Frederick Forsyth except Jackal

I really liked the idea of stone eaters in Fifth Season not only because of their physical capability but also
their mystique. I might if push comes to shove re read it at some point but it wont be for a very long time

Next up is Nietzsche by Rudiger Safranski which I did not finish the first time around because of its incredibly dense prose
Nietzsche sometimes written as Nietszche which seriously irritated me because you dont expect that in an academic work

Macdoc wrote:
Hard time knowing what to do with the several hundred books

Old book shops or Amnesty International will take them

Parting with books is like parting with a small piece of yourself. Destroying books is murder.

No book should ever be burned less you are in serious danger of freezing to death
Even then one should try as much as possible to avoid burning anything of quality

Old book shops or Amnesty International will take them

not so much in Canada for bookshops - even libraries will not take - tho I don't know about Amnesty

Amnesty definitely takes them over here because they advertise for them in their magazine
We also have market traders who sell old books and bric a brac shops so you could try them

The Sloth has convinced me to get The Terror by Dan Simmons. The best non fiction account of polar exploration
I have read is Captain Scott by Ranulph Fiennes. A brutal and heartbreaking account of that infamous journey to
be the first to reach the South Pole. Hopefully Dan will be just as good