My point being that buying various used books on random chance should be considered the exception rather than the rule when comparing buying ebooks online to visiting such as a retail brick and mortar bookstore.
I would also talk about how I can easily permanently give ebooks I've already read to friends and family, if it weren't for the inevitable "capacity for unlawfully duplicating ebook data files" and "circumventing DRM is illegal" discussions that would most certainly follow.
EDIT:By "can" I mean that I am able, not that I do. ...well, I do break-DRM on my ebooks, but only so I can fix errors in the NCX data; change the book cover and/or displayed title/author, and allow for easier transfer of books (whose data I've edited) between Calibre and both my wife's and my own Kindle (which use the same account btw, so they already share archived books/documents via Amazon.)
Just watching the previews for the new Three Musketeers movie makes me upset.
I'd expect nothing less from Paul "Waste of Space" Anderson. At least there's no Aliens in this one (at least I assume not), so I'm merely lightly-to-moderately angry at his continued employment within Hollywood this time around.
My point being that buying various used books on random chance should be considered the exception rather than the rule when comparing buying ebooks online to visiting such as a retail brick and mortar bookstore.
I think it depends on how much time you spend at used-bookstores.
Sleep time. I don't think I'm doing much drinking this week, which is surprising. I'm going downtown tomorrow for some Halloween thing, and this weekend most of my girls are busy.
While this may be true for new books, I don't think even ebook sales could beat most of the used books sales that I find.
While it's definitely more the case for newer books, I have noticed that older, more obscure, now out of print books which fetch somewhat higher prices physically are getting digital "reprints" that allow me to get them without dropping $100 on binding and paper. This is obviously a somewhat rarer circumstance than a used mass market paperback being $2 while the ebook edition is $5, but it's something that has happened to me a non-zero number of times.
There are also significant disadvantages to the sort of ease Dashing was referring to earlier. When information is instantly available, we're finding in studies that people are losing the ability to do basic information searches when not assisted by technology, resulting in a loss of critical thinking ability.
Are you referring to the Columbia University study? Because I personally prefer this interpretation to the idea that we've been made "stupid by means of Google".
The flaw with this argument is that if you get a used CD at a flea market, you can then convert it into digital format and then put it on iTunes. It's as easy as popping the CD into your computer, actually. Same goes with a record, if you have the right converters (which I do).
There is no comparable application with books short of physically scanning in every page which takes a long time and also wouldn't be readable on any eReader other than an iPad using a PDF reader app of some sort.
1. The Kindle, nook, and many other e-readers have PDF support. You should probably check to see if e-readers can read PDFs before saying that they can't.
2. Optical Character Recognition.
3. It wasn't really a flaw in the argument. The core of the idea was that going to a flea market/garage sale is something that involves a rather large amount of chance. There's a difference between rooting around used goods in the hopes that you'll find "something" good as opposed to knowing you can get what you want to read instantly from anywhere in the country. And you can say, sure, but you can spend LOADS of time in lots of used bookstores, but that's not really increasing the chances, just playing the slots more times because the only cost is wasted time. The thing is, not everyone wants to spend more time in used bookstores looking for old books than they're going to spend actually reading. The used bookstore and the time spent in it is time wasted if you just want to obtain a particular title, which makes up a large percentage of the times I would go into a bookstore.
While this may be true for new books, I don't think even ebook sales could beat most of the used books sales that I find. For years I would go buy horrible paperback fantasy trilogies for five bucks a trilogy at this used bookshop near my grandpa's house. And at library sales, I've picked up hardbacks for as little as twenty-five cents. And in the case of the L. Ron Hubbard books, I got those for free!
I also got Good Omens for three bucks. I love used book stores.
I remember when used bookstores were still cheap... I nearly died when I went in one a couple of years ago. I expected it to be more expensive then when I was a teen (practically lived in the used book shops and library) but a lot of the books were almost as much as new books and in bad condition. I now buy just out books from Target etc, and search for older ones online. I love Abe books...
I didn't want to do it, but I have now set everything Uni related to Friday.
(Well I've been forced into it really. As all of the other days are now misaligned since everyone wants to their tutorials on the same day as the lectures, and Managing people is on a Thursday. So now I have to set my tutorial to the only free slot on my Friday, which means I now have to attend the friday masterclass of another subject at 5pm in the evening... (Else I'd be coming in on a Thursday evening just for a 1 hour lecture, and to be honest I DON'T WANT TO SPEND 5 HOURS OF MY TIME COMMUTING JUST FOR A 1 HOUR LECTURE...)
This may sound good but its not really.
I need an excuse to go to uni for the day, and now everything is on one day, I'm going to struggle to come in on other days.
Meh. Guess I'll get more use out of the local library now.... >:/
OCR's shit and you know it. Anyway, who's really gonna sit around scanning a 500 page book so they can read it on their e-reader?
I'm still not sold on e-readers, probably as Chyron said because I don't have one, but mostly because it involves putting down a pile of cash before I even get to read one word. That and I don't really need to carry thousands of books about with me. Two at any given time is sufficent I find. Plus you can scribble and annotate the pages of a book very directly. There's a lot to be said of the pleasure of flicking through the pages to where you left off as well, but that's probably just me.
What with most publishing houses using sustainable forests these days and books being very cheap I don't think the printed word is going anywhere, for the time being at least. When it does i'll begrudgingly be pushed into the future, and maybe i'll like it.
3. It wasn't really a flaw in the argument. The core of the idea was that going to a flea market/garage sale is something that involves a rather large amount of chance. There's a difference between rooting around used goods in the hopes that you'll find "something" good as opposed to knowing you can get what you want to read instantly from anywhere in the country. And you can say, sure, but you can spend LOADS of time in lots of used bookstores, but that's not really increasing the chances, just playing the slots more times because the only cost is wasted time. The thing is, not everyone wants to spend more time in used bookstores looking for old books than they're going to spend actually reading. The used bookstore and the time spent in it is time wasted if you just want to obtain a particular title, which makes up a large percentage of the times I would go into a bookstore.
I think the thing here is a difference in book buying styles. Thing is, I often have absolutely no idea what I want to read. When you look for a book online you at generally need at least need to know the genre or an author or something to do a search. Since I like quite a few genres and there are a good deal of books, it's very hard to make a quick sweep of the inventory when you're online. Where in a bookstore, all that is required is to walk down an aisle.
This may, of course, seem like work, but don't forget this is part of the enjoyment factor. I LIKE digging through a random assortment of titles to look for something (even if I know what it is) because in doing so, I might be able to find a completely unrelated book that also piques my interest. This bit actually applies to physical, buying-new bookstores too. I go book shopping to see what jumps out at me. Sometimes I enter with the intention of buying a fantasy book and leave with a book of Middle Egyptian hieroglyphics or something similar.
Now, of course, someday books will be phased out entirely and my book collecting hobby will suddenly become extremely expensive, perhaps prohibitively so. And there's really nothing to be done about that. But Dashing, compare this to the end of film. The new digital age may be fantastic and cheaper and lighter...but there's something artistic that will be lost in the transition to an eReader just as a digital projector misses something from the original film projector.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to yell at some perfectly innocuous kids to get off my lawn.
I buy books. Just... books. It makes me feel a lot less like I'm fellating the god of cheaply made, unnecessary, stupid gadgets that do something only marginally as well as a technique we've been using for centuries. Maybe that's just me, though.
Read your post and imiediately thought of this one:
its so sad that bookstores are closing now. And blockbusters. Digital media is taking away jobs left and right. Soon video games will be all downloaded as well. And all of america will be overweight
its so sad that bookstores are closing now. And blockbusters. Digital media is taking away jobs left and right. Soon video games will be all downloaded as well. And all of america will be overweight
Just watching the previews for the new Three Musketeers movie makes me upset.
Somehow I missed this earlier. All I can say is that I just don't know about this movie. It could be an interesting AU take on the original books... or it could be and absolutely awful adaptation that only borrows the title and character names. Who knows? Regardless, the Gene Kelly version will probably continue to be my favorite adaptation, though.
I just hope to all that is good and holy that the musketeer that made the snarky comment about it being an off day at the end of the trailer was Athos. At least then, they would get at least one character right.
Somehow I missed this earlier. All I can say is that I just don't know about this movie. It could be an interesting AU take on the original books... or it could be and absolutely awful adaptation that only borrows the title and character names.
Just like The Three Musketeers movie put out by Disney some time ago was silly, campy, has a accent-less Chris O'Donnell and Tim Curry (of all people) yet many consider it to be a great movie. While the more recent "The Musketeer" movie, which I have seen in the theatre, is appropriately darker in tone and has better costume design, yet still is rather terrible.
Just like The Three Musketeers movie put out by Disney some time ago was silly, campy, has a accent-less Chris O'Donnell and Tim Curry (of all people) yet many consider it to be a great movie. While the more recent "The Musketeer" movie, which I have seen in the theatre, is appropriately darker in tone and has better costume design, yet still is rather terrible.
I didn't have enormous problems with that one as long as I pretended it wasn't REALLY a Musketeers movie. I wouldn't say it was great by any measure, but I enjoyed it enough while I was watching it. A few parts made me grind my teeth (basically the ending where [spoiler/]Constance doesn't die and how Cardinal Richelieu is made into the big bad...which he isn't really
)
If this movie is at least on that level, I may shake my head and complain a bit, but I won't particularly mind. If it's going how it looks like its going, where half of the movie is in slow-mo because that makes things look epic...I'm going to have a serious problem with it.
Edit to Avoid Double Post: WOO! We just had an earthquake in California!
(That should discourage everyone from moving here...)
Each day, I am more and more convinced that The Three Stooges should have made a Three Musketeer movie during the Curly era, because Shemp sucks.
Also, Comrade Mortis and I have talked occasionally about me moving to California instead of her moving here but then we'd be unable to own the guns we want to own so we decided against it. Also, California's economy is perilously close to toppling, so enjoy that.
Also, Comrade Mortis and I have talked occasionally about me moving to California instead of her moving here but then we'd be unable to own the guns we want to own so we decided against it. Also, California's economy is perilously close to toppling, so enjoy that.
I happen to rather like it here, economy or no. And as far as I know, it's perfectly all right to own guns (with the proper licenses, of course), it's just harder to get the licenses to conceal carry them. Of course, this isn't much of an issue for me in any case. I don't really plan on owning any guns as they tend to escalate conflict much too quickly.
The only place I'd rather live than here is Dartmoor, but that's rather out of my reach at the moment.
I happen to rather like it here, economy or no. And as far as I know, it's perfectly all right to own guns (with the proper licenses, of course), it's just harder to get the licenses to conceal carry them. Of course, this isn't much of an issue for me in any case. I don't really plan on owning any guns as they tend to escalate conflict much too quickly.
The only place I'd rather live than here is Dartmoor, but that's rather out of my reach at the moment.
Yeah, but it's way too difficult for my liking and besides, I prefer for as many people as possible around me to be armed. It's a good deterrent. Those permits make that hard to achieve. Further, I'd have to ditch all of my current magazines for my guns as anything over 5 rounds for rifles and 10 rounds for pistols are illegal and I derive a great deal of comfort from having those extra rounds available if I need them. Further, reloading is annoying.
In short, I'm not moving to California. Texas and Alaska are places we've talked about living, though. Washington also seems kind of nice.
So tonight I have a ghost tour to go on. We'll walk around the haunted places in the city and get a history of each. Should take about an hour and a half. Then, drinks!
Yeah, but it's way too difficult for my liking and besides, I prefer for as many people as possible around me to be armed. It's a good deterrent. Those permits make that hard to achieve. Further, I'd have to ditch all of my current magazines for my guns as anything over 5 rounds for rifles and 10 rounds for pistols are illegal and I derive a great deal of comfort from having those extra rounds available if I need them. Further, reloading is annoying.
In short, I'm not moving to California. Texas and Alaska are places we've talked about living, though. Washington also seems kind of nice.
As someone who has lived in California their entire life, I can safely say that there has never been a time when I've felt that owning a gun was necessary. I have to wonder what kind of apocalypse you've been preparing for where you would need so much ammo.
If you move to Alaska, I will never visit, which might be a good incentive for you to do so, actually. Texas...I'd probably also avoid, actually, due to it's excessive humidity. I crave the sea and the desert and that's where I like to be.
As someone who has lived in California their entire life, I can safely say that there has never been a time when I've felt that owning a gun was necessary. I have to wonder what kind of apocalypse you've been preparing for where you would need so much ammo.
If you move to Alaska, I will never visit, which might be a good incentive for you to do so, actually. Texas...I'd probably also avoid, actually, due to it's excessive humidity. I crave the sea and the desert and that's where I like to be.
I dunno. I don't really *need* as much ammo as I have, except for practice and maintaining proficiency with my weapons. However, shooting is a great hobby as it builds attentiveness and concentration, and the discipline required to properly handle firearms can be applied elsewhere in live as well.
Now, I will probably never actually need my guns, but I take solace in knowing that if I'm ever in a tough spot, I can neutralize whatever sort of hostile force (looters, muggers, home invaders, etc) might be acting against me and mine and not have to wait for police to arrive. I derive tremendous comfort from the sense of safety this affords. I wouldn't feel as safe in California or somewhere else where I could not be so armed, but I'd still gladly go for Comrade Mortis' sake if she asked.
Davies rules, he commands the weak and the almighty. Never before has one man displayed such grace and decor. If any person could posses half the talent that Davies does; then they would be truly content within their own lives.
I lived in southern California for four years a while back. I'm happy to be out.
California Annoyances:
Driving
Oh, come on! The driving is the BEST part of SoCal! It's like playing chess on a freeway where the loser dies an explosion-y death. Everywhere else in the US (except possibly New York) is pretty boring because everyone follows the rules and nobody creates spontaneous new speed limits at 80 mph.
Comments
I would also talk about how I can easily permanently give ebooks I've already read to friends and family, if it weren't for the inevitable "capacity for unlawfully duplicating ebook data files" and "circumventing DRM is illegal" discussions that would most certainly follow.
EDIT:By "can" I mean that I am able, not that I do. ...well, I do break-DRM on my ebooks, but only so I can fix errors in the NCX data; change the book cover and/or displayed title/author, and allow for easier transfer of books (whose data I've edited) between Calibre and both my wife's and my own Kindle (which use the same account btw, so they already share archived books/documents via Amazon.)
I'd expect nothing less from Paul "Waste of Space" Anderson. At least there's no Aliens in this one (at least I assume not), so I'm merely lightly-to-moderately angry at his continued employment within Hollywood this time around.
I think it depends on how much time you spend at used-bookstores.
Are you referring to the Columbia University study? Because I personally prefer this interpretation to the idea that we've been made "stupid by means of Google".
1. The Kindle, nook, and many other e-readers have PDF support. You should probably check to see if e-readers can read PDFs before saying that they can't.
2. Optical Character Recognition.
3. It wasn't really a flaw in the argument. The core of the idea was that going to a flea market/garage sale is something that involves a rather large amount of chance. There's a difference between rooting around used goods in the hopes that you'll find "something" good as opposed to knowing you can get what you want to read instantly from anywhere in the country. And you can say, sure, but you can spend LOADS of time in lots of used bookstores, but that's not really increasing the chances, just playing the slots more times because the only cost is wasted time. The thing is, not everyone wants to spend more time in used bookstores looking for old books than they're going to spend actually reading. The used bookstore and the time spent in it is time wasted if you just want to obtain a particular title, which makes up a large percentage of the times I would go into a bookstore.
I remember when used bookstores were still cheap... I nearly died when I went in one a couple of years ago. I expected it to be more expensive then when I was a teen (practically lived in the used book shops and library) but a lot of the books were almost as much as new books and in bad condition. I now buy just out books from Target etc, and search for older ones online. I love Abe books...
I didn't want to do it, but I have now set everything Uni related to Friday.
(Well I've been forced into it really. As all of the other days are now misaligned since everyone wants to their tutorials on the same day as the lectures, and Managing people is on a Thursday. So now I have to set my tutorial to the only free slot on my Friday, which means I now have to attend the friday masterclass of another subject at 5pm in the evening... (Else I'd be coming in on a Thursday evening just for a 1 hour lecture, and to be honest I DON'T WANT TO SPEND 5 HOURS OF MY TIME COMMUTING JUST FOR A 1 HOUR LECTURE...)
This may sound good but its not really.
I need an excuse to go to uni for the day, and now everything is on one day, I'm going to struggle to come in on other days.
Meh. Guess I'll get more use out of the local library now.... >:/
That is all.
OCR's shit and you know it. Anyway, who's really gonna sit around scanning a 500 page book so they can read it on their e-reader?
I'm still not sold on e-readers, probably as Chyron said because I don't have one, but mostly because it involves putting down a pile of cash before I even get to read one word. That and I don't really need to carry thousands of books about with me. Two at any given time is sufficent I find. Plus you can scribble and annotate the pages of a book very directly. There's a lot to be said of the pleasure of flicking through the pages to where you left off as well, but that's probably just me.
What with most publishing houses using sustainable forests these days and books being very cheap I don't think the printed word is going anywhere, for the time being at least. When it does i'll begrudgingly be pushed into the future, and maybe i'll like it.
God, I need employment...
I think the thing here is a difference in book buying styles. Thing is, I often have absolutely no idea what I want to read. When you look for a book online you at generally need at least need to know the genre or an author or something to do a search. Since I like quite a few genres and there are a good deal of books, it's very hard to make a quick sweep of the inventory when you're online. Where in a bookstore, all that is required is to walk down an aisle.
This may, of course, seem like work, but don't forget this is part of the enjoyment factor. I LIKE digging through a random assortment of titles to look for something (even if I know what it is) because in doing so, I might be able to find a completely unrelated book that also piques my interest. This bit actually applies to physical, buying-new bookstores too. I go book shopping to see what jumps out at me. Sometimes I enter with the intention of buying a fantasy book and leave with a book of Middle Egyptian hieroglyphics or something similar.
Now, of course, someday books will be phased out entirely and my book collecting hobby will suddenly become extremely expensive, perhaps prohibitively so. And there's really nothing to be done about that. But Dashing, compare this to the end of film. The new digital age may be fantastic and cheaper and lighter...but there's something artistic that will be lost in the transition to an eReader just as a digital projector misses something from the original film projector.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to yell at some perfectly innocuous kids to get off my lawn.
Read your post and imiediately thought of this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhcPX1wVp38
Books that are so big that they can kill a man!
If not from the bludgeoning, then from the boredom of being forced to read them....
I....I....never got to go to Disneyland....
Someone get this guy a flight to Paris with priority ticket to space mountain:Mission 2! Stat!
Netflix didn't kill Blockbuster. Redbox did.
Somehow I missed this earlier. All I can say is that I just don't know about this movie. It could be an interesting AU take on the original books... or it could be and absolutely awful adaptation that only borrows the title and character names. Who knows? Regardless, the Gene Kelly version will probably continue to be my favorite adaptation, though.
I just hope to all that is good and holy that the musketeer that made the snarky comment about it being an off day at the end of the trailer was Athos. At least then, they would get at least one character right.
Was walking to the game store really that exercising?
Just like The Three Musketeers movie put out by Disney some time ago was silly, campy, has a accent-less Chris O'Donnell and Tim Curry (of all people) yet many consider it to be a great movie. While the more recent "The Musketeer" movie, which I have seen in the theatre, is appropriately darker in tone and has better costume design, yet still is rather terrible.
I didn't have enormous problems with that one as long as I pretended it wasn't REALLY a Musketeers movie. I wouldn't say it was great by any measure, but I enjoyed it enough while I was watching it. A few parts made me grind my teeth (basically the ending where [spoiler/]Constance doesn't die and how Cardinal Richelieu is made into the big bad...which he isn't really
If this movie is at least on that level, I may shake my head and complain a bit, but I won't particularly mind. If it's going how it looks like its going, where half of the movie is in slow-mo because that makes things look epic...I'm going to have a serious problem with it.
Edit to Avoid Double Post: WOO! We just had an earthquake in California!
(That should discourage everyone from moving here...)
Also, Comrade Mortis and I have talked occasionally about me moving to California instead of her moving here but then we'd be unable to own the guns we want to own so we decided against it. Also, California's economy is perilously close to toppling, so enjoy that.
I happen to rather like it here, economy or no. And as far as I know, it's perfectly all right to own guns (with the proper licenses, of course), it's just harder to get the licenses to conceal carry them. Of course, this isn't much of an issue for me in any case. I don't really plan on owning any guns as they tend to escalate conflict much too quickly.
The only place I'd rather live than here is Dartmoor, but that's rather out of my reach at the moment.
Yeah, but it's way too difficult for my liking and besides, I prefer for as many people as possible around me to be armed. It's a good deterrent. Those permits make that hard to achieve. Further, I'd have to ditch all of my current magazines for my guns as anything over 5 rounds for rifles and 10 rounds for pistols are illegal and I derive a great deal of comfort from having those extra rounds available if I need them. Further, reloading is annoying.
In short, I'm not moving to California. Texas and Alaska are places we've talked about living, though. Washington also seems kind of nice.
Interest restored.
As someone who has lived in California their entire life, I can safely say that there has never been a time when I've felt that owning a gun was necessary. I have to wonder what kind of apocalypse you've been preparing for where you would need so much ammo.
If you move to Alaska, I will never visit, which might be a good incentive for you to do so, actually. Texas...I'd probably also avoid, actually, due to it's excessive humidity. I crave the sea and the desert and that's where I like to be.
Boomer Sooner!
I dunno. I don't really *need* as much ammo as I have, except for practice and maintaining proficiency with my weapons. However, shooting is a great hobby as it builds attentiveness and concentration, and the discipline required to properly handle firearms can be applied elsewhere in live as well.
Now, I will probably never actually need my guns, but I take solace in knowing that if I'm ever in a tough spot, I can neutralize whatever sort of hostile force (looters, muggers, home invaders, etc) might be acting against me and mine and not have to wait for police to arrive. I derive tremendous comfort from the sense of safety this affords. I wouldn't feel as safe in California or somewhere else where I could not be so armed, but I'd still gladly go for Comrade Mortis' sake if she asked.
Now youve really crossed a line!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eFzjiuSu_A
California Annoyances:
At least we occasionally get cool Telltale games out of it, though!
Yeah, I rule! Worship me, bitch.
I liked it better before the edit.
Oh, come on! The driving is the BEST part of SoCal! It's like playing chess on a freeway where the loser dies an explosion-y death. Everywhere else in the US (except possibly New York) is pretty boring because everyone follows the rules and nobody creates spontaneous new speed limits at 80 mph.
...I miss SoCal...
Edit: Also...TTG is in NorCal.