Please don't loose book reading to online -

[oopsadaisyme]

This has probably been mentioned numerous times before, but books are so lovely, to kids, to us -

I love being able to turn off the tv and read to the kids, and when their asleep pick up a book and in quiet read a brilliant story from pages I can turn - even the feel of a book I love - marking a page, everything!

How awful it would be to put this all online, or am I wrong?

lol, grammar apparent

That's true, HanSolo. At the moment, Amazon/Kindle is providing a pretty interesting platform for new writers, mainly because you can sell the book pretty cheaply and people will give it a go. But what happens when the market is saturated with cheap unknowns? and cheap well-knowns (Amazon having forced down prices in much the way Tesco and co hammer the milk-sellers)?

And it is interesting that the way it works at the moment is as a way of bringing yourself to the attention of mainstream publishers, who still provide the access to a real career. I'm guessing that is because they have good systems of publicity.

It's just a hypothetical - I have no access to the future. Who knows, the market may open up.

I also have no enormous love for the current book industry, which seems in quite a lumpen form, and is not terribly brilliant at talent-hunting, nurturing writers, nurturing an audience, or even publishing books written initially in other languages.

But I really dislike the Amazon/Kindle monopoly.

I think the death of the lending library is not great - and I don;t think we can put it wholly down to a natural death, like a kind of capitalist natural selection.

oopsadaisyme I hope things are looking up for you and your family.

Of course i love books
And i love my kindle

I love books I devour books and have done since I was 7. My house is bursting with books, unfortunately for me I live in a small house. The best thing ever invented for me personally is a Kindle. I love my Kindle, I love being in the middle of a book and having a sudden need to check my online banking, or MN, or the weather, or the news, or FB. And being able to do it all from the same device. It's also great for reading in bed (or MNing) with the light off when DH is asleep which is what I'm doing now.

thecat yeah we all good now, thanks xx

Didn't think this thread would go the way it has, being called pompous v different - when you don't have access to the internet it's surprising how important books and newspapers become -

Hang on,you post thread.expect a comment.yes i do think your comment pompous
If you cant tolerate not being agreed with,perhaps online electrical shit isn't your thing
I love books.i love kindle.because i love reading.neither is better than other

Maybe if the internet was shut down for a week people would start to realise what many of us go through when your skint x

perhaps it will become like the toy market?
The market is flooded with cheap unknowns (I.e. cheap toys from far east).
Some people will stick to classics, which are costly (lego, playmobil, barbie, sylvanians) which they will source according to their spending power (I.e. toy shop, presents from family, online discount retailers, ebay, charity shop, toy library), pretty much how people obtain their print books, and companies like playmobil are pretty similar to publishing houses in how they protect their products too.
Other families will buy the unknown brands, take a chance- lots of toys will get broken easily, be discarded etc, but some, those special few, will become beloved favourites, due to their sheer playability, and joy-giving.

Youre online now,making point about closing the internet.curious

mojitomadness, you see there's a difference, I love the opposite, the book takes me away from all that. I think that's why I don't like reading screens for a lomg while. I go fell walking and take a book with me to totally escape all that.

scott you need to stop having a go - I didn't say one better than the other, just love books- you need to chill, or are u just online looking for a row?

oops- many MNers are skint!
Also, most of us can survive without the internet- we did for many years before it was invented.

Well, I concede I don't really have a deeply-embedded opinion about e-bookd. However, I do about on-line fora and their useres: I'd hate for on-line communities to become the haven only for unpleasant people with no empathy. And for their communicative exchanges to become only an excuse for thinly-veiled verbal attacks by anyone who just hates people.

And op you need to stop retorting that any reply is an attack.

scott sigh - get some sleep mate

'retorting' ?? really??

Came on here for something different and it's like the standard football forum. Funny and sad in equal measures.

Op You need to stop alternating between feeling got at,and pompous
I wont be instructed by you when to retire
Nor shall i instruct you when to retire

Going to try and cancel thread -

Thanks all who sent posts regarding actual thread, sorry it went that way, night all x

Fair point............I'm just about to retire.

Youre Sorry it went that way?you weren't wholeheartedly agreed with?it happens
Cancel thread,as in delete?why...

I have over 2000 books on my MacBook, just waiting to be synced to my phone.

I love how I can get them very cheaply, or free. I can store them all in once place. I have hundreds of books in my sdads attic but now I live in an apartment I don't have the luxury of a study or library so having hundreds compact on my phone is brilliant.

I can read in the dark, in bed very comfortably. Easier on the bus or train.

If I'm tired I can get my phone to read it for me.

I still love books, but e-books shouldn't be dismissed. They're brilliant in their own way. I've read about 60 books this year alone thanks to them!

That's my point. Libraries have moved on and are not just for books.

But I'm out as you've been exceptionally unpleasant to posters and are using your personal life to validate being so. Because believe me if being skint and having a tough time gives you the moral high ground than some of us folk on Mnet would be fucking Ghandi.

I work in a library, so needless to say I'm a big fan of 'real' books. I love my kindle too though (although more accurately, I love the kindle app on my iPod as I use that more now as it's more convenient). It's the words wot matter :o

I particularly like the lightness of the kindle/iPod, as heavy books are, well, too heavy (I get a lot of pain in my hands due to illness)

I adore my kindle and I genuinely don't understand the angst some people appear to feel about paper books. I love reading and I read a lot. It's the words and the story I love - certainly not the smell and the feel, I have zero desire to turn down pages! I love how I can buy a new book anytime and anywhere. My kindle is convenient and light and doesn't clutter up my house. Since having my kindle, I've probably tripled the amount of reading I do as books are so accessible.