Malcolm Jones writes in Newsweek:
“Paperbacks and public libraries made books cheap or free but certainly available to millions who might otherwise not have been able to afford them, and all that happened long before I was born. Nevertheless, I was brought up by people who had been taught—and who taught me—that books were valuable things, things to be cared for and cherished, and I have owned some volumes for close to half a century.
I come from a generation for whom the books and records on the shelf signaled, in some way, who you were (starting with the fact that you were a person who owned books or records or CDs). If you visited a friend, you took the first chance you had to surreptitiously scan that friend’s shelves to get a handle on the person. I suppose I could sneak a peek at a friend’s Kindle, but is that the same? And try that kind of snooping on a bus or in a coffee shop and you’ll probably get arrested. For a sense of the diminution of this sort of information gathering, click through this Tumblr of covers (scroll until you get to the e-reader included in the mix, to fully plumb the difference).”
People use social networking
People use social networking in today’s world to signal who you are. Sites like good reads and shelfari let you proudly display “who you are” with the books you put on your bookshelf. People are really starting to grasp at straws with this ebook thing.
it’s not who you are, but who you pretend to be
I can put any book in my goodreads list.. just as I can put any book on my book shelf… the presumption is that if you own the book, you are a smart/better person… but it means virtually nothing to link to a book or even download a book… because ultimately, there is no book. (re: The Matrix, “there is no spoon”)
There is a book
>because ultimately, there is no book.
There is a book. If I write an ebook that is full of libel about you and thousands download and read it do you not have a libel suit because it is not really a book? I get to use the matrix spoon line and you are just out of luck that I libeled you because it never really happened because I did not put it on paper?
yes. that’s exactly what happens in court.
no one ever presents any evidence because it never existed in the first place.
“Books v eBooks…Why the
“Books v eBooks…Why the Fight?” Why not? It helps illuminate this issue of our day.