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Starting A Book Club - Kindle vs A Real Book - Your Opinion Please!


mylolita

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Hey ya’ll!

 

Hope everyone is well with what’s going on with, y’know, THE VIRUS!

 

I don’t mean to be sarcastic or disrespectful, but I am officially through with being so depressingly serious for so long I must release some cheeky humour into my life again!

 

Bit of background to my trivial debate! I want your opinion on this, fellow readers, book lovers, fans of the written word!

 

I adore books - always have done and always will! Always wanted to be part of a book club. I imagined a group of kindered weirdos like myself, from all different walks of life, like this secret societal underground meeting (kinda gonna be underground when the lockdown lifts because I am hosting our first meet up in the basement sub garden room, oh yes, with tipples)!

 

I went ahead and gathered a few new Mum friends, by a few I mean two - it’s bleak, because apparently no one has time anymore to read or no one wants too. I was already feeling a bit depressed by this point but grateful for my two little bookies and on we go. First girl picks, we all order the thing and they just drop in casually yes, kindle this and yes, audio book that. Now I am really depressed.

 

So here we go guys, another thing that doesn’t matter to anyone else but is practically do or die to me - am I crazy, or are Kindles the devil? And am I crazy, but isn’t it a bit insane that no one is gonna be reading a book when we are in a book club?!

 

I know, I hear you, the irony of me writing and reading on here, virtual, blog like - I have an online journal, I get it, I get it!!! But I also keep a diary, a physical one, and, my book shelves are brimming. It’s not a snob thing, but I love the physical object of a book like an old friend and I need it there, sitting there as a reminder of the time and future times we will have. It’s like music to me - I remember exactly when and where I was when I first read a book I love and I link a good book to a certain time in my life.

 

I’m not even going to get started on the experience of holding a book, of snuggling down with one under the covers, of propping one up, half damp, in a steam filled bath. The weird intimacy of holding a second hand book and seeing where someone has chosen to fold over the corner of a page or even annotate. The smell. The delicate yet sharp sound of a thin page turning.

 

And then there’s... swallow... the EBOOK. I can’t even type everything I feel is wrong with them. Okay ja, they have their merits in some small ways I’m sure and YES, if you were an author and 80% of your sales were going to come from ebooks surely you would have too... no, you would not, by the way.

 

I‘m an old romantic. I deal with technology when I have too, it doesn’t mean I want it or I like it. A book club full of kindles has got my back up. We need a dictatorship here, a dictatorship that says book club is for books people, not screens! By the way, these people aren’t blind or disabled, they can hold and understand a book. My question is why, WHY!? Why would you chose fake plastic flowers when you could have a bouquet of real ones?!

 

I get further and further into modern life and I don’t want it. I’m 30 now with two children and becoming a real crank. I saw an interview with Elon Musk and I don’t want any of it. He started talking about plugging into the virtual reality or something and I just freaked out and checked out at that point. I am inside my Georgian house here holing myself up against this horrible, inevitable, freaking bionic future or whatever the fig.

 

But now! For my request!!!! Let the anger begin! If anyone wants to reply - what’s your opinion? Do you love a Kindle? Do you hate them? Indifferent? Am I the savage here?

 

Maybe I need to be more politically correct and inclusive? A bit of vomit has just risen up my throat.

 

Hope you’re all well and still own a few books or I am gonna die.

 

Lo x

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I've never understood the negative feelings about ebooks. A book is a book is a book, whether or not you see it on a kindle, a paper book or hear it on an audiotape. It's the content that matters. It's how you react to the words. I personally LOVE my audiobooks. I listen to them when I'm doing my 2 mile walks every day. Sometimes I'll do an extra lap just to get to the end of the chapter.

 

Studies show that there is no difference in understanding content between a paper book and an audio book. I think it's just a way of virtue signaling to say that a paper book is superior.

 

I couldn't care less about how a book smells. It's just freaking paper at the end of the day.

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I prefer real books. I would be fine with a book club if some read it on kindle. I wouldn’t. But a few years ago this odd mom on my Facebook moms group wanted me to invite her to my new book club my neighbor started. But she wanted to do audio books. I didn’t feel comfortable inviting a stranger to a neighbors home but on top of that - if you’re not going to read the book then what’s the point. Audio to me is not the same at all. I am a bookworm and been in a number of book clubs. My neighbors ended after a few sessions because of infighting having nothing to do with me. Sad.

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I'll meet your riff with a riff.

 

Big reader here—and, all in all, an analog soul. As such, I'm not big on the Kindle thing, though I don't have the same distaste for it. Call me an e-book agnostic? For me it's just mediocre technology compared to a 3D book, which, let's remember, is also very much a form of technology, one I prefer to, I don't know, a handwritten scroll on papyrus.

 

I absorb words better on the page than on the screen, so that's how I generally read them. I also like seeing them stacked up—on the shelves, against the walls—because I can look at them and remember where I was, and who I was, when reading them: the stoop in Big City X in the late 90s, the rear patio in Tropical City Y a week before the big storm rolled through, and, protecting into the future, a few recently finished hardbacks that, one day, will remind me of the strange days of shelter-in-place, and so on.

 

But if Kindle and the like resonates for some? Have at it! My best friend drives a Tesla, is all about "optimization" through tech. Works for him, while I ride a dirt bike and drive a 20 year old truck, both technological marvels in their own right, while being, I admit, pretty lame in running on a substance that causes untold human and environmental strife. Different strokes, different folks. Zooming out, I think the world is more interesting for having room for both of us, along with everything in between and on the other side.

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Neutral - can go either way. I don't read any fiction. I've tried and end up reading the front, scanning the middle and play a game predicting the end, then read the end, in a few minutes. Paper books gather dust and I'm more of a minimalist in my home. I'd have said I am an English graduate at one time eons ago so physical books did mean something to me twenty or thirty years ago. I can't say I have any affinity for physical books. I find a lot of written fiction predictable and uninteresting. I turn to non-fiction as I usually already know the outcome and am interested in a detail here and there, usually also scanning quickly or for reference point.

 

I prefer the future and digital for anything work-related. I do have pretty strong opinions about going paper-less or eliminating paper from every day administrative tasks. Some companies are more difficult to transition than others!

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old soul bookworm...hardcopy works for me.

oh when it gets old and yellow it looks like good showoff piece as well :)

I have books from the 80s, few of dads collection may be from 70s.

Still kept a lot for the large book shelf, the lockdown started reading few of them loads of time for use now.

For job/certification i have ebooks online courses provides you with pdf formatted workbooks so thats new age flavor works for me too.

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I read a lot of British novels, and I love hearing the narrator do the different kinds of accents that I would never imagine in a print book.

 

It seems that many people like the idea of books and the nostalgia/comfort of them more than the content.

 

Yes -audio is a different experience. For me it's because I am an avid reader for the last 47 years. I love the content. I always have. I do read some things on screen but not books. I would if I had no other choice. I also love live theater and listening to podcasts including where things are read aloud. For me that has nothing to do with reading a book.

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I couldn't care less about how a book smells. It's just freaking paper at the end of the day.

 

Hi Sarah!

 

I know this seems stupid, but hear me out so I can argue my case!

 

I had a best friend along time ago, we're no longer friends, and this may seem insignificant but it proves which camp you're in, or I should say, what type of glasses you view life through. People seem to roughly be divided into two camps.

 

I had just bought the house I'm in now with my husband. I was 25. It's an old period town house, we have historic deeds. Old marble fire places and you know, heady ornate plaster work on the ceilings. On viewing it for the first time, she said how lovely it was and everything. A year later she bought her own place with her boyfriend. You couldn't have a bigger contrast. All modern and very normal and lovely all the same, and she said this about her house: "I will never be like, I NEED more character" - she was referring to my house compared to hers, because it has what British people call "character". To sum it all up - she just never saw to appeal, she didn't get it! It wasn't her scene. To her, a fireplace is just a fireplace. In fact, they are bothersome and dusty and why have something like that when it is obsolete in a sense and why especially go to the bother of having chimneys restored and swept to light it now and then in the Winter?

 

You could say the same thing about a book. Yes, it is technically just paper. But my husband is just another human. But he's not. Not to me - I place in him all the meaning and soul and history we have and to not be too dramatic but, that is the difference to me between reading words on a screen and holding a book in your hand, turning the page, and placing it down when you've finished. Marking the page the way you want, leaving it spread open down the spine, slipping in a book mark, turning the corner of a page... anything. It is all a ritual, an organic ritual that is ever more non-present in modern life. I guess this is what I admire about Japanese culture - their love of the ritual!

 

I know it is pointless to debate this in a way, but I feel like the Kindle or eBooks represent the inevitable - a future of technology replacing what we once knew, and I guess part of me being so in love with the old is a way to try and savour things as we once knew them before the inevitable closes in.

 

Lo x

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I read a lot of British novels, and I love hearing the narrator do the different kinds of accents that I would never imagine in a print book.

 

It seems that many people like the idea of books and the nostalgia/comfort of them more than the content.

 

Sarah - this is exactly it! Obviously the content is the same, the argument isn't about the content, rather the experience, it differs so and I am afraid I am team book!

 

Thank you for your input though, from readers of eBooks I have no resentment, I am just interested in your point of view.

 

Lo x

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Oops--posted this on your duplicate thread:

 

I have a lot of books and very little space. I thought I'd never go the route of the kindle (or nook), but not long ago I was seriously considering it.

 

I'm like up to my armpits in books. The simple act of cleaning this apartment is like solving a 4x4 sliding puzzle. And books are a b*tch to move.

 

But I never caved in to my impulse to buy the kindle. I don't know if I ever will.

 

One thing I really like about books (besides the tactile experience of reading them) is the fact that they're not blasting light into my eyeballs.

 

My boyfriend has a kindle and he reads comic books on it. THAT is really cool. Kindles and comics work well together.

 

Computer screens don't bother my boyfriend's eyes, though.

 

As for books on tape... I enjoyed one once. It was called In the Kingdom of Ice and it was fantastic.

 

I probably never would have read it in book form. But the audio book was perfect for the long, mindless drives that I was making during that time.

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I prefer real books. I would be fine with a book club if some read it on kindle. I wouldn’t. But a few years ago this odd mom on my Facebook moms group wanted me to invite her to my new book club my neighbor started. But she wanted to do audio books. I didn’t feel comfortable inviting a stranger to a neighbors home but on top of that - if you’re not going to read the book then what’s the point. Audio to me is not the same at all. I am a bookworm and been in a number of book clubs. My neighbors ended after a few sessions because of infighting having nothing to do with me. Sad.

 

Batya - for once darling, we agree!

 

I will leave it there!

 

All the best,

Lo x

 

PS - I have heard of these, book club wars! Tell me more? I feel like I am already treading a dark path - LOLZ! I think they would be different things if they were all men. I'm not being sexist here I just think lots of women together have a special talent for turning things a bit dramatic in that feminine way ;)

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I'll meet your riff with a riff.

 

Big reader here—and, all in all, an analog soul. As such, I'm not big on the Kindle thing, though I don't have the same distaste for it. Call me an e-book agnostic? For me it's just mediocre technology compared to a 3D book, which, let's remember, is also very much a form of technology, one I prefer to, I don't know, a handwritten scroll on papyrus.

 

I absorb words better on the page than on the screen, so that's how I generally read them. I also like seeing them stacked up—on the shelves, against the walls—because I can look at them and remember where I was, and who I was, when reading them: the stoop in Big City X in the late 90s, the rear patio in Tropical City Y a week before the big storm rolled through, and, protecting into the future, a few recently finished hardbacks that, one day, will remind me of the strange days of shelter-in-place, and so on.

 

But if Kindle and the like resonates for some? Have at it! My best friend drives a Tesla, is all about "optimization" through tech. Works for him, while I ride a dirt bike and drive a 20 year old truck, both technological marvels in their own right, while being, I admit, pretty lame in running on a substance that causes untold human and environmental strife. Different strokes, different folks. Zooming out, I think the world is more interesting for having room for both of us, along with everything in between and on the other side.

 

Bluecastle,

 

This is just the best reply, I couldn't of asked for a more interesting perspective. And with this, of course, you are right - it is all technology, even the printed word, even writing in general! What can I say, there is irony in my argument, totally!

 

If we are to go down this line, I guess people listening to audio books are taking it back to the purest form when what, early human used to sit around the camp fire telling stories to each other and then these stories would be re-told and passed on through generations, purely the spoken word? That makes me with my book a heathen I guess!

 

Ahh what to do ay. I should just chill, what does it matter? But if I'm being honest, I could never be neutral about this subject. I just adore books.

 

Thank you fellow bookie for your insight! And, by the way, I'd stick with the truck. And this is coming from someone who's husband has recently put a deposit down to secure a new Tesla next year or whatever he's doing. I'm not too happy about it, but that's another conversation for another day!

 

Lo x

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old soul bookworm...hardcopy works for me.

oh when it gets old and yellow it looks like good showoff piece as well :)

I have books from the 80s, few of dads collection may be from 70s.

Still kept a lot for the large book shelf, the lockdown started reading few of them loads of time for use now.

For job/certification i have ebooks online courses provides you with pdf formatted workbooks so thats new age flavor works for me too.

 

Old soul seems to sum us book lovers up!

 

Not such a bad thing :)

 

Lo x

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Rose Mosse!

 

You bring a very valid and unmentioned point to this - the environmental factor, and I do get that I do! I try to go paperless everywhere else, and I mostly try to buy secondhand books if I can, but I don't always try my hardest. Point taken, they are trees at the end of the day.

 

I figure, buy antiques, buy old houses, nothing new having to be created for me as much, recycle what I can and re-use or giveaway anything unwanted. As a lifestyle it is the best I can do for now, something to consider though.

 

Best,

Lo x

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