Changing world
Mar. 26th, 2009 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaThis morning, I'm finding myself wrestling with an odd philosophical issue.
Books. I love books. I love to read, but I don't make nearly as much time for them as I'd like.
Mind you. I don't watch TV or play a lot of video games. My neglect of them comes from being busy doing other things, and that brings me to the sticky philosophical issue.
Audiobooks. I like them. About half the books I've absorbed lately have been in audiobook format. For me, it's a wonderful experience to be able to get a story and draw or paint or practice guitar at the same time.
But audiobook is definitely a different experience. I can feel that it stimulates a different part of my mind. I'm not sure I get quite as far into the story when I listen to it instead of reading it, though I seem to remember more of it.
There are times I want to read too. The act of reading is enjoyable, but books take up a lot of physical space. Point of fact, books take up a couple of cubic meters of my living space.
Some books need to be in print. Particularly graphic novels just don't fit nicely on a computer screen and they lose something by being in digital media. Books are also sort of a geek status symbol. I'm sure part of my ego and mental well-being is built on having so many books around.
Still. A lot of my books could be digitized and I wouldn't be too sad about it for the amount of space and order I'd gain in my house.
If only there were a form where an audio book and a digital text copy could be paired (text to speech simply isn't yet up to the task of making an enjoyable audio experience)
It'd be particularly nice if they could be dumped onto some portable device and read/listened to anywhere. The Kindle is a bit too big and ungainly. It also seems overpriced for what it is. It appears there's Kindle software for the iPhone, though I don't have an iPhone.
I have an intense aversion to trendiness and a general allergy to cell phones. It's also a bit small for convenient reading. Otherwise, the design of the thing is nice enough. It's all screen. I think my big resistance to getting one is truly the phone aspect. I've never sent a text message. It's fine for other people, it's not a pride point. It's more that... I don't want to be plugged in all the time. I like being offline. I like not knowing where I am and having to wander a bit and sometimes be forced to try something new when I can't find what I was originally looking for. I enjoy not having that song that I absolutely need to share with my friends and instead being exposed to their music and maybe discovering something new. I don't need complete control over my universe.
It would be terribly convenient (except for the cost) but... I suppose the thing that most stops me is my friends. Regularly anymore, when I'm out somewhere with friends, they're putting face-to-face communication on hold while they type out a message to someone remote or look something up. It's like people are increasing their quantity of communication while decreasing the quality of it. When I'm interacting with people, I'm interacting with people. I tend to turn my phone off or if I receive a call, I make it as brief as possible. "I'm doing stuff with X. Be free in a couple hours."
So. I guess the iPhone feels threatening to me because I think of it primarily as a communication device, not portable digital data device and I just don't like talking on the phone, texting, and looking up stuff on google maps every couple minutes as all my friends tend to do when we're out and about.
Of course... There's other issues too. I like wandering around in musty used bookstores and sometimes not finding what I want but finding something else instead, and of course cost. Used books are cheap. Audiobooks are not, and digital text copies are an independent cost in addition to that. (Though I do understand those costs. Voice actors and sound mixers need to eat too)
I wonder if it'd be possible to create a service where fans of books could provide readings but the authors would still get paid. Probably not likely with publishers in the mix. I'm sure their contracts are explicit on that. Still. Might work for out of copyright books. Perhaps an extension to something like www.gutenberg.org
But enough musing for now.
Books. I love books. I love to read, but I don't make nearly as much time for them as I'd like.
Mind you. I don't watch TV or play a lot of video games. My neglect of them comes from being busy doing other things, and that brings me to the sticky philosophical issue.
Audiobooks. I like them. About half the books I've absorbed lately have been in audiobook format. For me, it's a wonderful experience to be able to get a story and draw or paint or practice guitar at the same time.
But audiobook is definitely a different experience. I can feel that it stimulates a different part of my mind. I'm not sure I get quite as far into the story when I listen to it instead of reading it, though I seem to remember more of it.
There are times I want to read too. The act of reading is enjoyable, but books take up a lot of physical space. Point of fact, books take up a couple of cubic meters of my living space.
Some books need to be in print. Particularly graphic novels just don't fit nicely on a computer screen and they lose something by being in digital media. Books are also sort of a geek status symbol. I'm sure part of my ego and mental well-being is built on having so many books around.
Still. A lot of my books could be digitized and I wouldn't be too sad about it for the amount of space and order I'd gain in my house.
If only there were a form where an audio book and a digital text copy could be paired (text to speech simply isn't yet up to the task of making an enjoyable audio experience)
It'd be particularly nice if they could be dumped onto some portable device and read/listened to anywhere. The Kindle is a bit too big and ungainly. It also seems overpriced for what it is. It appears there's Kindle software for the iPhone, though I don't have an iPhone.
I have an intense aversion to trendiness and a general allergy to cell phones. It's also a bit small for convenient reading. Otherwise, the design of the thing is nice enough. It's all screen. I think my big resistance to getting one is truly the phone aspect. I've never sent a text message. It's fine for other people, it's not a pride point. It's more that... I don't want to be plugged in all the time. I like being offline. I like not knowing where I am and having to wander a bit and sometimes be forced to try something new when I can't find what I was originally looking for. I enjoy not having that song that I absolutely need to share with my friends and instead being exposed to their music and maybe discovering something new. I don't need complete control over my universe.
It would be terribly convenient (except for the cost) but... I suppose the thing that most stops me is my friends. Regularly anymore, when I'm out somewhere with friends, they're putting face-to-face communication on hold while they type out a message to someone remote or look something up. It's like people are increasing their quantity of communication while decreasing the quality of it. When I'm interacting with people, I'm interacting with people. I tend to turn my phone off or if I receive a call, I make it as brief as possible. "I'm doing stuff with X. Be free in a couple hours."
So. I guess the iPhone feels threatening to me because I think of it primarily as a communication device, not portable digital data device and I just don't like talking on the phone, texting, and looking up stuff on google maps every couple minutes as all my friends tend to do when we're out and about.
Of course... There's other issues too. I like wandering around in musty used bookstores and sometimes not finding what I want but finding something else instead, and of course cost. Used books are cheap. Audiobooks are not, and digital text copies are an independent cost in addition to that. (Though I do understand those costs. Voice actors and sound mixers need to eat too)
I wonder if it'd be possible to create a service where fans of books could provide readings but the authors would still get paid. Probably not likely with publishers in the mix. I'm sure their contracts are explicit on that. Still. Might work for out of copyright books. Perhaps an extension to something like www.gutenberg.org
But enough musing for now.
