This is final proof that there is no God. There's so little interest in literacy nowadays that we as a society will allow one of its biggest supporters in the most economically powerful and influential country on Earth to simply wither and die. And please, don't give me crap about the Kindle and Nook and all that bullshit. It's all a completely different and frankly vastly inferior medium.
The Borders in my town closed months ago, and it was honestly incredibly depressing. Luckily the Barnes & Noble is still open, so i'm not depending on Amazon for all my book needs yet. We also have an amazing public library system where I'm at too. Though Borders was my favorite place to hang out and read.
It's really depressing, even if actual physical books are becoming obsolete, seeing as their the only thing I know/use...
I should probably get a Kindle before Barnes & Noble inevitably closes down.
Ironically I think the reason Barnes and Noble will survive is because they have an E-Reader. They are able to compete in both areas of book sales because of that. Unfortunately Borders didn't have their own name brand e-reader. They sold them online and in store but none of them were Borders brand like the Nook is for Barnes and Noble.
Princess Rose said:
**cries**
That sucks! I knew a bunch closed, but all of them? That's awful! There's still one near where I live - I guess it will be closing soon.
Oh, that so sucks. I bought a book there a few days ago. It was my one-stop-shop for new-release hardbacks.
I think the whole "literature" thing is part of the problem. English class is the only exposure a lot of kids have to reading growing up. Having that early exposure dominated by things stuffy old white guys wrote over a hundred years ago does nothing to foster reading.
Reading is important as a communication tool. People need to be able to assembled information from written words in order to sign contracts, read prescription warnings, or bake delicious chocolate cookies.
The difference between the language competency required to write Dickens and that required to figure out which pills to take which day is the difference between walking and ballroom foxtrot. I never argued that learning to read and write at a basic level wasn't useful, I was saying that I think standard ink-on-paper reading as the preferred medium for educative and culturally enriching purposes is obsolete.
It is funny to read all of this. When the Borders on St. Charles in New Orleans closed a while back no one really seemed to mind. Then again, NOLA is sort of known for hating on big chains and franchises, especially in that area of the city.
Either way, I like e-readers more than books just for the convenience they offer. Just like I like streaming movies for the convenience. I'm sure at least one of the superpower bookstores will stay in business, though. I'm not a huge fan of them simply because they cause so much grief for authors and publishers. I mean, they actually keep authors from writing longer books just so they can save on shelf space...fuck them.
This is what I'm talking about:
By this point, I'd already warned Tom and Harriet that I saw the length being very large, but I hadn't told Tom the 700-800k number. When I'd mentioned 400k to him once, he'd been wary. He explained to me that he felt 400k was unprintably large in today's publishing market. Things have changed since the 90's, and booksellers are increasingly frustrated with the fantasy genre, which tends to take up a lot of shelf space with very few books. There is constant pressure from the big chain bookstores to keep things smaller and thinner.
Found here, on Brandon Sanderson's blog: http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL
Edit: I'm also excited at the idea of e-readers doing for small time writers what XBL and PSN did for indie game developers. It could very well give authors a chance to self publish without dealing with the bookstores, agents, etc.
summerof2010 said:
The difference between the language competency required to write Dickens and that required to figure out which pills to take which day is the difference between walking and ballroom foxtrot. I never argued that learning to read and write at a basic level wasn't useful, I was saying that I think standard ink-on-paper reading as the preferred medium for educative and culturally enriching purposes is obsolete.
I agree with you on this. I'm even pretty sure that a lot of recent studies on learning have shown that interactive and more visually appealing methods work much better than simple reading. I know A LOT of schools are installing smart boards and such, which are basically giant fucking iPads.
Edit2: And fuck Dickens, he's the most overrated author ever. Well, maybe not ever. Okay, ever. Fuck him and my teachers for trying to make me slog through shit like A Tale of Two Cities.
The difference between the language competency required to write Dickens and that required to figure out which pills to take which day is the difference between walking and ballroom foxtrot. I never argued that learning to read and write at a basic level wasn't useful, I was saying that I think standard ink-on-paper reading as the preferred medium for educative and culturally enriching purposes is obsolete.
Unfortunately, our desire to cram both reading competency with cultural enrichment is probably holding reading competency back a fair bit. And by a fair bit, I mean there are millions of functionally illiterate people in the U.S.[footnote]http://abcnews.go.com/WN/LegalCenter/story?id=4336421&page=1[/footnote]
Most Americans actually read below a high school level. How are these people getting through four years of high school English!?
That is a shame, though I shop at Barnes and Noble. I just hope B&N isn't next. I only read paper books. I get why digital is popular, but I don't get why people *prefer* it to paper books.
The difference between the language competency required to write Dickens and that required to figure out which pills to take which day is the difference between walking and ballroom foxtrot. I never argued that learning to read and write at a basic level wasn't useful, I was saying that I think standard ink-on-paper reading as the preferred medium for educative and culturally enriching purposes is obsolete.
Unfortunately, our desire to cram both reading competency with cultural enrichment is probably holding reading competency back a fair bit. And by a fair bit, I mean there are millions of functionally illiterate people in the U.S.
Most Americans actually read below a high school level. How are these people getting through four years of high school English!?
Oh yeah, digital is the way of the future since it's easy to access, lightweight, etc...but I am going to miss browsing through the shelves T-T Physical copies will always mean more to me.
That is a shame, though I shop at Barnes and Noble. I just hope B&N isn't next. I only read paper books. I get why digital is popular, but I don't get why people *prefer* it to paper books.
Its the convenience for the most part. However, there is also a bit of freedom it provides. When I read only paper books I would have to buy 3 or 4 at a time so that I would be able to have something when I decided to go on a 18 hour bender of constant reading. This led to me sticking with series I knew I would like. I would occasionally branch out but not often. With my Kindle I can try any series I want and if I decide to keep reading I can buy the next one in 60 seconds. If I decide I don't like it, I'm only out one book rather than 3 or 4.
You can't replace the smell of a fresh, new book as you open it up. Or the feeling of the pages. That sounds weird all typed out. But I'm sticking to it.
That is a shame, though I shop at Barnes and Noble. I just hope B&N isn't next. I only read paper books. I get why digital is popular, but I don't get why people *prefer* it to paper books.
Its the convenience for the most part. However, there is also a bit of freedom it provides. When I read only paper books I would have to buy 3 or 4 at a time so that I would be able to have something when I decided to go on a 18 hour bender of constant reading. This led to me sticking with series I knew I would like. I would occasionally branch out but not often. With my Kindle I can try any series I want and if I decide to keep reading I can buy the next one in 60 seconds. If I decide I don't like it, I'm only out one book rather than 3 or 4.
Huh. That's what I figured, and I agree, that is nice. Is comprehension affected at all, though? Like, when I read something on a computer screen, I have to read it several times through because I find myself skipping around the page.
Is an E-Book like that, to a certain extent, or do you adapt to it fairly easily?
This sucks, I really loved Borders. There was one up where I used to live that was one of the 2 main attractions at the mall it was in. I'm curious to see if that particular mall will still be there when I go back north ro visit >.>
Anyway: Barnes and Nobel and, Books-a-Million is still around so there's that. I'm really going to miss Borders though. I haven't bought into the whole E-Book thing and I don't plan to. I've also been reading a LOT more since I've gotten out of school than I ever did while I was there and forced to. It's too bad though: I'll miss Borders.
That is a shame, though I shop at Barnes and Noble. I just hope B&N isn't next. I only read paper books. I get why digital is popular, but I don't get why people *prefer* it to paper books.
Its the convenience for the most part. However, there is also a bit of freedom it provides. When I read only paper books I would have to buy 3 or 4 at a time so that I would be able to have something when I decided to go on a 18 hour bender of constant reading. This led to me sticking with series I knew I would like. I would occasionally branch out but not often. With my Kindle I can try any series I want and if I decide to keep reading I can buy the next one in 60 seconds. If I decide I don't like it, I'm only out one book rather than 3 or 4.
Huh. That's what I figured, and I agree, that is nice. Is comprehension affected at all, though? Like, when I read something on a computer screen, I have to read it several times through because I find myself skipping around the page.
Is an E-Book like that, to a certain extent, or do you adapt to it fairly easily?
Depends what one you get. The Kindle uses E-Ink which is as close to paper as you can get without being...well paper. It doesn't have a back light and glare is minimal. By the time I was finished with my first book on it I was able to read it as well as I could a paper book, in some cases better due to the built in dictionary for the occasional word I haven't seen before.
When I was researching which one to get I did look at the Nook and that is closer to what a computer screen is like. I suspect that would take a lot longer to get used to.
Seeing as my eyes dislike e-readers almost as much as i like the feel of a real book I will be sad as this is another blow to the eral book market.
All these casual readers are ruining the market for use hardcore readers and buying into gimmicks like e-readers. Now Stores are going under, I hope you are happy casual readers!
I also find that browsing in a real store tends to gets me to buy more books than browsing on amazon or my parents e-reader.
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