books

I wanted to post about this yesterday, but I needed time to formulate my thoughts and come down from the rafters of frustration. So you're up-to-date, you might want to pop over and read this article.

...waiting...

You back? Good. Are ya pissed yet? Let's talk about this.

I've got around 2000 books in my house, according to my LibraryThing. That does not include an up-to-date cataloging of all the magazines in my house. But, I feel it is safe to say that we are all bibliophiles here. True, we've been selling off our hardback collection and replacing it with the same books in "mass market" (paperback) editions. Lighter, smaller, cheaper. But they *are* still books.

Now, those who know me, know I love technology. I've got two computers (soon to be 3, I hope!), not counting the server which has all our music on it and will someday have all our movies there as well. I start showing signs of DTs if I'm not able to check my email several times a day. We've got surround-sound stereo in our living room, with all our computers, so we can get our geek on and watch a movie.

But when it comes to books, I want paper and ink. I want the feel of a book in my hands. I want the smell of a book. I want to stand in front of my shelves and browse, deciding what to read next. With all our advances in online-shopping, there's still no replacement for "browsing".

When I was little, there was no money for "trivialities" like books. If I wanted books, that meant a trip to the public library. At the time, that was the Stark County District Library. I measure my later childhood years by the shelves of that library. (Of course, returning years later after they reorganized the shelves was rather disconcerting!) Many summer afternoons were spent in that library (soaking up the A/C we didn't have at home!). How many times have I read a book because the title caught my eye while looking at those shelves? How many books did I read because of the monthly displays, celebrating some element of fiction, some breakthrough in science, some person of importance?

My concern over Cushing's choice isn't because I have a child there. My concern is that other schools will jump on this bandwagon before the concept has been proven to succeed---or fail. Why couldn't Cushing choose to keep the paper-and-ink books while testing out the newer technology? Why couldn't they wait a semester or two and see if the teachers and the students (and their parents) approve, before even considering divesting themselves of the real books?

I've shared at home my requirements for an e-book reader: paperback in size, opening like a paperback does. Little cards (like my Nintendo DS uses) hold the books. When not in use, the little cards have little "books" they sit in, on my shelves---taking up even less space than my paperbacks do! There's no need to store credit card data in my device. No need for GPS and wireless capability. Most importantly, there's no risk of losing my entire library when I drop the reader in the tub, while soaking with a good book! I want an Open Source format for the books. I will not support the publishing industry becoming more like the recording industry. Much like my library at home, many of my family members can be reading books from our home collection at the same time---without having to buy multiple copies (which I would have to do right now, with a Kindle or similar readers).

As a crafter, I rely on high-quality color pictures and graphs with detailed information in them to put patterns together. Someday, I hope to have my crochet skills up to par enough to take on Blueprint Crochet (already on my shelves!). [For a sample of what this book looks like inside, there's a preview on ScribD.] Not only does this book have stunning pictures, but blueprints -- in color. And based on one review, there's no point in clicking on the "I'd like to read this book on the Kindle" link because the readers can't handle this kind of book.

I take comfort in my personal book collection, now more than ever. If paper-and-ink libraries could possibly become a thing of the past, at least I'll have shelves of them for my family and friends to reminisce over.

I finished the Spring Mystery Shawl (finally!) very (very!) early Monday morning. I ordered my wire blocking kit on Tuesday, so it'll be a while before pictures will go up showing this one.

That leaves me with the Anniversary Mystery Shawl (a pi-shawl), which is the one I've ripped out a bajillion times already. I'm slowly working my way through Clue 2 and hope to be on to Clue 3 this evening. (Yes, for the very observant, it's 4:15 in the morning and I'm up, writing a blog entry....)

I've got a doctor's appointment at the very ungodly hour of 7:30am and I've pretty much given up getting any sleep before the appointment. So, I figure, I'll come home and crash afterward.

I'm expecting yarn to arrive tomorrow for two upcoming shawl projects: one is Mom's shawl. The other, is Goddess Knit's Dracula's Bride, which I purchased some time ago but finally got around to ordering the custom colorway I had in mind. I've got some concerns that the circles as I've charted them in Mom's shawl might go a little more oval-ish than I want, so I'll probably start with that one next.

There's another Mystery KAL starting Saturday--a Faroese shawl--but my yarn is delayed (through no fault of my dyer), so I'll start that one behind schedule.

I think I've missed a month or two of my reading lists for this year.... *sigh* I'll have to root around and see what I've been reading. As far as audiobooks go, I've devoured the first four books in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. That is truly outstanding listening. In fact, I would recommend listening over reading, to truly capture the places best. Davina Porter narrates the ones I bought from Audible (are there any other narrators out there doing Outlander?) and she does an amazing job.

In contrast, I had to stop listening to "The Immortals" by Tracy Hickman precisely because of the narration. The narrator? The author himself. And it's not "narration" but a sort of embellished presentation, with some sound effects added in---very very annoying. If I wanted to listen to a radio play, I would. I wish I could get my credit back on that book.

Oh, I got to get my geek on last week. We've got one of the Mac Powerbooks (codenamed Pismo), which was the last Mac I used regularly. Long ago (back in 2005?) one of the cats no longer residing with us (I'll leave it to you to decide why) managed to knock it to the (then concrete) floor---totally killing the screen. Randy was given another Mac Powerbook and we planned to swap the hard drives so I could get to my old genealogy files and do a GEDCOM dump. Only, it turns out, the free computer isn't another Pismo, but a Lombard.

When swapping the hard drives didn't work, I thought, well, maybe I can swap the monitors. Nope. Now I have the Pismo back together, minus it's "head". I think that'll be our new Halloween scary story: The Headless Pismo! I am debating bidding on the head over at ebay.

Since I just dropped *mumble-mumble* dollars on the Interweave Press Hurt Book Sale plus the blocking wires and some more books at KnitPicks during their 40% off books sale....I'd probably better wait.

Still, check out the titles I'm scoring in these two orders:

Not bad, I say! I can't wait 'til they get here! Oh! Plus!!! I just ordered several cones of Peaches n' Creme! ::rubs hands in glee:: Fun!

Oh, hey...look at the time. I've got to get up in an hour. Like I said earlier....I'll sleep after the appointment. Zzzzzzzzzz