Booky wooks

[susie_flo]

You know that thing when you're trying to decide what book to read next, and you assemble a hefty pile of paperbacks that you fancy and get into bed and spread them all out on your duvet and read all of the blurbs and the first pages... and eventually you choose one and pile the rest into a queue on your bedside table?
 
Well last night I had the Kindle version of that experience, having just splurged on SEVEN new Kindle books.  I sat up in bed whilst Micro was blissfully asleep and read the opening pages of each book.  (Then I realised that Micro's sleeping hours were numbered and zonked off to sleep without deciding... but anyway.)
 
This has all led me onto another Kindle thought for those of you who have them.  It took me ages yesterday to whittle down my purchases to only seven books and I found myself thinking that it would be cool if there was a sort of 'bedside queue' facility where you could place a virtual pile of books as a reminder of things that you want to read later.  Anyway the solution exists!  For any Kindle book that you're thinking of buying, you can download a sample of the opening pages for free.  I have now been able to stash up a nice little queue of opening chapters on my Kindle as a reminder of books that I might want to buy later.
 
The fact that I never get time to read any more is a whole nother  matter.
   
NB: Those of you that don't have Kindles, please don't respond to this post with some sort of gloating comment about being someone who loves "real books" and despises all other mediums.  It's just as irritating as snobbery against audiobooks.  I really can't abide Ludditism disguised as superiority.   (You know who you are...  "I simply refuse to own a smart phone!" etc)  The fact remains that it is perfectly possible to love the look, feel, smell and all-round deliciousness of paper books - and to fill your house with shelves full of them - whilst simultaneously embracing new and alternative ways to read.  So, yah boo sucks!  ;-)
  

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Well, I have ludicrous "kindle overpurchase" issues. At some point I organised my bookshelves so all my unread books were on a single shelf at eye-level. Then it was two shelves, then three. Worse this meant that people who came round would look at the eye-level books and say "ooh what's this like" and I'd have to admit I hadn't read it -- which gradually became true for almost all the eye-level books. Now, I have most of that queue on the kindle (about 12 unread books on there since I got it in march plus another 20 or so that I nabbed free).

[lebeautemps.livejournal.com]

I have serious queue issues too but I'm still in the initial deluge area of free happiness I mean books from pals.

I've been reading e-books for a few months now, and it is possible to love both e- and paper books. I prefer to let my paper book go *thunk* on the floor as I fall asleep at night rather than my xoom, for a start.

[lazy-hoor.livejournal.com]

The fact remains that it is perfectly possible to love the look, feel, smell and all-round deliciousness of paper books - and to fill your house with shelves full of them - whilst simultaneously embracing new and alternative ways to read.
*Applauds*

I've read some really snobbish comments (mainly on Guardian CiF so what did I expect really) about ebook readers. "Oooh, but you can't read them in the bath!" Try a ziploc bag, dumbass. They don't seem to get that it's not an 'either-or' situation. You can have and enjoy both!

I lost a lot of paper books when my flat flooded, but my ebook collection is backed up on Dropbox - huzzah! So ebooks have some very real benefits. Also try going on a fortnight's holiday via Ryanair with 20 books in your hand luggage...

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Amen to that last paragraph - and thanks for the heads-up on the preview feature, I hadn't noticed it at all.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend and I are dying to get a Kindle. For me there's the additional bonus of no dust, which Im allergic to and have to always deal with on my book shelves.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Do it. Do it NOW.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I love my Kindle. I have loads of things that are perfect bedtime reading, I get my daily paper on it, and I adore e-Ink. However, whilst buying lots of eBooks I have also found myself buying loads and loads of "real" books too. Not sure how that works.

[rainsinger.livejournal.com]

I utterly utterly heart my Kindle. So many books! yet no clutter in the house!

Which books did you get? I've been on a massive Kindle splurge myself recently.

x

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I got the full editions of...
Life of PI (Yann Martell)
Diary of a Nobody (George Grossmith)
Snowdrops (A D Miller)
Jamrach's Menagerie (Carol Birch)
Before I Go To Sleep (S J Watson)
The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes)
Armadillo (William Boyd)

And I queued these...
The Hare with Amber Eyes (Edmund de Waal)
The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)
The Glass Room (Simon Mawer)
The Atrocity Archives (Charles Schloss)