Honest, I can!

This past weekend, I was reading an old (old, old!) Ace books “double”, and as I was reading it (gently, gently!), the thing was essentially self-destructing as I progressed. Pages came loose from the binding, dropping into my lap. The pages were yellowed, so there was some eyestrain, and there had to have been something about the book that seemed to actually irritate the ol’ peepers as I read.

So, yes…the e-book might have its’ place in my library.

Now, where can I download the books of Emil Petaja?

Personally, I prefer the tactile sensation of books, particularly quality hardcovers, but when faced with transporting over 30 boxes of books the next time my wife and I have to move, and what would happen to our print collection in case of fire or earthquake, the idea of being able to mirror my entire book collection over, say, two hard drives, a couple of DVD-Rs and whatever other durable archiving medium that comes into being in the next few years becomes very attractive.

Seriously, the ‘I prefer hardcopy’ thing is starting to sound like ‘I used to walk to school uphill, in the snow, both ways’. There are some valid criticisms of ebooks (DRM and cross-platform readers being my particular bugaboos), but ‘objectively worse than hardcopy’ isn’t one of them. They are different than hardcopy, certainly, with their own advantages, but I take issue with ‘worse’. Moreover, ebooks are only going to get better. I think paper books are only going to get worse, for a variety of economic reasons.

As far as the actual collection goes: of the 1.5 stories I’ve read so far (1 Scalzi, .5 Doctrow) the theme so far appears to be ‘acknowledge the convention then merrily break it’.

I have to say, I agree. I prefer my fiction printed as well. Nothing against the New Media, but there is just something indescribably more satisfying, reading a piece of fiction in print, as opposed to on-line.

I don’t think this is uncommon, either. Which is why I suspect print will never truly “die.” It will be augmented by other mediums — and in some cases, like news, be overtaken. But fiction is not news, and many consumers still demand that their fiction come in a form that doesn’t need to be booted, charged, kept out of the sun, kept out of the water, etc.

Plus, if you lose a (insert name of electronic doo-dad here) you lose all the e-fiction on it in one swipe. If you lose a book or magazine, you lose only that one book or magazine.

I just went down to Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Book Store here in Minneapolis, and BOUGHT the book, in convenient book format. (I also picked up the new Year’s Best anthology by Dozios, and THE OTHER IN THE MIRROR by P.J. Farmer.) Local, independent bookstores…that’s Old School.

And that whole thing about print being dead?

When the pry my books from my cold dead hands…

Amazon.com (TPB): $10.87
Amazon.com (Kindle): $9.99
eReader.com: $9.95 (and 15% club rebate)
fictionwise.com: $10.97 (club rate) to $13.59, both after rebate
stanza.fictionwise.com: $13.59 (club rate)

The one that kills me is eReader vs. Fictionwise. They’re both run by B&N; the only difference is that you can get Secure Mobipocket and Secure eReader formats from Fictionwise, and Secure eReader format only from eReader.com. Plus stanza.fictionwise.com appears to have significantly more expensive prices than regular fictionwise.com, despite using the same format books.

Just to make life fun, my iPhone supports eReader and Kindle, my wife’s Iliad iRex secure Mobipocket, and her phone secure Mobipocket and, I think, eReader.

Or NOT!

Mum is the one to blame for teaching me to read before entering first grade and for infecting me with her love of that wacky science fiction stuff: Jules Verne, Hans Dominik*, and some guy named Heinlein.

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* FWIW, the covers found on German SF from ’20s and ’30s have many of the same qualities as their present-day counterparts. *holds up copy of Unsichtbare Kräfte*

[Although I probably don't need to add to my stack of "to read" sitting on my coffee table...but it's just a book, one more won't hurt anything...yeah, but the coffee table's groaning under the load...but it's just one book...I have the first one, need to keep the set complete...]

On a related note, I truly enjoyed your segment of METAtropolis.