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  #31 (permalink)  
Old 17-May-2006, 06:36 AM
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Books smell good. Especially older ones, with slightly oxidized pages. There is no finer smell than the one you can find walking down the stacks in a good library, or carefully turning the slightly brittle pages of a 1952 Galaxy magazine.

A book can give you the scent of history; a computer smells like ozone.
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Old 17-May-2006, 08:27 AM
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I prefer paper over electronic for several reasons. Paper is easier to use in an emergency. In my line of work, you have to lay your hands on documention, paper will always work.

Personally, I like the ablitiy to just take a book with me, no battery to run out, no power converter to carry along and no licensing fees to worry about. Now if the plane will just stay in the air I'll be fine.
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Old 17-May-2006, 09:09 AM
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Books. Computers are for interaction. I prefer a computer encyclopedia to a paper one (hyperlinks and so on), but I prefer a novel on paper to a novel on screen. They just have more charm, have a history (many of my books are secondhand), can be signed (especially interesting for comics, as a drawing is nicer than just a signature), ... Of course, they are much more bulky, but I prefer having a wall full of spines to some non-descript CD's or whatever storage medium you prefer.
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Old 17-May-2006, 09:13 AM
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Only one wall? Amateur!
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Old 17-May-2006, 09:42 AM
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The only annoying thing about books is they have no 'search' funtion.

with regards
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  #36 (permalink)  
Old 17-May-2006, 12:52 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Champion_Munch
The only annoying thing about books is they have no 'search' funtion.

with regards
A well written and organized book with a good TOC and index does not need a search function.
Unfortunately, that art is fading.

Fram has a good point: It depends on if you are reading (sequential) or interactive (random).
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Old 17-May-2006, 01:23 PM
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I prefer books... It's probobly manly a body comfort thing though, it's hard to get comfortable with even a laptop... and I hate reading one when tired or semidark.
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  #38 (permalink)  
Old 17-May-2006, 01:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gillianren
Only one wall? Amateur!
That depends on the wall of course...
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  #39 (permalink)  
Old 17-May-2006, 02:12 PM
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Almost always, when I have to read a journal article, or something else that I can only access from my computer, I'll print it off and read that. It's just so much easier to be able to mark up the pages, and flip through them to find what you need easily.
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Old 17-May-2006, 07:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Champion_Munch
The only annoying thing about books is they have no 'search' funtion.
That's what your memory/the book's index is for.

Now, of course, quite a lot of the books I read don't have indices. Because, you know, they're fiction. But I'm pretty good about remembering where, approximately, in the book the bit I'm looking for is.
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  #41 (permalink)  
Old 17-May-2006, 10:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gillianren
Add me to those who can't bear to see a book's spine broken--but I'm not as twitchy about it as my neighbor, the librarian. I always half-expect her to snatch the book out of the person's hands, hit them, and start lecturing. (She's right; it does make the pages fall out faster.)
Unless it's a hand bound, flexible or recess cord sewn book, then you can try to break all you want, the pages won't fall out.
On the other hand, it's exactly such a book noone would treat that way.
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  #42 (permalink)  
Old 17-May-2006, 10:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gillianren
Only one wall? Amateur!
I have shelves on all walls, plus a shelf sticking out in the middle of the room because I don't have enough wall for all the books.
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  #43 (permalink)  
Old 18-May-2006, 04:20 AM
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I find reading a book, to be easier on the eyes, in the long run. Online I've only read some extremely long articles, which I found hard enough. I do admit it was interesting reading a short story and two written scripts from said story on the tv screen (part of extras on a DVD). The larger screen made those readings easier, though.
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  #44 (permalink)  
Old 18-May-2006, 06:37 AM
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Quote:
That's what your memory/the book's index is for.

Now, of course, quite a lot of the books I read don't have indices. Because, you know, they're fiction. But I'm pretty good about remembering where, approximately, in the book the bit I'm looking for is.
Unfortunately I have a terrible memory. And it's not just books, also articles and magazines when I'm looking back over them days, weeks or months after initially reading them.

with regards
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  #45 (permalink)  
Old 18-May-2006, 03:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gillianren
Only one wall? Amateur!
The only rooms in our house that don't have at least one bookcase full of books are the bathroom and the kitchen. And I'm not saying there aren't books there, too, just not an entire bookcase's worth.
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  #46 (permalink)  
Old 18-May-2006, 05:13 PM
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I used to spend tons of money on books (and have the books to prove it), but now that I have a fast DSL connection, I rarely buy them any more.It helps that I bought a wide-profile 20" LCD monitor and a video card with enough horsepower to run it at very high resolution - much easier on the eyes than my old CRT.
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  #47 (permalink)  
Old 18-May-2006, 11:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Van Rijn

On the other hand, I have too many books, and have redone the shelving several times. I get tired of trying to find storage for them all and won't sell or give them away. While I prefer paper for technical books, I would be happy if I could get all novels in electronic format assuming that (a) there was no DRM, (b) it was in an open format (or preferably, available in multiple formats) that would be likely to be supported well into the future and (c) available at a reasonable cost (I'm not going to pay hardback prices). There is a bit of that available now, but not enough.
There's the Project Gutenberg, I've started an electronic collection, if only there was an acceptable electronic reader. My pda is too small; my laptop to big. Its the 3 Bears syndrome (maybe that's Goldilocks), I'm wating for something just right.
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  #48 (permalink)  
Old 19-May-2006, 07:38 AM
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Forget our age and jump on the books for reading habits, " there is a specific definition about "confidence reading" not applied to our members because they are quite confident about reading. Here is just a discussion about the reading habits, electronic vs. book reading, I am not saying that your" confidence" is less or few, but here I am trying to collect the remarks like "bookmarks", Now R.A.F has receive the answer what I am saying about.

Here I have found some sites:

http://www.economist.com/business/gl...ory_id=3596792

http://www.winktv.com/x10299.xml

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/102-...g%20confidence

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache...n&ct=clnk&cd=4

The building of reading confidence is much necessary as far as book reading is concern, and the computer screen reading is for "the timebeing", this is not permanent in our mind, the impact of book reading gives more positive results as compare the screen reading.

Sunil
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  #49 (permalink)  
Old 19-May-2006, 05:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fraser
I actually find on-screen reading to be quite comfortable. Only with an LCD screen though. I can't wait for this new generation of electronic books.
Interesting. Even with my ultra-high-res, top-dollar LCS screen at work, I still get letters than are a bit less than even-edged. With my 21" CRT monitor at home, though, even small characters are very smooth, with not even a hint of visible jaggedness.
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  #50 (permalink)  
Old 19-May-2006, 08:42 PM