In the case of most other sellers (and with Amazon too, with a bit of savvy), you can store your books in a platform like Calibre, that is away from the prying hands of the cloud.
If I buy a book from another seller and then load it onto my Kindle, I don't think Amazon has the right to delete it, and I'm really not sure they have the ability to delete it, since it wouldn't be synched up with my Amazon account.
I don't read ebooks. I have nothing against them though at all. I think the world is plenty big enough for paper books, audiobooks and ebooks. I'm pleased though that paperbooks are still alive and kicking . I just prefer the smell, having them on my shelves, the weight and just prefer physical things. If paper books die out in my life time (Hopefully not) I'll still read of course but ya know? Its just I stare at a screen when using a cell phone or writing (type on the computer) or just browsing or watching TV and all. It makes me a little happier that my fav means of entertainment/learning isn't done through a screen or doesn't have to be. I'm also very big on collecting things. In a way I feel like I kinda have my own personal library cause I keep my books on shelves in the living room, my room and in the basement. It is the coolest feeling in the world! I've read a lot of the books I own but some I haven't and anytime I can just go and pull a book off the shelf. But if I ever get published (working on that everyday) then I'll be perfectly happy to let my book be in any format ebook, paper etc but I do feel if I ever get handed a copy of something I wrote in a physical form, I might get a little teary eyed. Just be so awesome to hold it and all! That probably sounds cheesy but ...I don't know hard to describe.
I have boxes of books that I've written, sitting unopened in my attic. Clutter. I used to be a librarian, dealing with physical books all day, and I got really good at throwing out the ones that were in bad shape. Clutter. When I moved about five years ago I had rooms full of books and I got rid of almost all of them--just one small bookshelf left. No clutter.
And now I have one-clicked and have something new to try tonight! Yay, I hope! (If not, I know who to blame...)
I've been working my way through this list: http://booklist.rassaku.net/ The reviewer lists the book as three stars (aight in her lingo), but I thought it was better than just aight.
But you said you like ebooks better. What you call clutter, wouldn't be clutter to me or perhaps it would but I like it like that. It would (and is) be a lot of stuff and all. But I use most of my clutter in some form or another. I'm a man who just prefers physical things over digital stuff. I can't explain why I prefer it. All my games are physical, all my books are physical and all movies/seasons of shows are physical. (though I do have netflix to). That's just part of who I am. I get rid of stuff here and there though of course but nah, I was born a clutter kid. Plus I still tend to use everyting I own in some form or another or eventually/. See here? I'm a picker, I'm a grinner, I'm a lover and I'm a sinner. I read my books on paaaaaaper! I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm midnight toker! I buy more paper books on the ruuuun! Though I like I said I don't have anything against ebooks. They are cool!
What's your point?? @Kingtype explains why he prefers real books, and you go right ahead and try to tell him he's wrong.
No, fair enough - if you like it, you like it. I think maybe because I'm a pretty messy person (like, I leave things lying around all over the place) I've found that if I have much physical stuff my environment goes to hell pretty quickly. Clutter + mess = chaos. But I'm pretty good at digital organization, so that's what I prefer. Print books are pretty to look at, but... not when they're stacked fifteen deep in a corner with a day-old banana peel draped over the top of them!
Well, I was seeing it as showing a different perspective, but... okay. (Should I stick to posts where I call things the cancer of literature and say that some formats are utterly void of what makes literature great? Should I say that I hate print books and everything they stand for? Would you see me as less argumentative, with more of a point, if I presented my ideas that way?)
Thanks for understanding! And I really have no issue as with ebooks at all. I think kindles are great tools with obvious benefits, I fully support and encourage anything I or anyone else publishes being on kindles as well as paper and anything like that. My heart was just first attached to print books and I'll stick with that for now. At the end of the day its about the reading, writing and ideas that will last even if paperbooks and the kindle are replaced all together by something else in the next century, that's the important part but I'm content with what I have atm in terms of reading without a kindle and prefer the feel of print books.
Intriguing - for most of the books I've read from that list my ratings don't really match up with hers, but I've only read the ones she's really loved (and not loved them quite as much myself). I'll have to test and see whether the relationship works in reverse as well (so I'll really love the ones she just likes...)
Different strokes for different folks! If people are reading instead of watching television then its a win in my... book (paperback)
That's not good. Knowledge, art and information should never be burned. Of course a good deal of things on kindle are on print as well and even if all kindles were burned I'm sure there are files somewhere the material would still exists. But come on burning stuff is usually never a good thing. I mean look at all the amazing stuff we probably lost when the Library of Alexandria burned down plus other ancient places of knowledge or all the stuff the dictators have torched through history such as the image above. If we have things on print in many copies and digital it gives it a longer life span overall. Also it assures that the art and knowledge can't ever really be lost or at the least much harder to lose.
Unless I were to move back to the mainland U.S., I don't see myself over going back to paper books. I don't live where books written in English are easily had (not even big-box booksellers here) and ordering physical books online or through the mail is a faff when compared to the ease of my Kindle. I don't personally feel the reverence for paper that many do, so the esthetic factor isn't there for me either. I collect vintage books for their cover art, but that's a different need being filled. I buy those in as close to VF or NM condition as I can, and on the odd occasion I have wanted to actually read the book, I downloaded it to my Kindle rather than open the never-opened-even-once-in-60-years cover that was one of the reasons I bought that particular copy.
I think there may be an element of having to "learn" to read on a Kindle or other device - it's not as clear to me as it was when I started listening to audiobooks and really had to train my brain to absorb fiction through that medium, but I do think there was an adjustment period. I'm not sure if it was cognitive or something else, but it used to be harder to read on Kindle, and now it isn't.
One thing I love about Google - the rabbit trails you can go on. I was looking for one thing and found this, a book I'd love to read: A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression by Ted Gup
I can't be the only one who prefers the kindle. Obviously I grew up reading paper, like the rest of you, but there's something nasty about those pages collecting dust and absorbing grease and who knows what nasty odors :S
