The problem is with the book you have to hold it open, which is especially tiring if you are unwilling to bend the spines. You have to place your finger in a specific way and apply a constant, light pressure. It isn't 'hard' but it is certainly less comfortable than a book reader which you can read without even holding it if you want.

When my back hurts I set it on the table in front of me and don't even touch it. Sometimes I just lean it against my arm.

Also, you would love my ADD bookshelves. Originally they were organized alphabetically but eventually that became impossible as my obsessive need to have all of one authors books on the same shelf overwhelmed the convention. Now they are meticulously set based on genre, author and quality. Whenever I get a new book that won't easily fit on the shelf where it goes I re-organize all six shelves to make it consistent.

P.S. I'm going to need those Robin Hobb hardcovers coming to me in your will.

 

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I think my problem is that I grew up in the country, working outdoors and helping out on my uncle's ranch. To see reading a book described with anything that resembles physical strain is just beyond my comprehension. When I was in college and had the time to do it I would read for litterally an entire day and have zero strain, crimps, cramps, or other form of physical discomfort from it. To hold a book open requires a pinky, or perhaps a thumb, even if you are preserving spines (which I do sometimes, but not always...sadly). But then, as I said earlier, maybe my hands are just bigger.

And I used to be the same way about organizing my book shelves. I had them alphabetized by author and separated by genre. Then I got married, got two step kids, and started a career. My books are now just kinda crammed in where they fit. I should take a day and organize them sometime.

If it is any consolation I never considered the idea that books are difficult to hold until I had a book reader. It isn't like this is some gripe we have all been harboring for ages.

 

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This is exactly how I feel.

For me it's the convenience of being able to do everything with one hand. I get a lot of neck problems so I like to read lying down on my side which is SOOO much easier with an e reader, I can prop it up on the pillow next to me and then just click the button to turn the page. This isn't too much a pain with a paperback, but it's annoying as hell with a hardback.

 

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I read regular books mainly.

I also read books on my phone, my samsung galaxy tab, my iPad and my computer. In addition I've alread read quite alot on a sony E-ink reader. (I work in IT in an online bookstore, and we've recently started selling e-books, so I have to test all the available platforms )


I still prefer a regular book, but I don't have any big problems with any of the other platforms.

 

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What a stupid argument. If someone wants to read a book on an e-reader that's on them. If someone wants to pretend to be manly and condition themselves by doing yardwork to make it easier to read, that's also on them. Who cares because both your methods are inferior to the audiobook. Noobs.

 

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I gave away about a thousand books from 2001 to 2009 when I decided to go possessionless. Thank goodness! What I still have left is the best:

(not in order)

1) Almost Every Discworld book
2) Garret PI series by Cook ( I may toss these, they didn't do well on the third read.)
3) Black Company series by Cook ( <3 Catch-22 meets LotR <3 )
4) New Sun series by Wolfe (Hands down the best pseudo-Latin evar!)
5) Armor by Steakley. (John stole my best friends' GF and the fugger will probably die before he writes Felix. )
6) Poul Anderson: Operation Chaos and The High Crusade. (fun easy reads, even after 10x re-reads)
7) Neuromancer ( every time I reread it the power of the plot diminshes and I appreciate his word-craft more.)
8) Iain Banks Culture series. (My words can't describe the flavor.)
9) I lost my copies of Stpherererssonn's Snow Crash (great easy read) and Cryptonomicon (best technical fiction I've ever read).

Any Asimov, Vinge, Simmons, Brin series are +++ but not keepers to me.

Yeah, I love that book feel. Regardless I require a reader so I CAN MAKE THE WORDS BIGGER.

 

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I'm just going to leave fantasy out(with one exception), since most of those books don't really stand alone.

1. Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell
2. The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse
3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
4. The Magician's Nephew - CS Lewis
5. The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
6. The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyoevsky
7. The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
8. The Time Machine - HG Wells
9. Journey to the Center of the Earth- Jules Verne
10. The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins

It's heavier on classics than is actually accurate, but I can stand behind these anyway.

 

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Wow. Last time I read Glass Bead Game it was uh 1976 I think.

Dagnabbit I can't find that drawling Doyle did before he died where he's an old horse pulling a huge wagon with boxes and each of the boxes is labeled with things he had done in his life. Bah. Biographies are the first books I throw away and Google has failed me. NM.

No Burroughs? Olaf Stapledon's Sirus? I hadda copy from a relative that smuggled it into the US in the late 50s. Funny, wikipedia doesn't mention it was banned in the US.

 

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I haven't heard of Stapledon, but I looked up some of the book descriptions and I will definitely have to check those out.

Burroughs I read only The Land That Time Forgot, which was good, but it didn't stay with me to the extent of the others I listed. He'd probably fall into a much broader 2nd tier with Huxley, Asimov, Douglas Adams, Lewis Carrol, Dickens, Lovecraft, Ira Levin, Bulgakov, some fantasy authors, etc.

 

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