Oprah cuddles Kindle Oprah Winfrey is set to report that her favourite gadget is Amazon's Kindle e-book reader, and she's invited Amazon founded Jeff Bezos onto her show to explain why it's good to read electric. The fact that the queen of chat would soon be revealing her perfect battery-powered companion was revealed in teaser videos, but one …
Ever since libraries became Internet cafes cum social centres cum kindergartens the number of books they stock has plummeted and been reduced to a selection ranging from 'Blood! Action! Death!' (the anonymised recollections of someone who may or may not have been in the SAS), to 'Look at Me! Look at Me!' (the autobiography of an 18-year old tattooed oik who lasted all the way to week 3 of 'Big Brother'), by way of 'Kiss Me You Fool' (romantic fiction for ladies of advanced years in which nothing more erotic than a cardigan is removed, and even then without teeth being involved - either in the romancing or indeed in the audience).
So if you want a book that, ooooh I dunno, involves thinking, you have to order a title which takes anything from a week to year before you get the inevitable, 'Sorry our only copy got eaten by a badger during the construction of a bypass.'
About time they put books back in libraries and developed a new generation of librarians (possibly even robot libraries with death rays) that know when to say Shhh! and fix people with a petrifying glare over half-moon spectacles.
You know, got the big hype from Her Vacuousness, and were promptly revealed to be a massive fraud and a buttload of bullshit, respectively?
Does anyone know if the Kindle will ship with electronic copies of these two masterworks of modern "literature"?
P'wahh ha ha ha ha hah.
"consumers who previously thought e-ink was a cool idea might balk when it comes down to a choice between an electronic book and food on the table"
I know the economic thingie you mention has been going on for just a short period of time so far, but looking around here in the "US and A" for sure does not give one the impression that there is a shortage of food, if y'all get my drift...
This post has been deleted by its author
Reality alert..
We log on to the local London borough library website, and search for books by subject or author. Then we reserve them. If the local library to her Ladyships' work hasn't got the relevant books, they are transferred from another. When they arrive, they email us automatically. Once a week She Who Must Be Obeyed trots out of her office down to the library and and does a drop and collect.
Oh and the book I've just finished reading which would have cost me 18 odd quid, was written by a Mr D Coulthard in 2007.
I can recommend it.
The only downside is she's never met anyone in there who goes "Oook!"
I just imagined her governorship saying Oook.... Still coughing on the remains of my dinner.
Otherwise I agree with Mike Richards. Libraries have become a social club/internet cafe/crap videorental. It is simply not worth going, I would much rather get a second-hand copy off amazon marketplace and if I do not like sell it back on it.
As an editor and writer who saw his first published story set in hot metal, I marvel at Amazon's Kindle reader and its role in the future of the "printed" word.
I'm thrilled to see Oprah endorse Kindle!
No traditional book can offer the interactive platform I've created for the Kindle edition of my novel Brazil or open the door to actively sharing the magic that goes into the making of a monumental novel.
I'm able to link the e-text to an online guide with more than 200 images and illustrations, providing a companion to a fictional journey through five hundred years of Brazilian history. Plus my working notes and journal of a 20,000-kilometer trek across Brazil.
You can get an idea of the guide at my website: http://www.erroluys.com
Were Gutenberg here to see the Kindle, he would have one word to say: "Bravo!"
Our local library is fairly well stocked with science fiction, current affairs and various odd business/ tidbits.
Likes:
a) Free.
b) I don' t have to wait for paperbacks. I hate hardcovers, they come in odd sizes, take up huge shelf space and cost and arm and a leg. I live in a flat now and just can't pack rat a huge collection of books anymore.
c) They'll exchange with one of their local affiliates when they don't stock it, so the collection is sizable.
Also, if you are willing to look into classical music, you can keep your mp3 rippers humming forever. Jazz too, if jazz didn't suck. Shame about them not having much AC/DC or Swollen Members though.
Amazon reviews + local library == free lunch.
Dislikes: few decent programming books. For some reason, dbase3 is still on the menu there. Despite that, when I tried to give away some fairly recent books I don't use I was basically told that anything over 2 yrs old was ignored (how long ago was 'Design Patterns' released anyway?). I started arguing with the IT acquisition clerk and then realized he was a twit.
But I'd love the convenience of reading a book next to a cold pint coupled with a true e-library!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
