Happy Birthday Jules Verne!

A big ol' Happy Birthday to Mr. Jules Verne: 8 Feb 1828 - 24 March 1905. To the man who brought us a strange and wonderful vision of technological progress, thanks and way to anticipate!

Guilty Pleasures - Interim Post

I was thinking about guilty pleasures this week. You know, reading and loving reading IS actually becoming a rare and fairly highbrow pleasure in general these days, so it's funny that any reader should have ``guilty'' reading pleasures, but I certianly do. Here are the ones I'm willing to admit:

Comic books - Yes a lot of what I read could be classified as a slightly more high-falutin' ``graphic novel''...but really? I like comic books.

Mystery novels - What is it about a good bloody murder and socially inept detective that attracts so many otherwise sensitive readers? I've read some pretty gruesome stuff, but the consistently popular murder mystery novel doesn't seem to fall under this category for some reason. For example, no one has thought to ban Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie on the grounds of explicit content. I'm not complaining, it's just weird is all.

Fanfiction - Poorly written, completely out of character, and occasionally very entertaining! This pleasure is more guilty and less frequent, but I've done my share of searching on fanfiction.net.

Any guilty pleasures to share? Leave a comment below!
Something more pithy will follow, but this has been on my mind for a while now.

Amazon Kindle: Dusty Shelves Joins the Information Age

Dusty Shelves got a Kindle for Christmas!!! Yes, I know it's a little late to be posting about Christmas presents, but hey, it took a while to get used to it. As my screen name may imply, I do like the feel and experience of cracking a REAL book with pages and all. Being aware of and agonizing over pulp-related tree deaths, I am an avid used book shopper and am firmly convinced that when civilization comes to an end, all that will truly remain to entertain and sustain us will be the old-fashioned printed word. (I also write letters. Yeah I mean like REAL letters with a pen and everything. Despite my budding technophilia, I do like to stage my own gentle version of resistance to over-internetization.)

Not that I wasn't excited to receive the Kindle. Benies include 4G capability and electronic books without those pesky printing costs. This can add up to serious savings for the savvy bibliophile. Have you any idea how many books are in the public domain and thus available to download for FREE?? Neither do I, but it's more than a lot! Also, the unlighted display and large fonts available really do reduce eyestrain, and I would much rather buy books than new glasses. Oh, and if you really want to geek out, keep turning the Kindle on and off to see the screensaver displays. The one in the picture above is a favorite author of mine.

What I haven't figured out how to do on it yet is how to find particular passages in much-loved books that do not include tables of contents. Many of the books I have downloaded so far don't seem to have that feature, and the ``search'' function does not actually appear all that searchable or functional.

Some experimental features are available as well, including access to the internet. Not exactly what you'd call user-friendly yet, but it's nice to be able to pull out this slim little thing for a quick look at email. You know what would help, Amazon? A touch screen.

Great for travel too. It's lightweight, doesn't tear when stuffed in a carry-on, and can hold charge for many days. Just no reading for the user before your plane reaches 10,000 feet. Nevermind, though, that's what SkyMall is for. Anyone need a 7' statue of Anubis for $2,000? I didn't think so, but if I had a mansion with a three-story library, I might consider it. After, of course, a few choice first printings, and a special little nook for the Kindle.

So what do you guys think? Is the printed word on it's way out, and if so, where is it leading us as an information-dependent society? Already, newspapers are converting more and more of their printing expenses into making material available online. Leave comments, and don't forget to click the ``follow'' button if you like this blog! --->