Why I love my eReader, but also kinda hate it a little at the same time.
Upon moving to Australia this time, I brought with me nine (mostly small) books, one magazine for reading on the plane, one Star Wars recipe book, and one recipe journal. All but the three smallest books, the magazine, and the recipe journal, I posted to myself. They arrived at different times, and so forth.
They take up a little less than half a shelf. The rest of the half shelf is a Stephen Fry book, four books which my Aunt sent me, a Sherlock Holmes board game which I found at a booksale in March or so for $5 and thought 'whee!', and two very slim Hugh Walters books.
I have another bookshelf which also has books on it. These are the books which I do not wish to keep. Which is to say that I love them and all, but if I have to leave them behind because my space-allotment for the next move is probably going to be 'ONE book box. MAYBE a computer box, that's it', I see no problem with leaving them behind. Especially as I have quilts to transport too.
Over the weekend, I went to a bookfair, and despite deliberately setting out to not spend any money, I somehow wound up spending $6 myself (on said Hugh Walters and two VHS). My mother deliberately set out to spend money, and thus I have another 1/4 of a shelf filled with Black Books - that is to say, Penguin Classics by Latin Writers, like Horace (QUINTUS! <3) and Ovid and such. This shelf cheerfully combined with my toolkit/CDs/DVDs/computer games shelf to be put away and everything.
This does, however, leave me in the awkward position of being a lifelong bibliophile who has five completely empty bookshelves. I tried having the Black Books on a shelf of their own in said empty shelves, but it was a very lonely looking 1/4 shelf.
Fortunately, however, I now have an eReader.
It takes up a tiny amount of space - smaller than the smallest book I had in my luggage - and carries vast piles of books. Not to mention fanfiction, which wouldn't be taking up space on a bookshelf anyway, but you do take my drift. It's like having all those empty shelves piled all the way high with loads of books.
It's a pleasant experience.
Except, of course, that the real-life shelves remain empty and sad.
The other thing about having an eReader is that it takes a HUGE amount of time to sort through the books, and apply tags to everything and make sure the 'Author's name' meshes with the other names under the same list by the same person (doesn't always happen), and so forth. Whereas, yanno, when putting things onto a shelf in real life, the problem is finding enough space on the shelf. It's also easier to see if you've got doubles of things (d'oh!).
Wheras filling those 5 shelves might, in reality, be a few hours of solid work to have them all filled and sorted, sorting the eReader is a different process from filling it (filling mine can still take a while), and the number of books I've got means that I'm looking at something more like '200 a day, for 10 days' to get them all sorted and a cover on the books which don't have covers.
And all this is dependent upon whether the computer will co-operate enough with me to actually do the work I tell it to, instead of crashing and doing the computerised equivalent of poking out its tongue at me as it falls asleep.
I do like my desktop, but it can be more than a little infuriating sometimes.
In other notes, how're we liking the concept of 'jk is putting in pictures now'?
They take up a little less than half a shelf. The rest of the half shelf is a Stephen Fry book, four books which my Aunt sent me, a Sherlock Holmes board game which I found at a booksale in March or so for $5 and thought 'whee!', and two very slim Hugh Walters books.
I have another bookshelf which also has books on it. These are the books which I do not wish to keep. Which is to say that I love them and all, but if I have to leave them behind because my space-allotment for the next move is probably going to be 'ONE book box. MAYBE a computer box, that's it', I see no problem with leaving them behind. Especially as I have quilts to transport too.
Over the weekend, I went to a bookfair, and despite deliberately setting out to not spend any money, I somehow wound up spending $6 myself (on said Hugh Walters and two VHS). My mother deliberately set out to spend money, and thus I have another 1/4 of a shelf filled with Black Books - that is to say, Penguin Classics by Latin Writers, like Horace (QUINTUS! <3) and Ovid and such. This shelf cheerfully combined with my toolkit/CDs/DVDs/computer games shelf to be put away and everything.
This does, however, leave me in the awkward position of being a lifelong bibliophile who has five completely empty bookshelves. I tried having the Black Books on a shelf of their own in said empty shelves, but it was a very lonely looking 1/4 shelf.
Fortunately, however, I now have an eReader.
It takes up a tiny amount of space - smaller than the smallest book I had in my luggage - and carries vast piles of books. Not to mention fanfiction, which wouldn't be taking up space on a bookshelf anyway, but you do take my drift. It's like having all those empty shelves piled all the way high with loads of books.
It's a pleasant experience.
Except, of course, that the real-life shelves remain empty and sad.
The other thing about having an eReader is that it takes a HUGE amount of time to sort through the books, and apply tags to everything and make sure the 'Author's name' meshes with the other names under the same list by the same person (doesn't always happen), and so forth. Whereas, yanno, when putting things onto a shelf in real life, the problem is finding enough space on the shelf. It's also easier to see if you've got doubles of things (d'oh!).
Wheras filling those 5 shelves might, in reality, be a few hours of solid work to have them all filled and sorted, sorting the eReader is a different process from filling it (filling mine can still take a while), and the number of books I've got means that I'm looking at something more like '200 a day, for 10 days' to get them all sorted and a cover on the books which don't have covers.
And all this is dependent upon whether the computer will co-operate enough with me to actually do the work I tell it to, instead of crashing and doing the computerised equivalent of poking out its tongue at me as it falls asleep.
I do like my desktop, but it can be more than a little infuriating sometimes.
In other notes, how're we liking the concept of 'jk is putting in pictures now'?