Yellow is power.

Yellow Lantern's might.... oh hell yes.

I lulled love <3 made my night

Hopefully not "lulled to sleep"?

Ah? Ah? .... *listens to crickets shirp* Ahem... yeah...

*chuckles* means I laughed love, when I first saw this it made my day

Aaaaahhh... *makes notes* Sorry. *points to self* I'm learning these things.

hit it with a book

Make it a big book to ensure results!

I can never get enough of a real book in my hands, and my over-stuffed shelves are a testament to that.

HOWEVER

When going on a long trip, one of those little eReaders (or whatever the generic term is) is a damn handy thing to have. Certainly saves on packing space when it's one of those versus a whole six-book series in regular book form.

So, it's one of those "right time and right place" things.

I recall Giles on the Buffy TV Series saying he disliked the shifting of knowledge from paper book to electronica because "smell was such a powerful part of memory, that books needed to be ... smelly". That is true, both physiologically and in a romantic sense. I share that opinion, though my main complaint with the concept is different and much more serious.

And Anthony Stewart Head is a amazingly talented singer, actor and entirely edible man. Boom, baby!

We need the old hardcopies to keep publishers honest. It's harder to redact, edit, or delete real books off shelves globally with a few keystrokes.

*smiles broadly* Ah, my lovely lady... *pirouettes* You sing my song...

"...I have a few main complaints, but to be brief, I'll leave it at I prefer the immutability of the printed word..." It seems so many have already forgotten the instances reported of books being altered for content when being transferred to the various electronic gadgets out there. And how does that old saying go, "For every time you catch someone in deception, it's safe to assume you didn't catch them thrice or more.".

We, as a species, are so very quick to forget the struggles of the past, from the civil rights movements of only a genertaion twice ago, to the murdered friends of our current lives. With the power to edit our history without our consent at the fingertips of such alabaster nightmares as these, I'll always prefer my tomes to be tangible. *bows*.

*curtsies* You'll find me in complete agreement on those points. That being said, it's not always necessary to choose between permanence and convenience. And while a tablet may only cause 1d4 bashing damage, an enterprising skunk might be able to file down the plastic casing to an edge as sharp as their wit. : )

unto this I must quot the prophet unaware, Ron Burgundy. "My apartment smells of rich mahogany and i have many fine, leather bound books."

Nice one, love. I had a feeling a romantic ole soul such as yours might have an appreciation for the printed word. *smiles*

Oo! *snaps* I meant to say, I got your package in the mail-

...Not that one...

Thank you again for your efforts on my commission. I'll be hunting up a lil' frame for that bugger to join my wall of goodies.

There is just something about the tactile feeling of beating someones skull in with a good old fashion book... you dont get the same satisfying crunch with a kindle or nook as you do with a real book....

Indeed. *gesticulates* The smooth sterile plastic of modern toys just doesn't give you that same romantic sense of history or soul or hefty whappin' power that you get with a good old-fashioned tome.

Not to mention the many issues with DRM. Lots of people getting all their books blanked by bullshit "copyright violation" charges.

Okay, now you're hitting more along the line of my big complaints with ebooks that pretty much everybody seems to be missing. *big eyes*

The fact that the material is now purely digital means it can be, and has been, manipulated for any reason and at any time with no input or notification from the consumer. Changing one word in a conversation may not seem like much, but it can make a profound difference, especially when it's not noticed and is accepted as writ. The future changes compound the issue and badda-boom, Greedo shoots first in the eyes of the new Star Wars fans.

*rubs her neck, chuckling*I know it's a different medium, but it's the same principle.

The only time I would use an ebook is if I needed a whole mess of manuals for a job and it'd be easier to access them that way. Or if I was going on a trip and it'd be easier to carry several books on a reader.

But I prefer something tenable. Especially if it's an older book with that lovely musty paper smell.

Now if someone could make that smell into a perfume/cologne....

That's a pretty damn good idea, love. I know they make "New Car Smell" air freshener spray, but "Old Book" spray would be damned awesome.

Well... that and we know that "New Car Smell" is just the low-key high you get from huffing all the pent-up fumes of the poly vinyls and plastics used in the interior. *snickers*

This is why I am a proponant of books-on-plate steel!

Now that's a technology I can get behind. Sweet!

I wouldn't worry, the fact that this comments section is full of people saying they enjoy physical books means that they'll keep making them. After all, if someone wants something, someone else will sell it. I for one love the hell out of my Kindle Fire, but I agree: there's something about a good book that cold hard technology could never replicate, whether it be the much-discussed feel and smell of paper, or simply the greater weight that makes them viable skull-crushing implements of death. Although for the latter, you could just strap some weights onto your Kindle. :3

I would still worry is the problem. Every product possible has been moving to digital. This provides the providers and producers increased control and freedom over their product. Something like changing the wording in a book can be a huge thing that someone like you or me might never notice. In addition they will never have to tell you they did it because of their user agreement.

Well, nobody really knows what exactly the future holds, except for those deciding the future of course. As for the sorts of things I read, I haven't noticed those edits you've mentioned, because if there's one thing they'd redact from a book intended for teenagers approaching adulthood, it's descriptions of intense violence such as baddies getting beheaded, torn apart by carnivorous fish, stabbed repeatedly in the head by a giant scorpion, being bitten by a highly poisonous giant snake and having their corpse being specifically described as discolored and bloated, and many more gruesome fates.

Your right no one knows what the future holds, but that doesn't mean we should let them the chance to screw us over. I'm not a psychic but trends lead to things. The success of the used games market and services like steam and the games on demand have lead us to the current generation of consoles. That is just an example.

Edits like that I'm against because we all need those experiences in our lives. Editing a story can change it dramatically in the meaning behind it and the affect it has on the characters. The difference between person A shooting person B and person B simply dieing in front of person A. A famous example is how Han Solo shot first but then they went back and changed that. This simple change dramatically changed his character. People might say that its to mature for teenagers or that it will scar them. I don't believe it will. I had those sort of thoughts when I was that old even without a book giving them to me.

I dunno, I just don't feel like eBooks are too much to get worried about. Honestly, I don't even feel too upset about the upcoming console generation, because I think they'll learn their lesson when no one buys an XBox One because of what a massive pile of horrible it is.

While there might be more important things to worry about in this world then eBooks, like actually civil rights and privacy from other and the government. It doesn't mean you let them slide, such a thing can and will be a big problem if you let it go as far as it can and will. Companies want control because it gives them more control on their profits and digital services give that.

While with the Xbox One I hope they learn their lesson however I'm not hopeful. Nintendo made the Virtual Boy yet they eventually made the Wii, WiiU, and the 3DS. So even great nintendo didn't learn their lesson, they just learned how to better package it.

Innovating isn't a mistake, it's a risk, yes, but it's not a mistake. If no companies took risks then no companies could become stronger. I think it's good that Nintendo is trying different things even now when they're a big company, it's certainly better than the other companies which are releasing the same-sounding games on the same-sounding consoles. While the Wii isn't the best thing ever, nor its souped-up younger brother the WiiU, I'd still rather buy those than an XBox One or a PS4 because you're basically asking me to choose between a soup that's not great but isn't bad either, or a steaming pile of dogshit. I will take the soup any day of the week.

Also, besides basically being experimental pieces of technology, what's the Virtual Boy got to do with the Wii? Unless you meant the Powerglove, a far less successful motion control technology, but like I said, risks are risks and sometimes they simply don't pan out.

The eBooks are sharing the same problem as digital games and movies in my opinion as well. The fact that these services and products are provided and maintained by someone else and when they decide to stop supporting it any long your just SOL. They can change and will change these things in part or in whole and you have no recourse because its still their service. Which is the side that physical media will always have over digital is that once you have it they can't take it back.

Innovation isn't the problem as its something we always want. New ideas and new ways to look at the same ideas. The problem is adding something to the system that adds little to the actual game. The Virtual boy was suppose to be big but nothing special happened with any of the games that were released on it. Similar to the Wii. While the motion controls are something new they add nothing to the games sadly, they've only been used in the same way and under the same mechanics we've had before. That is what the Virtual Boy got to do with the Wii. Its painted as something new and something special, but its just more of the same with a different controller that sadly wasn't used in a special way.

Hehehe. neat.

I try to have both most of the time, paper books and ebooks. I can't keep with me the "Manual to slightly understand and deal with women during "those" days" while I ride the bus, that freaking book is huge.

I'm not sure if comments like that are intended to garner hugs or a swift kidney-punch, so I shall leave you to the tender mercies of mah lil' sis. *smirks*

If comes from my dearest lovely vixen then both hugs and kidney-puches are perfectly fine for me ^^

there is always something about books that bring a odd sort of beauty to my world, the sensation of the paper between my fingers that the world fades away as i read the printed text, the mind races the blood quickens and slows to the pulse beat of the book's moods and settings. I will always take books over E books.. now if E books were full colour and would do comic and you know.. they only cost like.. 4 bucks and then i could have an omnibus of comics on my e book than yea sure...

Though there is one thing... if there were some kind of horrible apocalypse i would take the E reader with like a TB HD filled with all books of science i coudl get my hands on... and you know a few how to books... and other literature i like a lot plus... all of the epics and grand stories as the space saved is amazing, and you know.. you can rig up your emergency radio and flashlight to also charge up the e reader... *nodnod* mind you .. you could get an e reader pack it with C4 and throw it at some one and watch it explode them! muahhahaha!

I agree entirely on the romantic appeal of a good book, love. *smiles serenely* You can't get that same feel of soulful comfort in a bubble bath or curled up under satiny sheets... or even your favorite frumpy P.J.'s... with an eBook's screen light glowing in the dark. Ugh. And the way those things produce that weird mini-glare of your glasses too... annoying.

And as long as your apocalypse didn't involve any manner of emp or something which would eliminate electricity production... *chuckles* like most apocalypse scenarios... I could definitely get behind your point, love.

But then again... *grins* the "C4 eBook" has some potential....

There is nothing as erotic as a good book, a warm fire, and a good wine, and while Technology is interesting and beautiful and thought provoking is as the song goes is cool blue reason. Yar those glare and flare ups from tech can be weird... then they recommend that you should pick up the gamer glasses if you are gonna spent more than 3 hours pounding through games of various times, still though... tech is a good thing... and I did figure a good reason to have an Ebook now... you can go to other countries and pack it up phrase and translation books. Mind you... there is an app for that that will speak FOR you soo... *shrug* all depends.

Hmm As apocalypses go it depends on what we are looking at for science, war, political and economical.

For social and political as well as economical are starting to shape up like snow crash in the united states and abroad.... which is really creepy in which case we have less of a "oh fuck" moment and more of a break of society where everything keeps pushing its just more... capitalist.

Science wise we are sorta leaning towards the rifts kinda stuff using a large hadron collider opening the first rift and starting off some weird though sans the glitter boys and power armour...

War wise... i dunno... don't quite know.

But yea long as it wasn't a giant EMP solar flare or so long as you had it in a Faraday cage or enough shielding like concrete or lead you could keep it up and running. There is also the fun one where you fill it up with thermite so when they turn it on it melts in their hands.. and on their feet... and blinds them... and by burn i mean off.... 2500 C is you know... a lot... >.> ANARCHY! SMASH THE SYSTEM! WOOO!

Ebooks? Bleh.

I despise them. There is just a sort of pride and joy in having your very own hard copy of the book, the feel of the paper in your hands as you lose yourself in the stories they contain. You just don't get that with most stories on digital equipment. I've tried reading one but it isn't the same.
While a good old good leaves me looking up after about 2-4 hours later, thinking "Where am I? What is this world? How can I return to the world I was in?". A feeling of immersion I just can't get on an ebook.

Plus, books are a good break for your eyes from a computer screen.

Yeah, it helps to turn the brightness all the way down on a Kindle or what have you when reading for extended periods of time, more than once I've stubbed my toe on something in the past after walking blindly through my living room following a late-night reading of some book before I started doing that myself. Using the alternate color formats also helps, especially the inverted one with black pages and white text which I can only assume is available for exactly that reason.

Love... *smiles broadly* Sometimes, you are indeed after mah heart, I'd swear. *sweeps her hat*

As far as immersion in a good story goes, movies have never been able to top a good read for me. It's just not the same. I've seen hundreds of films and none of them had me so engrossed in their world that I realized it'd been hours and those noodles I left boiling might merit some attention before my home becomes the next circle of hell. eBook thingies, they just can't do that.

I remember seeing a commercial for those things and it showed a woman on a treadmill using on. The narration said something like "...so you can catch up on your reading." And I was thinking, no...that's catching up on your listening...which I'm sure that cunt also needs to do.

I don't read nearly as much as I used to for a variety of odd reasons, but if I did want to settle into bed with a piece of fiction, staring at a glowing, cold, industrialized screen doesn't seem appealing.

True, true. I remember reading by flashlight when I was a wee lil' thing, but even that was preferable to the backlit pseudo-transportation that eBooks provide.

Holy shit... *big eyes, snofts* you actually have to capitalize the "B" in "eBooks"?

Sorry, I just discovered that on my spellchecker. Wow.

But, yes. I agree entirely, love.

A physical book!? Wow! Such a new idea! How do you use it??

to quote Wall-E

"Manuel; relay instructions... Manuel?" *manually turns page* "Wow.. would you look at that"

With a good overhead swing to the thorax, methinks....

Nah, aim for the head. They go down quicker.

WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP!

Does a human have a thorax? Might I try to hit them in the neck? Crotch shot with a book!

Which book might be the best for head bashing. Do you want thick, or maybe just a larger and thinner like your horror story books?

I would use a heavier book, something hefty with the sledgehammer "Swing it like Kratos" tactic. Aim for the crotch, yes, but attempt to strike it by way of the head!

So attach a chain to it, so you'd have a Book Chain. Maybe you could make a Book Club by attaching a stick :D. I think cleaving a man in half would be a rather impressive task with a book.

Oh, forgot another use (though it may irk some readers.)

The old 'hidden gun in the cut out pages' shtick. And the gun is found in something ironic or just amusing: a bible or maybe 'Farewell to Arms.'

*chuckles* Good point. The word is indeed powerful...

I was just mentioning my use being a great stashing place for your money. Those shitty Stephanie Meyer books? GREAT hidey-holes for your money.

Weeeeeeelll. I would never have them on my shelf. All the other books would insist on tossing them off into the trash, where they belong.

Those old SF / Fantasy books have their standards, it seems.

Real books do not need batterys and will survive emp to be read by firelight.

B-b-b-BINGO!! *confetti falls, hands over the showcase showdown prizes*

I think I was just saying that to someone. I agree, the portability of an eBook would be great in the general zombie uprising situation.... that is until the batteries ran out and it became dead weight. Or one of the thousand ways it's electronics could be compromised and it broke. Better by far, the printed word. Oh yeah.

I don't get eReaders myself. You spend at least $60 on the device to spend 10-25 for the book. ANd I'm estimating up. I'll just stick to the hard cover or paperback books. I live in NY and frequent the train. The odds my hardcover book will be stolen isn't as high as someone looking at their digital copy. Or phone as some of them have that function as well. Then there the obvious satisfaction you get for bashing someone with a book as they run. Alot cheaper to replave a paperback then a digital device

You know, I hadn't actually thought of that advantage, but it's a very solid point. People steal the shiny stuff, iPods, iphones, ipads, idon'tfuckin'cares, whatever. Nobody steals books.

This is in part why I'm a fan of storing my money in books. *picks up her copy of Twighlight, laughing* You think I own this piece of literary effluvium for it's engaging story? *cackles* Treasure your books of knowledge, people. *snickers* Hollow out your shitty books folkes.

I'd pick a better book to hide money in. SOmething absolutely no one would EVER even think about picking up. But since I don't have a copy of the phone book right now I have another location

Well, my main idea was that nobody who'd break into my place looking to ron me would ever want a copy of "Twighlight". *snofts* Seemed sound reasoning to me. *smiles* So, what's your suggestion, love?

An encyclopedia set, yellow pages, any thick manual you may happen to have lying around, a bible if you can spare one, a copy of Dianetics(The Scientology handbook or whatever you want to call it), cookbooks and probably more then i could think of right now. But if you have to put it in a Twilight book or any that i have mentioned, make sure the spine is facing out

Well, Stephanie Meyer's bowel movement of ink and paper continue to keep my funds free from harm, but should I ever require an expanded safety spot, I think you've made some good suggestions, love.

I'd consider one of those "Friendship is Magick" stick books, but with Murphy's Law being the fucker that it is, my burglar would probably end up being a... "bronie"... egads... *hacks* What're the odds?

*laughs* I concur. Sometimes, you just want to hold the printed version in your hands...and, on occasion, bludgeon a curmudgeon with it. ^.^

*smiles* I think we are of a mind on this one, love.

*nods* Indeed. Plus, a real book is so much heavier than those flimsy little e-readers...and makes a very nice sound when it hits someone upside the head. ^.^

That sound is so underrated! It's that dull coconut-like mix of "bonk", "whap" and "thud" that is just so damned appealing...

I thought the same until I had to get an iPad for school, apparently Brown Mackie College has some sort of contract with Apple so now Steve Jobs gets to haunt us from beyond the grave, but I gotta admit I've been buying a hell of a lot of iBooks.

Mind you, I -haven't- stopped frequenting the Half Price Books near my house either... that and I wouldn't want to stove in someone's head with a book because then it'd get blood all over it and just wreck the spine. I'll use my baseball bat like nature intended.