Frazz by Jef Mallett for January 09, 2013

I have the condensed (not abridged) OED in two volumes, and it is weighty! I’d hate to have it come down on me.

I have a Kindle with dozens of books on it but it never gets any heavier. Not certain if I could use it on a mouse or not.

Well, you could, obviously, but the results might not be as satisfactory as you might have hoped. Dozens of books meeting their demise along with the mouse…hmmm…the cost-to-benefit ratio seems a bit high.

And what if your first blow missed the mouse? Dozens of books would meet their demise while sparing the mouse!

Just last week I downloaded to my Kindle 40 books. All free. Some technical stuff, some SF and Mystery, 2 joke books. Many of the SF and mystery I may just delete as poorly written – but for free who cares. Nothing lost but a few minutes of research time looking at the lists.

Calm down everybody, on Oct 24th (two days after the article) she had her account etc restored:

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/10/24/amazon_unwipes_previously_wiped_kindle/

As with any electronic file, making backups is a good practice. Using a HDD enclosure to kill spiders is not a good idea, but neither is using a big book!

A brand of eReader (electronic book), available as a flat computer pad, but also available as an app for iPhone and Droid phones. A competing brand from Barnes & Noble booksellers is the “nook” (as is book nook, an alcove for reading).

Well, I got a Kindle over Christmas. Took a while to learn how to use it. Still not completely sure. I tend to be low tech as well. But the e-books have some things on their side too. The uniform size for one. And, as the library pointed out, never an overdue fee. Its e-book section disables each book at precisely the due time—even if you’re in the middle of reading. ’Course then you have to renew the thing; which may or may not be easy. Things may change in the future. but for now, I find myself leaning more to e-books than to physical ones.

Kindles (and other e-book readers, including the e-reader apps for smartphones and netbooks) are just fine for library books, which you’re going to read once and return anyway. Heck, the ability to borrow an e-book without driving to the library will probably save enough gas in a year to pay for the device.

It’s another matter if you’re planning to actually buy the book. A print book has an open-ended license; you can read it as many times as you like, lend it to friends, pass it around the neighborhood, and even re-sell it at a garage sale or used book store. An e-book has a much more restrictive license (particularly as regards sharing and re-selling), and it’s still up in the air whether the typical e-book price is enough lower than that of a print book to offset the reduced value.

To my mind the strongest argument against proprietary readers is the astonishing number of free texts on the web in non-proprietary formats (pdf, ascii text files, html etc). A couple times in the past month I’ve found full text online of a book more quickly than I could have found it on my (many) bookshelves.There are a number of other reasons why I think a netbook/laptop would be a significantly better investment than a reader but that one is hard to argue.

I plan to die without ever texting. And I really like holding a book in my hands. My apple laptop is as high tech as I need to be, and yes, I AM OLD!

I’m an older guy that’s starting to have problems reading. I got a kindle last year, and I love it. I couldn’t read most of my books any more with my current glasses. And bifocals give me headaches. The kindle solved the problem by letting me increase the font size. That, and one handed reading in bed is nice. Oh, and I own all the books I have on it, and they’re impossible to take away (unless you physically show up and take the kindle away from me.)

Mouse stories from the classroom. 1. We heard a noise coming from the unlined, and otherwise empty, waste basket. A mouse was trying to climb out. I opened the classroom door, and dumped the mouse out onto the PE field. 2. The school did have some sticky traps in some areas, including the Social Studies department storage area. A new teacher stepped on the trap, and couldn’t get loose. He came to my room, yowling for me to help. I kept telling him to call the office, and request help from a custodian. Eventually, one of us called. A custodian came, wearing heavy work gloves, and took away mouse and trap. The new teacher was smart, enthusiastic, and probably less mature than most of our middle school students.

People, in the physical book vs. ebook debate, whether you can smash a mouse with it or not should not be a very highly ranked priority.

i just dowloaded the free ‘Kindle for PC’ to my desktop and find free ebooks to read. easier than the library. cheaper than buying.

masterskrain; Don’t believe Redkaycei Repoc! He got the species, but not the details. A kindle is the proper collective for kittens..jessegooddoggy: I, also, but I am not old – won’t hit 80 until late April. I do have a good argument against astrology. I was born 1° of latitude, 3° of longitude, and a few hours of Carol Burnett, but have no more similarities than any random other people.

If you have a library book on your Kindle, and it’s due — the only way the library can delete it is if you turn on the wifi. If you keep that off, you can have the book as long as you like. BookBub.com has a way to get free kindle and other ebooks free everyday.

Asoutter, that’s not quite correct. Sure, if you keep the WiFi off, those library books will stay. But you won’t be able to check out any other books, either, ’cause the moment you plug your Kindle into your computer for any reason at all, your overdue library books will cancel themselves.