I stumbled onto an interview with Chuck Palahniuk and am thinking about getting his last 2 books (Stranger Than Fiction and Haunted). The thing that I am torn on is whether I should buy them physically or digitally. It seems like I am at a tipping point with regard to digital books. I have purchased 6 now and they are instantly delivered, cheap and great to read on the bus/subway etc via the Ipaq. I will be going home soon and will never read on a bus/subway (as these don't exist in Tucson) ever again. What struck me as I hovered over the Buy Now button was that if I reduce all the books I own to a digital format, the bookshelves that have lined every house I have ever lived in would someday become bare.
Technology leaps like this (record -> tape, tape -> CD, CD -> digital files all spring to mind) always have fits and starts and its tough to time it just right. A total commitment to e-books right now requires reliance on hardware which I am not sure is well standardized.
I have committed to making my musical life totally virtualized (every CD has been ripped and stored digitally) but for some reason books are giving me pause. I wonder if its something more than the tactile experience of reading a book. Something about the ritual of it. Books have a very concrete presence in my life, I rarely get rid of any book no matter the crap contained in its pages (only when my wife absolutely insists on a Bookman's run).
There are also practical considerations. I read in bed every night before sleep. Even when dog-tired, I find that I can not relax properly without at least reading 10-15 minutes. The trouble in the e-book scenario is that the backlight bugs my wife while the reading lamp does not. On the plus side, I usually end up carrying
Further, I can't easily loan a book to someone with the current DRM (digital rights management) schemes. DRM is a tough topic on its own. I do believe people should own what they produce and have the right to sell it or not but the way that its being enforced now is anachronistic and lame. The only people they are preventing from doing anything are the ones who have been good and paid the money.
And speaking of books, the Internet reminds me of Plato's ring of Gyges and I think most of us fail the moral test, ok that is mostly me that fails although I do take the trouble of inventing tortured justifications for my larceny and that rationalization keeps me from worrying too much about it.
On balance, I love the cost savings and don't mind the screen format (although I vastly prefer the Microsoft Reader to the one from Adobe) but lack of physicality makes me a bit nervous.
As a side note on aforementioned Chuck.
His total list includes:
Fight Club, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Choke, Lullaby, Fugitves and Refugees, Diary, Stranger Than Fiction, Haunted.
I liked Fight Club (wish I hadn't seen the movie first, liked both but its never good to get those images handed to you ahead of time) and Choke (missed Survivor and Invisible Monsters) but felt like Lullaby was a let-down. It didn't seem as effortless as the first 2 I read. I hear Survivor is good and have noticed a buzz about a story in one of the 2 new ones called Guts.
E-Books So Far:
Crime and Punishment - Considering when it was written this is an amazing book and deserves its status as a classic. My only complaint, and I know this is a period thing but its awfully damn wordy.
The Gates of Rome, The Death of Kings, The Field of Swords - The first 3 of the projected 4 novels in this historical fiction series about the life of Julius Ceaser and his childhood friend Brutus. They are saccharine crap but scratch my simultaneous itch for adventure, military, history, fiction and page-turnability.
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto -I hoped for a novel but instead got a series of GenX pro-slacker essays. I could catch most of the references and identify with alot of what he was saying. I laughed several times but like some of the things mentioned in the title, it left me a little un-full.
The Rule of Four - I heard a review of this book a year or 2 ago that led me to buy it but I think I misunderstood somehow or got the wrong book. I am only 30% of the way through this one and its like a slow Dan Brown novel. Dan Brown novels are bubble gum made bearable only by their pace.
1 comment:
I knew that book was Klosterman before I opened the link. I get his schtick (sp?), but I fear he is wading in the area between nostalgia and irony. Not sure the 90's were long enough ago to be nostalgic, and we are far enough removed where irony about ironic people gets old. At least I don't call him names like that one guy in that article you sent me. All of this Gen-X 90's stuff just reminded me of that leadership class teacher who just turned 40 and convenenientaly defined Gen X as born between 1964 and 1980. That is a big freaking generation. That definition also completely ignores the fact that if you are 40 you are old, and not only not part of Gen X, but the object of which Gen X is vocally indifferent to.
Chuck Palahniuk hasn't written a good book since Survivor I think. Totally agree with all your assesments on the ones you have read. Lullaby was garbage. Diary sucked even worse. I have heard the next one is bad too. I will loan you Diary if you want, I actually have real books. The funny thing about the real books is people that read a lot like to display all the books like trophies. They all do. Even if they are nice, unassuming people. To think you read Crime and Punishment and people will come into your house and see a bunch of Klosterman on the shelves might be unnerving to some.
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