"Are Books Dead?"

Black Swan

Black Swan

Abord the Yorikke!
Let's face it! Holding a physical thing in your hand involves most of all your senses and it is what makes life feel precious.
Do we need all those things to survive? Probably not, for the time being, then we tend to compensate with our imagination. The thing is that our imagination seems to atrophy with time. Your creativity becomes obsolete without a trade to practice. You can see that in all areas. Digital photography and videos replacing painting and sculpture. We need to create with new medias.
I still think, as I get older, that the last thing I could give up is a room with books and colours.
My brother's house burned down to the ground, a few years ago. He had precious art, books, old photos that had been in my family for generations. I asked him if he missed any of those things that he lost. He said that in a sense it was a relief.
Are books dead? Maybe... Not for me, if I can help it.
 
Erik

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
Nowadays I aint got no time to read either e-books, paper-books, or any other kind of book.
Except for the neverending and constantly expanding pages of Buknet tht is...
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
For me, as a reader, paper books will always be better, but as a writer, I can see advantages to ebooks. I don't think ebooks will kill paper books, but there is a shift in the balance going on, and it's unstoppable.

Like you said, Black Swan: a room full of books is essential. Without them, I'd feel like I was camping or in a hotel room.
 
Black Swan

Black Swan

Abord the Yorikke!
I do think that books may be replaced by e-books. I also think that books will fall into a new category, not as a necessity, but rather as collectibles. The book itself as an object, just like crazy shoes .:DD
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Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
I'm highly suggestible. And very gullible. I can be talked into all sorts of mischief. Plus, when you (I mean myself) are almost always proven wrong in all things, assuming you're wrong becomes a reflex action.

Changing your mind can be a powerful thing. Just don't hold me to any one position.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
That explains it! I've always thought old leather-bound books smelled good enough to eat. Plus, it's the stuff that "prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit." Old books always make me feel better when I am in a weepy state.
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

That's a nice bit of prosaic inaccuracy. While the structure of lignin contains monomeric units that are similar to vanillin, an important structural component of vanillin, which renders it a "volatile oil," is the aldehyde moiety. When lignin is formed, this aldehyde moiety is reduced to become a hydroxymethyne group. As the chemical constituents of the pages oxidize over the years, they are very unlikely to reform the aldehyde - oxidative decay would be far more likely.

But I agree that old books often smell good. They often smell like crap too.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Science! Bear in mind that the science of trees breaking down or weeping or oxidizing only applies to books made post 1850 or so. Before that they didn't use wood pulp to make paper.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
What breaks down and decays in older books (pre-1850-ish) is the leather. I've read that much of it was incorrectly tanned plus too thinly shaved and it loses it's strength. Often the old calf will rub off in your hands as brownish red dust -- the so called "red rot." The paper in these books is usually strong and ages well.
 
pig ear press

pig ear press

My tutor for a letterpress course I started last night turned me onto this, which I thought fitted in well within the context of our discussion;

http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/mutancall10.htm

He was actually one of the artists who contributed to the 130 broadsides. You can see some of the broadsides here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/npstudio/sets/72157625192578467/

It looks like an amazing project.

I managed to find my tutor's entry for the above, which is again pertinent to this discussion...

http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/sp...mutanabbi/ciceros_observation_is_timeless.php
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
mjp said:
(Until I get a Kindle myself, at which point they will immediately become man's greatest invention in my eyes. I'm fickle like that.)
Click to expand...

kindle.jpg


Man's greatest invention? No.

But I will admit that I get a certain perverse pleasure in looking at rare old Bukowski books on it. Not to mention the other things it does pretty well.
 
Erik

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
mjp: Is Crucifix or It Catches available for Kindle?
hmmm, guess you would have shown those, instead og Cold Dogs, if they were available...
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
mjp: is that an actual ebook, or just a cover scan on your reader? I don't see any older Buk books as Kindle editions on Amazon. Maybe it's some other vendor?
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
It's the entire book. But it's a pdf that I made myself, it isn't for sale anywhere.

It, along with a lot of other things like the Wormwood chapbooks, 8 Story Window, Relentless As The Tarantula and Terror Street have been made into pdfs. They aren't for sale anywhere, you just have to know someone who knows someone who knows where to find them. Even though they are old and most were published by presses that don't exist anymore, making electronic versions and distributing them is almost certainly in violation of the estate's copyright.

Rekrab, I know you can find them. They are right under your nose.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Clueless as I am, I think I can probably find those. Lots of territory under my prodigious nose, so I'll get an early start. ("To bed, gentlemen, for we rise at dawn ...")

("...or 9:30-ish.")
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Cool. Do you have any links to similar pages that explain how to tie your shoes or make toast?
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
mjp said:
there will always be multiple markets and multiple products to serve those markets.
Click to expand...
What a wise man!

I spent the entire three day weekend prepping a few books for tablet reading and revamping my web site as well. It seemed to be a successful - if painful - exercise, until this morning, when Amazon sent me an email asking me to prove I had the right to republish my first book.

Dunno how that's going to pan out. But the same book is on Smashwords in Kindle format anyway, so whatever, as Obama said to Romney (then under his breath, while he was still shaking Romney's hand, Obama said, "And by the way, fuck you and fuck Joseph Smith...in the mouth, nigga!" which made Romney so furious that he accidentally said "darn," but he said it in the same idiot goober monotone he uses for everything, so no one paid any attention).

I don't know what the purpose of this post is.



















Look, feet!

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mjp's attorney

mjp's attorney

Mr. Phillips wishes to indemnify himself against claims of copyright infringement for the "CHANCE PRESS" and "BOTTLE OF SMOKE PRESS" "logos" employed on the above-mentioned Internet web site.

Equitable indemnity claims are almost reflexively asserted. However, infringers under either the Copyright Act or the Lanham Act may not assert equitable indemnity claims. Paraphrasing John Wooden, infringement is a mistake, but an infringer's demand for equitable indemnity is doomed to failure. Need I remind all of you that the Supreme Court held that federal courts may fashion federal common law to supplement a statutory scheme only where a federal rule is necessary to protect uniquely federal interests, or in matters dominated by strong federal concerns, such as admiralty.

Translated to language you monkeys can understand; you ain't gettin' shit for your logos.
 
bospress.net

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
Just sell my books and I'm happy, beyotch! I'll have bospress' attorney tear up his cease and desist, which was written in finger paint anyway...

Plus, I stole your great photo of the Athenaeum set to use on my website, so we may have to swap C&D demands....

Sweet website, by the way.

Best,

Bill
 
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