{"id":722,"date":"2011-01-15T21:35:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T15:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=722"},"modified":"2011-01-15T21:35:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-15T15:35:49","slug":"the-classic-library-v-kindle-disposability-of-ebooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/01\/15\/the-classic-library-v-kindle-disposability-of-ebooks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Classic Library v. Kindle Disposability of eBooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the holidays something struck me (as all wrong) about the rise of ebooks and “Kindle editions”: In Colorado I have a kind of classic library, not a zillion crappy paperbacks, but a good number (around a thousand, I would guess) of (hardbacks, mostly) top-quality titles, with a smattering of the Quirky. With the hardbacks, each has a history and a provenance of its own: a first-edition Lolita<\/em> (1955), with the reference to the Olympia Press edition permission in the fly leaf (Nabokov had a serious row with the French publisher of the Olympia Press edition, which was its first appearance in print, before wrestling away the rights to publish it in a mainstream press in the U.S.), a first edition of Richard Wright’s Black Boy<\/em> (1945), with dust jacket, bought for 25 cents at a garage sale in Colorado, complete with a plea to buy War Bonds in the fly leaf; a first-edition of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls<\/em> (1940) and a first-edition of William Faulkner’s Sanctuary<\/em> (1931), with his funny, odd foreword. Plus a great collection of Richard Brautigan’s books and hardback climbing sagas, including a first-edition of Maurice Herzog’s Annapurna<\/em> (1951), with slightly torn dust jacket, which tells of the first ascent of an 8,000 meter peak in 1950, and is still one of the greatest climbing books ever written.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nCompare that history\/complexity with what happens when you download all to a Kindle: No dust jacket, no different font, no history at all. If the power dies, so do your books. A Kindle ad could proclaim, “It’s not a book, it’s a library.” This is true. But you’d have to add to that, “It’s a disposable library.” Or dubious. I’m using my Kindle, but mainly for convenience. I checked a Macbeth reference with it this morning (Act V, v: “out, out, brief candle”), using the Search function. And I’m reading the Old Testament on it, when I’m in that ole biblical mood. But overall, it’s a forgotten stepchild library, the one whining in the corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the holidays something struck me (as all wrong) about the rise of ebooks and “Kindle editions”: In Colorado I have a kind of classic library, not a zillion crappy paperbacks, but a good number (around a thousand, I would … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t