Comments on: E-Readers: Cute as a Button or a Real Page Burner?

By: 10 Things We Just Can't Give Up for Green | EcoSalon | The Green Gathering

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:23:09 +0000

[…] alternative.6. Buying BooksNo pulp is just too cold for many of us. This, despite the fact Kindle ereaders are a mega hit with users who enjoy being able to download dozens of reads for that commute to work […]

By: Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 155. | The Good Human

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 155. | The Good Human — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:32:12 +0000

[…] E-readers are spineless compared with hardcover books, lacking the soulful carbon fingerprints of readers past. You cannot fold the pages of the wafer-thin gadgets, or make your mark with splotches of food or wine. And the idea of clutching the casing to your chest after reading the final line of a novel just leaves me cold. As one book club friend of mine waxes, “There’s just something about the smell of a book.” Still, we all can smell and see the writing is on the screen when it comes to these devices outsourcing print media, sparing trees and saving money. […]

By: Luanne Bradley

Luanne Bradley — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:29:29 +0000

I hear you Karyn. It is a very good point. I’m always trying to gauge it to see if I have any chance in hell of completing a read in time for my book club.

By: karyn klein

karyn klein — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:56:56 +0000

It is frustrating when you can’t get a sense of how far a long you are in a chapter. It isn’t satisfying to know that you are 47% through the book. Sometimes you need to know when will you arrive at a logical place to stop reading. Maybe it is all just psychological but it’s just what one is accustomed to when reading books in the traditional way..

By: Luanne Bradley

Luanne Bradley — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:38:18 +0000

I think it would be easier to adjust to recycled paper than never using books again.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:30:16 +0000

Sarah, I totally agree. Instead of going straight to digital, why not try and make the real book more eco-friendly?

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks like us. I helped publish a book of poetry as part of an undergraduate univeristy class, and out of maybe 20-25 people, I was the only one who wanted 100% recycled paper used in the pages. Yes, it wasn’t the nicest paper ever, but in the end, it’s the content that readers care about. Suffice it to say, I was out voted, and the book was published using paper primarily made from new trees.

By: Sarah Supernova

Sarah Supernova — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:10:25 +0000

I like the touch and feel of a real book myself. But how about we print books with hemp and bamboo papers…and other fast-and-easy, high cellulose plants.

By: Luanne Bradley

Luanne Bradley — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:14:05 +0000

Thanks, Ted. I can tell you won’t be reading Michael Ruppert on a Kindle anytime soon. There are arguments to be made about their afterlife.

By: Ted Brady

Ted Brady — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:58:08 +0000

I used to see these things on the subway fairly regularly but now not so much. It seems like the little 2X2 screens are greatly preferred for distracting feverish alt.modern minds. ( I actually sat next to an SF State student last week who played a bubble-wrap-popping game on her lap with an I-whatchacallit all the way from Montgomery Station to West Portal — without resting!)

E-readers look like a get-richer quick scheme by techno triumphalist crowd. How long do these Steve Jobs wannabes think they can keep inventing demand for things that no one needs? Forever? For the next 100 years? Or just until the next tech/finance/environmental bubble bursts on us? And where are they getting those projected sales figures? From where the sun don’t shine, I’d bet.

Next story idea: what you can do with this piece of shit after you can’t get batteries, content, screens, repairs, parts. Maybe a contest to see how far it will frisbee into a e-waste site.