Tolkien on the Kindle

[LadyBrooke]

I guess I'm just so used to the fact that in this electronic age anything can vanish that it doesn't bother me that much. After using the school computers and having entire essays vanish, I'm not going to worry about Amazon removing my copy of LotR. Plus there are the free samples so I can figure out if I want to read The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun without actually buying it. On the other hand, I don't see myself taking my books off the top of my desktop any time soon.

[davem]

A few things interest me about the e-Tolkien's - both LotR & TH have appeared in different 'editions'. LotR has (it could be argued) three 'incarnations' - the first edition text was available between 1954/55 & (I think) about 1966, when Tolkien made a number of changes to the text as a result of the Ace Books controversy in order to allow him to renew/establish copyright for the work in the US. Then, in 2005, we got the '50th Anniversary edition', edited with a new index, by Hammond & Scull under the supervision of Christopher Tolkien. This contained 300-400 changes/amendments - mostly minor, but still.....all done after the author's death. (This came up in another thread http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...2&postcount=98

Now, I have all three versions in print books, but the only 'official' e-book version available is the 50th - & that, appearing after Tolkien's death, is the only one of the three that appeared without Tolkien's stamp of approval. The other thing about e-books is the ability of the publisher/copyright holder to further amend/'update' the texts - an e-text is not a fixed thing in the way a print book is - you connect your Kindle to Amazon & it could simply update your current text with an amended one. Argument for: typos could be fixed. Argument against: any changes the copyright holder decides on would be forced on you - after all, you don't 'own' the text, only the licence to read it on your device.

Now, my favourite version is the revised, Second Edition - in the main because that's the one I read first & the one I know best - therefore the changes (however 'minor' they may be claimed to be) in the 50th grate on me. But I can never read that edition on the Kindle (unless I break the law & get hold of one of the older bootleg Second Editions, convert it, & stick it on there myself ..... but of course, that could cause all kinds of problems of a legal nature. And, of course, as indicated by the Orwell books issue, one could see a situation where, if copyright law is changed in the future then books which are currently out of copyright could (if copyright is extended) suddenly become copyright again & vanish off your device. I read somewhere that the Disney corporation is among those working to extend copyright, as Walt died in 1966 & his work would enter the public domain in 2036. I still don;t know whether the changes made to LotR (added to any possible future changes we may see) have extended/renewed the copyright on LotR.

[Mister Underhill]

Everyone has to find their own level of (dis)comfort with the idea of e-readers and the ephemeral nature of digital content. If you think of a device as a replacement for your physical books, then some of these issues become more pressing. If, as I do, you view the device merely as a convenient adjunct to reading, it's pretty nifty. For instance, one additional thing I've found I can do is take out books (admittedly a small selection so far) from the library without actually having to go to the library. I like going to the library, but I'm also open to anything that will save me a trip out into LA traffic.

Anywho, here's -- finally -- the side-by-side look that I promised. This is an old mass-market edition of TT alongside the Kindle. The Kindle is set to the third smallest font size. You can also fiddle with the font (there's one called "Condensed" which crams considerably more print on a line without changing the actual font size), as well as the words-per-line (in this pic it's set to "Default" but there's also "Fewer" and "Fewest" if you want to create wider margins) and line spacing (mine is set to the max of three settings). I figure since page count isn't an issue, why not go with settings geared towards comfort, but if you prefer more words on the Kindle page, by turning the settings down you can actually get about a fourth again more words on the screen than on a paperback page and it's still readable.

[davem]

Well, after umming & ahhing for a few weeks I finally bought a Kindle (& the case I linked to earlier) So far I haven't read anything on it (I'm part way through a 'real' book, which I want to finish before going 'e'). I've downloaded a few books ready for when I get going (Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy', Tresselll's 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' & Chesterton's 'The Flying Inn' - which probably reveals much about me...... And they were all free )

Anyway - I also downloaded the free sample of LotR from Amazon (Intro, Prologue, Shire map & first two chapters) to try it out, & I noticed something - I couldn't read it. It was nice & clear, well presented - perfectly up to the standard I'd expected. But I still couldn't read it.

The problem was, its not simply about the text, its about the experience. I've read other e-texts on computers & phones, but I've never (even though I've used an e-text of LotR to search & find quotes) tried reading it for pleasure off a screen. What I found was that I missed the weight, & the experience of turning the pages (specifically I missed the weight & the feel of the paper of the A&U Second Edition 3vol H/B set which is an essential part of my experience of Middle-earth). Kindle is brilliant for presenting the text of a book, but not the 'experience' of reading a book. I'll use the Kindle a lot (I suspect) - lots of free stuff, very convenient for holidays, etc, etc. But I doubt I'll ever be able to read any Tolkien on it.

[Mister Underhill]

I'm not particularly picky about a specific edition -- for many, many years my Hobbit and LotR were a mismatched set of battered second-hand paperbacks. But I get what you're saying. The overall diminished physical experience of reading is an effect of the e-reader that I didn't fully anticipate.

As I mentioned upthread, it is strange to miss the heft of a physical book in your hand. Also, I have a habit that I guess I've never really noticed -- when I start to get tired while reading, I have a tendency to flip ahead to look for a good stopping place, like the next section break or the end of the chapter. It's much less natural to do that on the Kindle. Also, I like the smell of books. Particularly brand new ones and nice old musty ones. Ray Bradbury has a line in Something Wicked This Way Comes about the ancient mummy spice smell of libraries or something to that effect.

I'll always prefer a physical book over an electronic one, but I do love the Kindle as a supplement to my normal reading habits.

[Laurelin the Younger]

As I mentioned upthread, it is strange to miss the heft of a physical book in your hand. Also, I have a habit that I guess I've never really noticed -- when I start to get tired while reading, I have a tendency to flip ahead to look for a good stopping place, like the next section break or the end of the chapter. It's much less natural to do that on the Kindle. Also, I like the smell of books. Particularly brand new ones and nice old musty ones. Ray Bradbury has a line in Something Wicked This Way Comes about the ancient mummy spice smell of libraries or something to that effect.

I'll always prefer a physical book over an electronic one, but I do love the Kindle as a supplement to my normal reading habits.

I think this is what makes me hesitant to get a Kindle. I really love my books, and I do hate how heavy they are when I travel. They are the most bulky and heavy thing I have to deal with when I move. But I can't get over how much I love them. I guess though, a Kindle would be great for a plane trip, etc. I never thought about it as a supplement rather than a replacement. Now I'm reconsidering it...

[davem]

We live in a utilitarian age. Books are seen as purely a medium for the text, & as the text is the only thing that has value it can therefore be presented in whatever form is cheapest & most convenient (an e-reader is the cheapest form from the point of view of the publisher, as it costs effectively nothing to transmit a file). This is what happened with recorded music - going to the store to buy an LP, bringing it home, switching on the record player, taking the disc out of the sleeve(s), putting it on the turntable, moving the arm & placing the needle in the groove & then sitting down to actually listen to the songs, in the intended order - that was all unnecessary nuisance, because all that really mattered was hearing the music.....except, for a great many of us, that ritual was part of the experience. Downloading individual songs, & having thousands of tracks available in your pocket to shuffle through has trivialised the way we experience music by making it too 'easy'. (not to mention the fact that the mp3 format is such terrible quality). Again, that's why I'm uncomfortable with having LotR as an e-book - it actually feels like trivialising the whole experience of reading it. Don't know if this makes sense, but I feel that if its inconvenient to read it - if I can't have it to hand at an instant's notice, if I have to wait till I get back home & set aside the time to read it properly, well, that's what it 'deserves'. It matters to me & therefore I owe it to myself, the text, & to the author to treat it like that.

That said, there are many books out there that I'd like to try out first & which may not be available in my local library, which may be out of print - or too expensive to buy even when they are out of copyright because of the type of editions they're available in. The real problem would only arise if we got to the point when e-books became the norm & real books went the way of the LP, only available in specialist shops at exorbitant prices. Till then, I'm happy to have a Kindle to hand for the trivial stuff & the stuff I can't get elsewhere.