Tolkien on the Kindle

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

Physical books wear out after 30-35 lendings? Sheesh, what are people doing to their library books?

"Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew" [/minimal exaggeration]. From my own experience: break the backs, rip out illustrations, cover the pages with text markers in four different colours, spill everything from tea and coffee to orange juice to wine to soy sauce or ketchup over them... and occasionally admit rather sheepishly that the dog has massacred them (those are the ones I can sympathize with). And I'm talking about students at a university here, not little kids. The boy Brooke has told us about seems to have treated his borrowed books with more respect than many of our academic elite.

[Mister Underhill]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Sometimes it's easy to assume a general reverence for books when the opposite is more the general case. I guess it can depend on the sort of books one favors, too. My local library has several volumes of Kipling old enough to bear the Hindu swastika. Every once in a while when I'm hankering for some ol' Rud, I'll take one out. They're real beauties. But then they probably mostly sit there on the shelf gathering dust in between the odd occasions when I check them out. One upside of e-readers, at least, is that they lower my chances of having to witness some vulgarian bend the spine back on a book so they can read it one-handed.

Anyway, since I'm here, I might as well update on my experience. I have grown to love my Kindle. I love being able to carry a bookshelf around in a cargo pocket, but who wouldn't? That's only the most obvious benefit. There are lots of interesting digital freebies out there, and I've gotten interested in the whole Creative Commons movement, as well as the indie-publishing movement. There's a whole new -- and expanding -- strata of stuff out there that's sometimes only available digitally. Project Gutenberg and Munsey's are inexhaustible wells of yumminess.

Sometimes you'll stumble across promotional freebies too, as I did recently with a recent download of the audio version of the, ah, shall we say, off-color Go the F*** to Sleep, read by Sam Jackson, a "children's book for grown-ups" meant to put a smile on the faces of frustrated and overtired parents. Fortunately I'm past that stage myself, but I'll be picking up a hard copy for some friends whose new boss is due soon.

Perhaps most unexpected of all -- as Ibrin mentioned above, it's fairly easy to put your own content into an e-reader-friendly format.

A note about concerns over Amazon's control over the digital content they sell you -- when there was a recent update to LotR, they didn't just push it to my device. They sent me an email and gave me the option to update to the new file or not. So, for now at least, the policy seems to be evolving towards a more respectful stance towards the user. And despite a sloppy start in many cases (LotR not the least), the obvious inevitability here is towards digital editions which are perfect reproductions of print editions.

Having Tolkien handily available anywhere at any time (and searchable!) is a great luxury. Sure, I'd love to always be able to sit down in my favorite comfy chair in my quiet man-cave with a treasured edition and a snifter of brandy near to hand, but in these busy days I can't really afford to fetishize the reading experience. The simple fact is that I'm doing a lot more reading since I got my Kindle.

[Mithalwen]

I am just about to get a Kindle (I am facing the prospect of moving to a smaller house and am having to part with a heart breaking amount of books as I clear out the ancestral smial with the book collections of three generations) so it really appeals- though I can't see me giving up on proper books entirely but it wills save me buying new paperback Tolkeins every couple of years because I have worn them out. And I can have them with me at all times.

Anyway I have noticed that the first two volumes of HoME are out.

[FlimFlamSam]

Mister Underhill spoke: [Any comments on them, or comments in general about reading Tolkien electronically?]
I can't speak for Kindle products, but I can for E-Tolkien-text which is what this post mainly concerns itself with.

I prefer a simple .doc format, that can be read at home or on a laptop.
It also has the advantage of being correcteble, especially if you pick up something like Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion or History of the Hobbit as reference along with say Peoples of Middle-earth for the cut Appendices.

Depending on what edition was used to make the original Kindle document, it may have used an older version of text that has mistakes and missing text, not to mention any new problems in the e-book creation process. That doesn't sound like an advantage.

davem spoke: [However, a couple of negatives...]
I've heard about the only "renting it, subject to recall, buyer beware" clause. That's not so good--when considering books.

I've also heard about the replacement texts on books as well. As for Amazon invasion of privacy to see what other books you might like to buy, that's already an established practice of theirs just looking around their site so not unexpected.

Mister Underhill spoke: [The e-ink display is not far off from reading a printed page -- much easier on the eyes and just more book-like than a backlit computer screen.]
You can also solve that with the .doc format. Some people prefer html.
Simply format the .doc for landscape and two columns. It looks just like you're reading a physical book and tricks the mind a bit. You can also add whatever images you like and even insert background colors or images if you want something more than plain white as page color.

Mister Underhill spoke: [If, as I do, you view the device merely as a convenient adjunct to reading, it's pretty nifty.]
Then I would say it does the job then despite whatever complaints are considered.

As for me, I'll pass on Kindle. Just not interested in it.