Category: Kindle

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Sticking it to books

Where was that book? I was sure I had it on the shelf, but now, when I want to read it again, I can’t find it. (The book was “Had Slaves,” a beautiful, powerful collection of poems by Catherine Sasanov written after her discovery that her family, three generations ago, had owned other human beings.)

Well, I’ll order up a used copy from Amazon…hmmm…”very good condition.” Ok. Click

So imagine my horror when I opened the package and found this lovely book with a sticker marring its very good condition. The sticker said, “Sell me back” and had the name of the book reseller I had bought it from. Ok, I’ll just peel the label off…but no. This was stuck on with world-class adhesive. Supersonic jumbo jets could be held together with this adhesive. When I finally managed to remove a little edge, the spot remained sticky. So just forget about putting it on the shelf, unless I wanted Sasanov to be permanently attached to Schor.

In horror I sent an e-mail to Donovan, the head of the company that sold the book and got a note back saying that most of their business was in books for college students who “typically do not have any intention of keeping a book.”

I’ll leave aside the thought that “Had Slaves” would be a book one would want to get rid of. This wasn’t “Introduction to Organic Chemistry” after all. I’m going for the bigger picture here, the total disconnect between the people who sell back their books as soon as they no longer “need” them and those of us who add and add and add books to our shelves. Since I’ve had my Kindle I’ve given more thought to this–which books do I simply want to read and which do I want to own?

Ownership of type on a screen does feel fundamentally different from ownership of a bound set of pages. And I’m guessing that the prevalence of e-books changes our relationship to the physical object called “book.”

Donovan, whose company stuck the sticker on “Had Slaves,” thanked me for my note and said they were checking to see if their supplier could find stickers that could peel off easily. That made me feel better. Until I realized that he had said stickers that “peal off.” Was that like crossing his fingers behind his back, or in this case, his screen? If so, I hope he doesn’t have any of my books.

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What I read on my vacation: Henry James…on Kindle

I just got back from two warm and sunny weeks at the beach where I did a lot of reading and I have much to share about what I read. Rather than give a long list, I thought I’d do a short separate blog post for each book. First up, “The Ambassadors” by Henry James.

No, it’s not exactly a beach read. I had actually started it before I left on vacation. It was my first book on my new Kindle; I had wanted to select something special to inaugurate the Kindle and this definitely was. So poor James was in odd circumstances in terms of both where and how I was reading him: not surprisingly, he rose to the occasion.

First about the Kindle. I like it a lot but I’m not going to be giving up print books any time soon. It is a different experience, more like the difference between watching the same movie in a theater or at home. It’s still the same work and you can still enjoy it or not as itself, but you do take it in in subtly different ways. And there are some books I want to own in hard copy, have up on my shelf, feel the pages of. Still, I’m glad I have this new option for reading.

What I like:
I love going on vacation knowing I’ll have enough books and yet I’ll still be able to lift my suitcase. I even downloaded an additional book while I was away.

I like the physical ease of holding it, even if the book was a thick one.

I like the font, which can be modified in several ways to individual preference. I actually stuck with the default font, which I found attractive and appropriate for reading on an electronic device.

I liked the dictionary function, although with James that’s hardly all the help I’d like to have.

What I don’t like:
This is a little strange but I often like to read the last page early on just so I can relax and enjoy the book without–does this make sense to anyone else?–racing through it to see what happens. That’s still possible with the Kindle, but takes a little maneuvering.

Likewise, going back to reread something is a little harder to do. I may get more adept with practice, but right now, I sometimes just give up on it.

I miss what happens when people read in public. There’s something lost, I think, when you can’t say to a stranger on the beach or on the T, “Do you like that book?” or “I loved that one.” Of course, right now when it’s still new, there is the opportunity to talk about the Kindle itself. But isn’t it more fun to talk about books?

Now, “The Ambassadors”:
Such a wonderful book. Such fascinating characters. So much to think about. If only I could have understood it all. I blogged recently about an excellent annotated edition of “Pride and Prejudice” by Pat Spacks; I wish there were one for “The Ambassadors.” I’d love to know more about all the nuances of social expectations and behavior James writes about. But even knowing that I missed much, this is such a substantive book that it is a delight to read.