A sturdy bookshelf used to be the staple of a great home office. Where else were you going to keep your industry texts and files of paperwork? But now that we've fast-forward to July 2010 (really, it's July?!?), we can enjoy the spoils of paperless billing, scanning everything to your hard drive and even reading an entire library of books—everything from fiction to references—from our iBooks app.
Personally, although I'm an avid reader, I haven't yet splurged on a Kindle or Nook. My only foray into e-book reading so far has been a quick download of the iBooks app to my iPhone last night.
As a result, I still have a bookshelf full of my favorite reads sitting in my home office.
But even if I did move my humble library over to the Kindle, I think I'd still want to keep my favorite titles (there's a lot of them) on a shelf.
How about you? Would you ever choose e-copies over hard copy books? Has your library already made the move over to digital? Or are you like me and want to have the best of both worlds? Let us know in the comments!
(Image2: Flickr user Katerha under license from Creative Commons, Flickr user Travis Issacs under license from Creative Commons.)
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We have three bookshelves in our house - FILLED with books and magazines that my boyfriend & I have been published in. I cannot imagine a life without bookshelves.
*A* bookshelf? Singular? Ha!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cat-sidh/3455940285/
The only way I will migrate from hard copy to digital is if the price for the digital books comes down...way down.
I don't think I'll ever get rid of my bookshelves, even if I do get an e-reader or something of the sort one day. For one thing, actual books are guaranteed yours forever, and available at all times, even when the internet/the batteries/the device fails or changes. No digital rights bullshit and 163333 different formats, each only available on a certain number of devices. And for another thing, I just don't think a house looks right without a bookshelf. It's instant decoration, it adds colour and personality to any room... it's something to look at.
I have both. The e-reader is mainly for free texts.
You know, until this week, my answer would have been a resounding, "BOTH!" I got my first Kindle about 2 years ago and about 85% of the books I've bought since have been e-texts.
I've told myself and anyone who asked that I buy e-books that I only expect to read once, but that I love my DTBs (dead-tree books, in e-reader parlance) and could NEVER give up my old favorites. My DTB library is a couple thousand volumes, and it was really important to me. My degree is in literature; I liked looking at my library; I'm a third-generation bibliophile. Of COURSE I'd always have real books.
Never say never -- or always. In April 2009, my husband moved to rural South Carolina where we own some property. He started work on our "forever" house. In late January of this year, a week before I was to retire (pretty early -- I'm 54) and join him here, he died unexpectedly. I've spent the last few months finishing the house (if you EVER think you want to build your own house, PLEASE get in touch with me!) and in mid-May I moved in.
I spent the first 51 years of my life in Southern California. In early 2007 we moved to Houston for a job assignment. We knew we'd only be there for about 2.5 years (turned out to be 3 years), so we moved into a small apartment. We put much of our stuff, including almost all of the books, into storage.
So for the last month and a half I've been unpacking, purging, sorting, and moving in. As you can imagine it's tough going through my husband's things most of which I cannot use. Most of his books are engineering texts -- now outdated. But as I'm unpacking my books I'm thinking about someone having to deal with my books and my other stuff if something happens to me.
As an example I have beat-up paperbacks of classics that were university texts. If I want to re-read the aptly-named BLEAK HOUSE, I can download it free from Project Gutenberg. I have copies of books I'll never re-read. I have duplicates; believe me, I don't need more than one copy of MOBY DICK; one is plenty. I have a 30-volume set of the works of Bret Harte that I picked up somewhere cheap. They look nice on the shelf but will I read them start to finish? Not in this lifetime.
I, like most readers, don't have valuable or rare editions for the most part -- just general reading copies of books. Many represent interests I no longer pursue.
We spent money designing the main hall in the house so that it's lined with bookshelves, floor to ceiling -- this added onto the square footage of the house and we paid to have custom-made shelves (about 225 running feet of shelf space) built in. And of course I have bookcases in other rooms.
So far I've been unpacking boxes of books and roughly sorting them onto the shelves. I've culled out about 5 cartons of books so far. But I think as I sort and shelve the books, I'm going to look at them with a newly critical eye. I'm going to decide whether I'll read them again and whether I can replace them if I absolutely need to. I'll still have books. But I'm guessing I can get rid of about a third of them without too much grief.
I don't have an e-reader, but am tired of moving with books, especially ones I'll never read again. Libraries, everyone!
i'm never giving up my bookcases
I'm looking at an e-reader, and so is the hubby. We move a lot. The longest we have stayed anywhere in the last 17 years has been for school. It's just not practical to move boxes of books around. I keep one shelf of books that consists mostly of diy/cooking information.
I still read a lot, but usually hit the library. If I buy, I donate to the library or to Goodwill.
Man I love that bookshelf in the first picture? Where can I get/build that? That's some beautiful wood.
Only real books for me. I'm very passionate about books there's just something about the simplicity of it just being you and that little paperback in your hands that has always sparked my imagination.
Then there's the fact then when you're reading something that has a real cover it can spark a conversation with someone you wouldn't have talked to otherwise.
Not to mention I just love looking at them.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v499/AyaKinumato/?action=view¤t=IMG_0207.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v499/AyaKinumato/?action=view¤t=IMG_0206.jpg
Both! Definitely both. I have 13 bookcases at home, all stuffed with books, and three different e-book readers plus assorted ebooks on my Droid.
Books don't require recharging or World Wide Webiverse connectedness... handy if "The Grid" goes down ; )
Yes, I refuse to give up physical media. Shelves need stuff, and while I like knicknacks as much as the next person I also like media on my shelves. All digital is just more empty shevles that I don't know what to do with, and I cannot do the whole super empty walls thing. Also most of my books are reference, which still don't translate as well digitally. I mean they both have their pros and cons, but I like my physical references.
I LOVE books, and I very much miss my 4 bookshelves' worth of books back home in my room at my parents' place. I've grown up surrounded by books. My parents were wonderful about teaching me to love reading.
However, I now read all novels exclusively on my Ebook reader (had an RCA Ebook for over 7 years, and recently got a Sony Ebook reader.) I now limit my book-collecting to art reference books (I'm an artist), wildlife identification/reference, photo books, and of course vintage out-of-print books. So at first glance, my bookshelves look a bit like a picture-book library, without many wordy novels in sight. In fact, all of my novels reside on my computer. :)
My theory is - I enjoy the experience of reading itself, over the last years of owning E-readers I'm no longer attached to "that book smell" or the feel of the pages or whatnot. I don't miss it anymore. I AM attached to the tactile reading experience with vintage books, but not modern printed paperbacks that fall apart after a couple of read-throughs!
IMHO I can't justify buying a modern printed paperback novel that I know will look daggy and creased and have a cracked spine after a couple of reads. I take care of my books very well, but today's paperbacks are just poorly made. Besides, how often do we really re-read novels that we buy? With the exception of a few personal favourites, don't they just end up sitting on the shelves anyway, eventually being relegated to storage boxes in the garage, and then off to the local charity donation shop or library if they are lucky? I don't NEED kilograms and kilograms of physical printed pages made of trees sitting around gathering dust if I'm only going to read something once or twice - they take up so much less space on the computer and on the Ebook. I value reading for the experience of the well-written word and story, personally, seeing those words in E-Ink on a screen as opposed to paper doesn't change the experience of reading.
Long story short: Ebooks are fantastic!
P.S. those aforementioned parents that taught me to love reading, and lovingly collected and transported all their gorgeous vintage Russian books from Russia to the new world when we moved to start a new life? They both have E-readers now too, and read all new novels in electronic form :)
After staring at a computer screen all day at the office, I don't want to stare at one in order to read. I don't have a huge book collection to home, however, the library is my bookshelf.
I'm working on streamlining my library. I have a ton of books and i'm sick of hauling them around. So i've decided to get an ipad and install the kindle app. Getting rid of all but my most favorite books.
No wonder public libraries are in trouble. None of you are using them!
ohjasonj - We have a similar shelving system in our apartment. You can find them at mid-century antique stores. Now what I don't know is how widely available shelving systems like that are (particularly with the wood wall strips and wood rather than wire supports on the shelves). The closest I can come to giving you a name to search for is Poul Cadovius's wall systems, which is similar but perhaps not exactly the same.
We're using ours as an entertainment center. Don't worry we cut through the wall (not the wood) to run the cords. I love them!
Actually, I'm pretty sure these shelves occur in another Unplugged post about lighting preferences. Perhaps the author has more information?
Both. I'm a graduate student in English, and I have plenty of dead tree books. Yet moving them all is a pain, and if I can have some in ebook form on my Nook, then that's just right. I also like reading in bed, preferably on my back. However, big hardcovers (hello, Ulysses and Harry Potter are uncomfortable to read in this position. I find it a lot easier to do so on my Nook.
SaraGrace28/ohjasonj: you've got very keen eyes! They're 60's oak wall mounted shelves I recently purchased on Craigslist for a very reasonable price here in LA (Taryn is the author, I'm the photographer in this post and added an interior shot).
The most beautiful ones (and most expensive) are the Danish made wall systems like this one made for Kai Kristiansen: http://j.mp/9blxZs
The unit we have has an interesting story revealed during the refinishing process; my friend noted the holes were inconsistently aligned, so this shelving unit was likely a DIY job made by an industrious DIY craftsman. It's not perfect in build, but it's perfectly imbued with character :)
I am a bookworm and have been since I was little; love the smell of books, curling up in a chair for hours, feeling the weight of the book in my hands. My hubby got me the kindle for Christmas–I adore it! It's perfect if you don't have much room for shelves and if you're trying to live a little greener. Instead of buying a new bestseller on hardback for more money that will take up space and use more natural resources, I can download it cheaper AND share with my mom (up to five people per account). As for the smell, I do still love old, musty books, so I've kept a few that mean a lot to me.
*As a side note, my husband has the iPad, and the images are gorgeous, so it will be great in the future for reading children's books with our kids or for loading text books for school!*
Since I got my Kindle last Christmas, I have bought far fewer narrative books, but I still buy design books, cookbooks, coffee table books, etc.
For all of y'all book lovers out there, there's no reason to fear the e-readers... they just help minimize FUTURE book accumulation (which I suspect is a problem for most of us who were inclined to click on this post), but they don't require you to give up the old books.
Plus, despite all of the other well-known conveniences offered by the e-readers, all of the services allow you to read the first 10 to 20 pages of a book before buying. That alone is worth having the e-reader.
BOTH!! I love my Kindle, and I'll also never give up books. It's not an either/or - no more than CDs versus MP3 is an either/or for me (e.g. compressed files are so miserable with decent speakers but perfectly fine with headphones).
My living room is lined in bookshelves like a library (I know it's not everyone's taste). I'm a pretty serious reader and I am an architect. Some books I want/need to keep for a whole variety of reasons. And electronic does not yet real books yet for architecture/art books.
Why did I get a Kindle? my apartment is small (500 sf) and I own well over 1000 books. Kindle helps keep control of the inflow books -- significantly reducing it to what I need or want to keep on shelves.
No wonder public libraries are in trouble. None of you are using them!
I do. I work at a library and am a heavy library user and advocate for library patronage. Some books I want to own, and some I'm happy to borrow. Some books I borrow and then realize I want to own.
When I was a kid, we moved and I lost *all* my childhood books. I've slowly re-collected them over the years, by haunting used bookshops and abe.com. It's kind of bittersweet when I get one that some other child has written their name in, or has written comments in. Physical books have histories and lives of their own. I'd miss that if I moved exclusively to using an e-reader.
Are public libraries REALLY in trouble because of e-books and such? From my knowledge, most libraries are transitioning to offering their own downloadable e-books and audio books, with the electronic devices available, too. They are also seeing a boom in DVD and CD use, luring people in for those who also walk by the 'new books' or 'staff favorites' tables and pick up a book there. In my region (Northern Virginia), library use is strong, and when some hours have to be cut, there is outrage and anger, but tax revenue is what it is right now, and people eventually understand. Kindles and other e-readers are not killing libraries. It's been a while since I've purchased a book at a bookstore (online or down the road)--I stop in to see what's new, but my library is where I go for books (my tax dollars at work).
Now to the main question: I think there's probably a good balance between hard-copy books and the e-readers, as many have pointed out. I, too, don't want to be glued to a computer screen to read more than 7.5 hours a day. I don't want to have to be ultra-careful with an e-reader when I'm reading while eating lunch (I already worry about a spill near my laptop--that's enough stress). But when I'm traveling, and having to carry a few books, that's when I think, "if only i had a Kindle!" Wouldn't have to leave the hard-covers home in favor of the easier-to-haul paperbacks.
I spend all day working on a computer, looking at a screen. In my free reading time, I love the feeling of holding and reading a book. E-readers hold no appeal to me.
SaraGrace28 & Gregory - Thanks so much for the info! I'm sort of handy so I guess I'll hold onto the pic for inspiration. Those wood rails really make it. I'm in Los Angeles and I'd love to put up one of these in my small but lovely office in my 1934 Spanish home.
Gregory, would you happen to have any other phots of the unit you're willing to share? Thanks a ton, guys.
Personally, ebooks give me headache so fast that it isn't worth it for me to read books on a screen, I'd have to take a break every 10 minutes.
That said, bookshelves. :)
I would much rather hold a real book in my hands-so bookshelves all the way, baby!
Both.
Bookshelves for books with sentimental value, art books, beautifully bound or illustrated editions, signed editions, and books that don't have electronic versions, or wouldn't be the same as an ebook.
Ebooks for everything else, because it's fast and easy and convenient and completely enjoyable.
I love printing, binding and typography, but I'm not so sentimental that I equate those things with the true value of books... which is the content of the book itself. Nor do I feel the need to use books as posturing. You know, attempting to look superior by reading War and Peace on the subway or filling my living room bookcase with the complete works of Shakespeare.
I am sort of hoping that the advent of ebooks will open up a new market for collectible hard-bound editions of great books, though.
I would love to have only e-books, if I wouldn't have to buy all my favorites over again! I had no idea that my husband and I owned so many books until we had to pack them all up for our first big move this Tuesday.
Any one know of a site or service that will buy old books and give credits to get e-book versions? Or that will somehow "convert" one's book collection from paper books into e-books? If so... then I'd go e-books all the way!