E-Book blues :(

[nathantw]

Originally Posted by Shadowplay

I'm still absolutely loving my Sony 505, but I seem to have found a point of frustration... depression, I dunno, over the whole thing.

No one around me seems to really *care* about the thing.

That's interesting. I've had people comment on the Reader almost everytime I use it. They're always bothering me (forcing me to take out my headphones that are there as a deterrent) to ask me about it. I've had people get really excited about it the more I talk about it. When I tell them about what we can get with libprs500 (now Caliber) they even get more excited. Maybe you just live in an area that doesn't know anything gadget/electronics? Only you can answer that one.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Shadowplay

No one around me seems to really *care* about the thing.

So what? You didn't buy it to show off, did you?

Originally Posted by Shadowplay

More often I get things like, "how much did you pay?! why the hell would you do that instead of just picking up a book? Who cares if it holds a whole library, it's not like you need all those at the same time."

How many of those people are paying $800 a month to drive a big ass SUV that seats 6 or more and gets 15MPH that they commute to work with only one ass in the whole thing?

Please!

(No offense to you if you do that. But, to each his own.)

Tell them you got it to reduce the use of trees to create books and reduce green house gasses.

BOb

[Shadowplay]

Holy cow did I ever generate some furor with my fairly tongue-in-cheek original post.

I hope everyone realizes I'm not *really* upset here hehe, but I do appreciate the great response overall! You are all very right in your take on it all, too. Most of those I've talked to briefly about my 505 have been those that really don't read much these days, either by choice (blasphemy I say!) or from being crazy busy with babies or what have you. I have found a couple people that have had an interesting reaction after having really truly looked at the device. The more they think about it the more intrigued they seem to be. I think it's exactly as we've all said before, in other threads, the whole point of an e-book reading device is that it *isn't* super-freaking-wizbang-kewl and instead disappears to let you enjoy your book. Again, that's the whole point!

I've read maybe 400 or 500 pages on mine so far and it's been very pleasant. I'm thoroughly enjoying my current book and the device is just a nice portal into whatever I happen to be reading. At the end of the day there's not much else I would ask of such a device.

* WARNING: I'm about to make giant sweeping generalizations with little to no basis in fact and entirely fueled by my own personal prejudices. *

One point brought up in this thread is about the general mindset and, let's be honest, intelligence of people who never read by choice. I hired a guy about a year ago that was really motivated and dedicated to whatever we set him to... for a while. Turns out he *never* read a book in his life that wasn't forced on him and even then hadn't really read a book all the way through since hey there are cliff's notes and such out there. Guess what? He turned out to be amazingly immature in a business sense and flaked out after a few months. He's no longer with us. This kind of speaks to my view of the complete non-reading masses and I think my absolute favorite quote was already brought up earlier in this thread by revfish and it's so good I just have to quote it again for emphasis:

"'We got ourselves a reader. What are you reading for?' Not what are you reading but what are your reading for? So I don't become a f***ing Waffle House waitress." -Bill Hicks

* The Emergency Alert System has canceled the giant sweeping generalizations warning. *

[astra]

Shadowplay
Two points.

1.

The best I've gotten are comments along the lines of, "huh that's pretty cool," followed by a change of subject - and that's the *best* I've gotten. More often I get things like, "how much did you pay?! why the hell would you do that instead of just picking up a book? Who cares if it holds a whole library, it's not like you need all those at the same time."

If it makes you feel any better, I have gotten the same type of reaction. no one ever asked me about the reader. I have cornered a few colleagues in the college, they were impressed but ....the price and I am not sure how much they read. Maybe, maybe...when it is available in Waterstone they will be more interested because they would not have to buy it from the USa with zero warranty.

2. Generalisation ...
My wife doesn't read books. She is not interested. As a matter of fact she never was. On the other hand she has 3 degrees and she is a lot more intelegent than me. Why? Reading. In high school she was studying history, geography, biology, English!. Now she is listening to news on radio, or reading all sort of news on the Internet. Me? I read fiction..I read it in a high school instead of studying history, English!, biology, geography...I read it now instead of IT books that I must read and I cannot keep up with any civilised conversation about politics, history or anything like that because I have no knowledge of the subjects. She can do it although she is not book reading fun...

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Shadowplay

Holy cow did I ever generate some furor with my fairly tongue-in-cheek original post. ...

Shadowplay, you really should go looking for the Vent and Rant thread. You can vent and rant to your heart's content there, and all you'll get is "Yo! you go, girl!" and "Tell it to the man!" and "I'm sorry, I didn't know this room was taken" (that last was from one of those non-reader type people - they couldn't comprehend the sign on the door).

Personally I like:

Q: Why do you need to take all those books with you on holiday?

A: Because you suck!

(My wit fails me at the most inopportune times)

FWIW, I've "amazed" several friends with the Iliad. The absolute wonder was ecstasy to behold (also I suffer from delusional memory recall).

Cheers,
Marc

[curtw]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

hmm... for some reason Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint just popped into my head...

Ah. Hitch was so unsubtle at times. A "happy ending" in multiple definitions of the term. Maybe it's just that I prefer his more downbeat conclusions (Vertigo, the Birds).

[Megatron-UK]

Everyone at work who has seen me reading on the 505 has been amazed at the quality of the text and the style of the device. I don't think I've heard a negative comment yet. I do work in higher education though, and a lot of my colleagues are highly educated, with professors, doctors (including the medical type!) and research bods; and hi tech stuff always goes down really well with them - especially anything they can see as having a potential impact on education and learning.

[vivaldirules]

I whip mine out almost daily here where I'm surrounded by a thousand engineers with advanced degrees and almost no one ever comments - on my Sony 500, that is. I couldn't care less about that but I was really surprised. I think I overestimated the intellectual curiosity of my colleagues. Then again, they are engineers. I wonder if any of them reads.

EDIT:
Okay, having read that slam of engineers it's clear to me that it was unfair. My semi-educated guess is that on average engineers with advanced degrees read less for pleasure and general curiosity than scientists or nonscientists with advanced degrees. But, of course, that won't be true of all engineers so I should not have made such a sweeping accusation. My apologies.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

No one... and I mean NO ONE... has ever stopped and asked me about my reading on my PDA. Including people on the train, reading their paperbacks and hardbacks right next to me. Sometimes I feel like there's something about what I'm doing that makes people pointedly avoid asking me about it. Maybe they're afraid of hearing how good it is. Or maybe geeks frighten them. Maybe I look too old to be playing with toys. Maybe it's my deodorant...

I think at this point, most everyone has heard about the readers, and either are interested or aren't... and it's pretty much just the people who are already thinking of getting one, and see yours up-close, who ask about it.

[Shadowplay]

It's interested for me just how many people *haven't* heard of e-book readers at all and I have to back up to explain the whole concept.