04-13-2011, 09:49 PM | #46 |
Award-Winning Participant
Posts: 7,333
Karma: 67930154
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: NJ, USA
Device: Kindle
|
More precisely, they were to return the covers and destroy the books. Some chose to sell them instead. I recall books started to appear with a message on the first page "If you bought this book without a cover, it is stolen property and the author and publisher have not been paid..."
On the one hand it was good of the publishes to not insist on the expense of actually returning the books, but it was a terrible waste to destroy them. They should have required them to be donated to charity or burned for heat or something. I guess if the publishers REALLY wanted that rule obeyed, they should have asked the resellers to return several pages torn out of the middle rather than the cover..... |
04-13-2011, 10:12 PM | #47 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,951
Karma: 3000001
Join Date: Feb 2011
Device: Kindle 3 wifi, Kindle Fire
|
philippines. we have so-called "specialty" bookstores; the selections are not as broad (they mostly just stock bestsellers and maybe some books with obscure topics), and most books have a big mark-up. the incomes of the ordinary people here do not keep up with the rising costs. needless to say, here, books are a luxury item. i know someone in the forum had once said that "serious readers" buy the physical book. i take offense to that. :|
they definitely should have just donated them to charity. what a waste. Last edited by wyndslash; 04-13-2011 at 10:15 PM. |
Advert | |
|
04-13-2011, 11:15 PM | #48 |
Loves Ellipsis...
Posts: 1,554
Karma: 7899232
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Device: Kobo Wifi (broken), nook STR (returned), Kobo Touch, Sony T1
|
I read a romance recently that had a book burning by the heroine. She was buring her romances because she felt they were ruining her chance at romance. Wasteful & TSTL
|
04-13-2011, 11:32 PM | #49 | |
01000100 01001010
Posts: 1,889
Karma: 2400000
Join Date: Mar 2009
Device: Polyamorous
|
Quote:
Charities don't want books. I've tried to donate them. Even new ones get rejected. |
|
04-14-2011, 12:24 AM | #50 | |
Award-Winning Participant
Posts: 7,333
Karma: 67930154
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: NJ, USA
Device: Kindle
|
Quote:
Apparently others as well: http://www.surplusbooksforcharity.org/ |
|
Advert | |
|
04-14-2011, 12:41 AM | #51 | |
SF/F book blogger
Posts: 270
Karma: 502030
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Device: Kindle 3
|
Quote:
I remember Catherynne Valente talking on an SFSignal podcast about how ebooks and ereaders make books only accessible for the rich, but I think it's oversimplifying things. E-readers like the Kindle is still inaccessible and expensive for most people in the world, but basically everyone has a cellphone. If there were more affordable phones that people would feel comfortable reading a full book in, then the potential customer base of the e-book industry is huge. |
|
04-14-2011, 12:43 AM | #52 | |
Warrior Princess
Posts: 5,038
Karma: 9724231
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: PRS-505; PRS-350, PRS-T1, iPad, Aura HD
|
Quote:
I am a big reader, as are most of the people closest to me, so I was initially shocked to read the stats. Now that I think about it, they are probably bang on. |
|
04-14-2011, 01:00 AM | #53 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,951
Karma: 3000001
Join Date: Feb 2011
Device: Kindle 3 wifi, Kindle Fire
|
|
04-14-2011, 02:02 AM | #54 | |
Guru
Posts: 802
Karma: 4727110
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Sweden
Device: Iriver Story
|
Quote:
I live in a small village and our bookstore has now closed, although the local grocery has a book rack. Mind you, if I happen to be in a town and see a bookstore open, I have great difficulty in walking past. |
|
04-14-2011, 11:05 AM | #55 | |
The Introvert
Posts: 8,307
Karma: 1000077497
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Device: Sony Reader PRS-650 & 505 & 500
|
Quote:
|
|
04-14-2011, 11:12 AM | #56 |
Loves Ellipsis...
Posts: 1,554
Karma: 7899232
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Device: Kobo Wifi (broken), nook STR (returned), Kobo Touch, Sony T1
|
That's me, too I'm horrible to go on walks with...I get distracted if we pass a bookstore and I always want to linger (expect in my local Books-A Million, the book selection is horrible and I've been there often enough to know it...but it'd be great if I wanted to by unnecessary doodads)
|
04-14-2011, 11:30 AM | #57 | |
Omnivorous
Posts: 3,281
Karma: 27978909
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Rural NW Oregon
Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1
|
Quote:
http://www.goodwillbooks.com/ |
|
04-14-2011, 12:14 PM | #58 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,601
Karma: 9211856
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: kindle Oasis 2018, kindle 4 NT, kindle PW2, iPhone, iPad mini
|
The figures in the OP are just sad I would hope that college-educated young people would have some natural curiosity, enough to read at least a book a year.
I grew up in a house full of books. My parents were readers, though not as obsessively as I am. I have always been a compulsive reader by nature so when I ran out of kids' books I would go read my parents'. My husband and siblings are more occasional readers (if something interests them or they have down time on vacation, that sort of thing). Now I have the house with the overstuffed bookshelves and one kid who loves to read and the other one who only enjoys reading a very narrow category of book (he does, however, write, so there is hope for him yet). |
04-14-2011, 12:46 PM | #59 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 8,478
Karma: 5171130
Join Date: Jan 2006
Device: none
|
Not to deny the statistics... but I'd point out (as a few other posts have alluded to) that there are other things to read besides books. I'd bet many of those 80% adults and college grads do read periodicals (newspapers and magazines), graphic novels (which I'd bet they didn't count as books) and articles/documents related to their work... so it's not as if they are all not reading anything.
Sure, maybe there's something lost by not getting the recommended daily requirement of fiction or non-fiction books... but let's not cast those people aside too quickly. They may have learned a lot of practical knowledge from what reading they do, and may be able to embarrass many of us on what they know about the world, vs what we know about certain books. |
04-14-2011, 01:11 PM | #60 |
Guru
Posts: 704
Karma: 1622328
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: USA
Device: Kindle Oasis, OnePlus Nord
|
|
Tags |
reading, stats |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
What should College Freshmen be Reading? | kennyc | Reading Recommendations | 34 | 09-08-2010 11:20 AM |
Which E-Book reader for college kid in UK next month? | GyroGearloose23 | Which one should I buy? | 4 | 09-03-2010 04:50 PM |
Free Book (Kindle) - The College Solution | koland | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 0 | 08-10-2010 05:48 PM |
iPad College Humor on iPad | petercreasey | Apple Devices | 2 | 02-01-2010 09:20 PM |
I want to buy a kindle for college..but... | Phillyboy | Amazon Kindle | 2 | 08-17-2009 05:14 PM |