Books

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

While I use the computer for much of my reading these days, in the past the way I got all of my information was by reading books and periodicals. As I have gotten older, my glasses have gotten stronger. I have tons of books on a variety of subjects but, of course, my favorites are gun books and fishing books. I have the complete set of Firearms Classics Library and enjoy them most of all.

But, even with good light and my best prescription reading glasses I can only go about 30 min before reading becomes painful. I've tried a magnifying page but it is more tedious than just reading.

I suppose it is like a lot of other things that go by the wayside in life.

Alan

[hunter63]

I hear ya on the eye and head hurting after a while...
Back in the day....Read Centennial by James A. Michener......Noe that would take me 6 months
I suffer for the same problem.....but try to put in a hour a day ....with printed media....

Some time I think that reading stuff on digital media ruins your attention span....LOL.....

[WolfVanZandt]

Being dyslexic and, also, I identify with you and your glasses, I rarely actually read anymore. I have a digital library that a lot of public libraries would be proud of and I have a program that will read a text file aloud to me. I'm currently going through Balzac's "greatest hits".

I do read some. When I moved to Colorado, I digitized what I could but there were a few titles I just couldn't bear to let go of and I still have those. We talk about equipment around here a lot but there is an important psychological and social factor to survival and books like Tom Peters' Thriving on Chaos and Eric Berne's The Games People Play should be on everyone's book shelf. Then there's the graphic novels (not at all like the run of the mill comic books) like the works of Will Eisner and the surprising PI stories of Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido.

I'm pulling out the old college magazines from Auburn (The Circle) and nostalgicizing, since several of the contributors were friends and many of them (a disturbing number) aren't around anymore.

There are a lot of bookstores in the Denver area and I hear a lot of people talking about enjoying the experience of reading hard copy, but, like you said, Alan, they seem to have gone by the wayside.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When all the computers crash, there will still be books, if someone has saved them. It's like the crates of photographs we have as compared to the virtual warehouse of pictures I have saved digitally. That digital stuff has to be upgraded every 10 years or so and can literally be gone in the blink of an eye under the best circumstances. Even with my double backup. I have college papers I wish I could read saved on Commodore 64 floppies. Digital is great, but if you don't have hard copy, you don't really have it.

I think some of the eye strain has to do with reflected light as opposed to a lighted computer screen. I can go on forever on the computer but the printed page, regardless of print size, tires me out after about 30 min.

Alan

[Rick]

You guys that are reading on computer need to consider backlighting your computer to reduce eye strain. I have backlit my TV and my computer. It makes a huge difference.

[WalkingTree]

Audio books.

...I'm gonna have a mini library of books in my fantasy post-collapse 'bunker'. I figure that the life will be quite peaceful and 'mundane' most of the time, aside from occasional conflict. So the act of regularly sitting for a spell and reading an old fashioned book would be a good fit for the life. And they're an off-the-grid tech. Don't need no power. Even light can just come from the sun...no reading at night unless you designed in photovoltaic lighting.

[LowKey]

Your commodore 64 floppies, how badly do you want to read them?
Assuming you can lay hands on a drive and a cable.
http://store.go4retro.com/zoomfloppy/

[AmeliaR]

Hi,
I like reading books so much but this days it's so much difficult to find time to read so I listen to audio books.