Suddenly, Earth-Friendly E-Readers Are Everywhere

Get Real!!! Pretty soon they will suggest that we don't use toilet paper. I don't think anybody is willing to back to Corn Cobs or the Three Shells mentioned in the movie Demolition Man. LOL!!!!

I never threw away a book. I always passed them along to friends, family, charitable orgs., or sold them to used book stores, etc. The shared knowledge keeps the material alive. Newspapers, however, are a waste even if sent out to recycle. With the availibility of the internet I can read any newspaper and find no need to buy one. Consider this. Wood is a renewable resource, old-growth rain forests are not. We are losing millions of acres abroad at an alarming rate! This is not because the exotic wood is valueable, but the nutrient-rich soil is great for grazing beef for OUR fast-food demand. After the 1st year, the soil is shot. Don't believe me? Do some research!

When are all of you people going to start talking about the REAL crisis facing this planet and our so-called civilization?
Yes! There aRE severe crisseis in food, fresh water, running out of resources such as oil and gas. Also one that few poeple have noticed but which will have a profound effect on populations: There is at most a 90-100 year reserve supply of processable phosphate rock in the world today. With out this material artificial fertalizer production will drop close to zero. When this happens food production wiil be cut to ~30-40% of what it is now which is not nearlly enough to feed the current population. This crisis is going to effect your children and granchildren directly, not some people generations down the line that you do not know. Many of you WILL see the initial effects in your own lifetime. Global warming is a fact as anybody with even a highschool education could see and understand if they only took the time and effort to look. And most of it is due to Man's interference with nature.

There will never be any real progress made on any of the problems we face untill the most serious one of all: The resources of this planet can support on a SUSTAINABLE basis a MAXIMUM of approximatle 2 billion people. This is about one third of the current population. What must be decided in the next decade is whether we want to reduce the world population sensibly, by birth control, or do we want it to happed through mass starvation and the warfare that this will bring about. I am one of the lucky ones as I am old enough now that I will not live to see the bad times that are most certianly soon to come. My biggest regret, not for myself but for my children, is that I didn't see this 40+ years ago to prevent them from being born into an almost certainly doomed world.

Green...smeen...go the library and solve all your problems!

Ok so schools will allow kids to bring ipods ?

It reminds me of Fahrenheit 451! Maybe soon they'll be banning books

I won't touch any of these readers until one of them are DRM free, not to mention I still like the feel of a nice paper back book in my hand.

Oh my god the sky is falling!!! People are reading books on e-book readers. The horror, the horror.

Clearly the folks commenting have not used an e-book reader, or at least have not used an e-book reader that has been released in the last 2 years.

How about actually trying something out before announcing the end of the world? Author will still be able to publish their books. The last time I checked CDs are still available for purchase and you can even by old fashioned LPs, why would paper books go away? So all those autograph seeking readers can still get the book autographed.

Or at least not assuming that the folks using e-book readers are evil people imposing a new technology on everyone. No one is taking away your dead tree books. No one is depriving you of the right to read a book that has been transported using planes, trains, and/or trucks, packaged in cardboard, and whose remaining stock will be destroyed if not sold. No one is depriving you of your need to show everyone how cool you are because you have a ton of books on your bookshelf.

I was concerned about buying an ebook reader. Would it be the same as reading a dead tree book? Would I enjoy it as much when I couldn't feel the paper? Would I miss the cover? It took me about 5 minutes to realize that none of those things were actually important. What matters is the authors ability to convey a message or tell a story. The rest is just dressing.

Since I received my Kindle, I have read two DTB. I hate the idea of picking up a heavy paper back or hard back book. I don't like the weight. I miss being able to adjust the font size. I miss the built in dictionary. I miss the ability to click on one button and see all of my highlighted text and notes in one place.

I continue to enjoy travelling with a device that holds 300 books (I have the original Kindle) and the ability to download a book (many free) at any hour of the day without leaving my home. I am going to enjoy reading in the bath tub using a water proof cover. I am going to appreciate the fact that I can get on a plane with my IPod and my Kindle in my purse and not worry about that backpack full of books. And all the while, I am going to know that all that matters is that I am enjoying the words written by the author because, in the end, that is what really matters.

These are already outdated for me! Some 'new technology.' Throw your laptop on the lowest power settings and you'll leave just as small a 'footprint' and just read from .pdfs or directly off a website. If you're really oldschool you might even have a few novels or journals laying around in basic wordpad or even .txt formats!

I think that paper books will disappear eventually. That being said, I don't think it will happen in my lifetime. For me, I'll invest in a reader when any book can be read on any reader, and when you can actually share any book with anyone. It will take time, but it will happen....

My family and I are all voracious readers. Growing up, one of the most fun things about family visits were the giant shopping bags filled to the brim with books. Each person showed up with one and there was great glee as we all swapped titles, refilled our bags and filled several others with books for donation. Nothing ever went to waste. I can't help but wonder now, how can that be bad??

When it happens, I'll miss the feel and the smell of a book. I'll wonder if it's alright to read in the bathtub (seriously, it seems to be a family thing...rippled pages) and I'll worry that I'll have nothing to read if the power goes out, but, I'll adapt, we all will

I have had my Kindle 2 for a week. I got it for the simple reason that many books are too small of print,( the LARGE print too large) and the weight of said book. I will be 61 this year. I do enjoy the e-book formate of the Kindle and the selection of books available. One that I just purchased at a price much less than hardbound is over 800 pages. I figured that I would never get to read it in any other way. The Kindle does have male/female voice that reads to you thru the speakers or headphones. Does it "disappear" and become a book, NO, not yet. But I can enlarge the print to suite my eyes. I actually find myself reading faster with the Kindle 2. I do miss the smell of ink and paper. Maybe the next generation will add that application. I did not pay the $299 for mine. It was listed at $265 from a gaming company. It was sent to me by Amazon.com.
I do wish there was a way to resell your e-books or loan them out. Not that I loaned too many of my printed books. Some came back to me stinking of smoke and the covers all torn. Of course those folks never got another loan from me. I may change some of my magazines to e-book when the subscription changes, but for my newspaper, I read on-line and buy the sunday edition at the store. It is not available on my ebook. So I guess it will depend on a tolerence of technology, and how difficult it is to read those heavy bound books. If I want to, I can go to the used book store and pick up a real copy.

I agree. The story is what counts. Now if all those 1000 lb text books that I had to lug in highschool and college were on my Kindle, that would have been great.

Anyone notice that the more "gadgets" we have, the more hectic, and even meaningless, life seems to in the civilized world.. But let's humor the green earth-worshipers among us by converting all those unwanted, biased editorialized national newspapers into toilet paper.. specifically the two-ply variety that the "greenies" are now at war with..

hmmm, my previous post never showed up.. in short, make the greenie-weenies happy.. and convert all those unread, unwanted, biased dinosaur brand newspapers into toilet paper.. the two-ply type that the "weenies" are now going to war with..

Who in the USA isn't inherently "earth-friendly".. other than a few of those "eco-anarchists" etc..

My greenie suggestion would be to recycle all those unread, unwanted biased newspapers into useful toilet paper.. specifically the the two-ply type that the Earth Worshipers so despise. also, conserve more trees by further cutting the dinosaur newspaper production.. One can only line so many bird cages, house break just so many doggies, etc..

Long live the Book..

I want to bring a copy of their work that I treasure.
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