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roachboy · 05-29-2007, 03:16 PM

personally, i like books. i dont necessarily feel that i have to buy a whole lot of them or keep them hanging around. but i like books. books that are particularly well-designed, books made with care and attention i might buy. but most books aren't made that way. particularly not academic books, which have somehow managed to fob off inattention to typography and layout as some kind of marker of intellectual authenticity. well, they aren't: they are markers of laziness. it's probably a reason why no=one reads them who doesn't have to for some reason. in the main, they look like shit.

i do not read them in the same way as i read online texts, e-texts. particularly longer things--if i cant find them in print and i find them online, i'll print them and read that way. i like paper. i like letters on paper. i like the quiet they seem to impart. i like the textures of paper.

i dont know the extent to which this is a function of habit or something about the medium itself.

i have done and do ALOT of research online. i accumulate largely factoids there. it seems to suit the modes of reading particular to the net, the accumulation of factoids.

i dont read philosophy--or even texts by authors i like--while sitting in front of a computer monitor. for me--and this is no doubt particular--i do not find myself thinking terribly clearly when i take in information off the computer. my thoughts are the size of a monitor. everything becomes little, superficial.
if i am reading fiction, the lighting provided for the monitor keeps flattening me against the letters. there is no space for projection, no space.

strangely, writing is another matter. i think i have just gotten used to it--except that if i am editing something of any size, i have to work off a print version to do it.

it doesnt really matter which media appeals to you, in the end. what matters more is what you do with what you take in. how you get to it is not even that interesting or important.

05-29-2007, 03:16 PM	#21 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	personally, i like books. i dont necessarily feel that i have to buy a whole lot of them or keep them hanging around. but i like books. books that are particularly well-designed, books made with care and attention i might buy. but most books aren't made that way. particularly not academic books, which have somehow managed to fob off inattention to typography and layout as some kind of marker of intellectual authenticity. well, they aren't: they are markers of laziness. it's probably a reason why no=one reads them who doesn't have to for some reason. in the main, they look like shit. i do not read them in the same way as i read online texts, e-texts. particularly longer things--if i cant find them in print and i find them online, i'll print them and read that way. i like paper. i like letters on paper. i like the quiet they seem to impart. i like the textures of paper. i dont know the extent to which this is a function of habit or something about the medium itself. i have done and do ALOT of research online. i accumulate largely factoids there. it seems to suit the modes of reading particular to the net, the accumulation of factoids. i dont read philosophy--or even texts by authors i like--while sitting in front of a computer monitor. for me--and this is no doubt particular--i do not find myself thinking terribly clearly when i take in information off the computer. my thoughts are the size of a monitor. everything becomes little, superficial. if i am reading fiction, the lighting provided for the monitor keeps flattening me against the letters. there is no space for projection, no space. strangely, writing is another matter. i think i have just gotten used to it--except that if i am editing something of any size, i have to work off a print version to do it. it doesnt really matter which media appeals to you, in the end. what matters more is what you do with what you take in. how you get to it is not even that interesting or important. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 05-29-2007 at 03:47 PM..