Book VS Kindle

[EmilieT]

Hi everyone!

With today being Shakespeare's day as well as a symbolic day for world literature, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to learn more about your reading habits and how much your phone or technology in general is involved in these. 

As I studied literature, I used to think physical books were the only legitimate way to read, and that reading on a screen could never compare. Commuting everyday with 1000+ pages novels in my handbag slowly made me reconsider my position : I now find that I read much more thanks to my kindle, and how convenient it is 

The Kindle app on my iPhone is also great for a quick read inbetween other things! That being said, the smell of a fresh new book will always be something special, and I don't plan on completely stopping to extend my library anytime soon 

So what do you guys think, how do you go about getting through your novels and other books? Are you firm traditionals, a mix of both or do you prefer your books on a screen?

[Glory1]

When I used to travel back to New York on holiday I used to always carry one suitcase going out and two cases coming back. The second case contained my shopping.

I would only go to 2 shops in New York. One was a discount drugstore (chemist) the other was the biggest bookstore in New York. In the chemist (who sold literally everything not just medicine) I would stock up on large bottles of shampoo and large tubes of toothpaste which were so cheap compared to England and cigarettes which were cheaper than duty free.

And in the bookstore paperback books (never hardbacks). All by my favourite authors, and occasionally new authors that caught my interest, and often, as @Cleoriff said, new books by American authors like Stephen King and Tom Clancy out before the UK. Because paperbacks are so cheap compared to here, even with the sales tax, it was well worth it. Mind you, this is over 20 years ago and paperbacks were a lot cheaper here too.

I have books on my kindle by authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Clavell, Phil Rickman, Agatha Christie, Sir Athur Conan Doyle, HP Lovecraft, Ngaio Marsh, Jackie Collins, James Michener, Ayn Rand, Phil Rickman, William Thackeray, GK Chesterterton and Anthony Trollope that I have read before (quite a few more than once) but want to read again.

As you can see my reading taste is quite varied and includes the classics as well as more modern writers. I read just about every genre including some non-fiction (mainly biographies) except romance. I can just about tolerate some historical romance like Gone With the Wind, say, but straight romance no.

[Glory1]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

@gmarkjI also read a lot of Dean Koontz books though  to be honest I got rather fed up of reading his preface background to every book he ever wrote.

ie 'Dean Koontz came from an extremely poor background, *Lived in a hovel with 10 brothers and 30 sisters, they grubbed for worms every day to make a meal for the family*

(Needless to say the section between the stars, I made up.. but you get the gist)

He was a prolific writer and I just felt more and more annoyed reading this every time I bought one of his books. Particularly when he went on to be one of the richest authors of his day

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I love your comment on Dean Koontz's background @Cleoriff it made me laugh out loud as it's so true. Anyone who's read his books knows that so to keep repeating it over and over makes no sense now when we know his circumstances are so totally different today.

[ComaChameleon]

@Cleoriff

Does Spain have a fix price too, or is it just expensive?

@jonsie

Nice one If only I weren't to lazy to not read in German 😮

[Glory1]

I doubt that it's laziness @ComaChameleon that you don't read in English 😉 It's not your first language after all. I think you have a very good command of spoken/written English. Certainly far better than my German which, to put it mildly, is limited 😂

While I have a good deal of Spanish, Italian and French I would struggle to read a book in any of those languages as I understand them spoken far better than I can now speak or read them.

I don't know about the price of books in other European countries but they are also very expensive in Australia and New Zealand, I'm told. I have a couple of friends who now live in Australia and they stock up on books when they come to England to visit family. They just can't afford to buy them in Australia and they say England is far cheaper. And we complain about the price of books 🙄

[Cleoriff]

Hi @ComaChameleon No the books in Spain don't have a fixed price , although the English version books are too expensive to buy there. That's why the ex-pats tend to 'jump on' the second hand ones brought over from the UK

[jonsie]

Strangely enough, my son wh lives in Berlin has ordered some books to be be delivered to my home in England because Amazon.co.uk is so much cheaper than Amazon.de

[EmilieT]

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@jonsie wrote:

Strangely enough, my son wh lives in Berlin has ordered some books to be be delivered to my home in England because Amazon.co.uk is so much cheaper than Amazon.de

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I wouldn't have imagined so, it's quite surprising. From what I remember, in France, some books have fixed prices, some don't -but it's a vague memory from years ago. It's interesting that it seems to vary so much from country to country 

[ComaChameleon]

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@Glory1 wrote:
I doubt that it's laziness @ComaChameleon that you don't read in English 😉 It's not your first language after all. I think you have a very good command of spoken/written English. Certainly far better than my German which, to put it mildly, is limited 😂

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Thanks It's a bit lazyness. Aswell as I watch dubbed films/series ( I watched Doctor Who in English. But I don't like the new one...So not yet watched further). Back when I did my grammar was almost perfect, now it's... yea.... not that good anymore. - But also due to lack of possibilities to speak/write.

@Cleoriff

I think English like second hand shops the more in general. There are so many! Here it's in my city-area just one I know (and that's only open for people in need, workless, sick...).

@jonsie

Yes, especially the imported stuff is very expensive. But I bought the special Harry Potter and the sc.... stone (I just can't spell the english version) books on there and it was the same Euro amount than the Pound one (and as you know, it should have been a little bit more in Euro).

Are there shops in Berlin for English books? We have some shops with UK-stuff (general stuff, not only books) - but I assume bc they were here back in the days (Wildenrath for example or HQ in Mönchengladbach).

@EmilieT

Germany always makes sure the people pay enough... Aswell as an institution for music... You have to pay for playing music at a party from the fire dept for example. They deleted many youtube-videos bc of the music in it, so we weren't able to hear many things (like Gangnam style when it was popular). But now they're not allowed anymore by law.

[Glory1]

@ComaChameleon I totally understand what you are saying about your command of English. That's exactly my problem with French Spanish and Italian. No chance of speaking any of the languages with anyone. And while I watch quite a lot of foreign TV - Scandi noir primarily but Italian, French, Spanish and Belgian (Flemish/French) - I tend to get 4 out of 10 words spoken but would be hard pressed to form a grammatically correct sentence in French, Spanish or Italian. I have learned some simple Danish/Swedish/Icelandic words like thank you, please, no, yes and so on. If I ever went to one of the Scandi countries I'd be alright though as they all speak English.

I'm shocked about what you say about music. Not to be able to hear any tracks on Youtube - I just can't picture it, if you pardon the pun. I love music and while I don't stream lots I do check out Youtube for tracks friends mention to me. I'd hate not to be able to do that.

[Cleoriff]

@ComaChameleonYou are correct about there being a lot of charity shops in the UK. In my town there are probably more than the major stores. In fact we know when a 'big store' closes down, a charity shop will usually open up in that space.

Having said that, they do serve a good cause. (though since the recent bad publicity  regarding Oxfam I rarely take anything there!) I give a lot of books and clothes to cancer and animal charities as well as Air Ambulance and RNLI.

I am pretty shocked about the ban on YouTube music in Germany. Is that just in certain areas or an overall ban in the whole country? That seems the sort of rule that North Korea would employ. It's not very democratic is it?

PS I'm not insulting your beautiful country but really am quite shocked.