Understudy

Well, I was going to write a post (entitled "Uf!") about how busy I've been lately. I planned on citing my ballet recital, the planning of fieldwork, the performance of some fieldwork, the rescheduling of fieldwork, the re-rescheduling of fieldwork, the crisis-day detailing fieldwork's apparent schizophrenia, et cetera (which is just so much more fun to spell out than abbreviate). But I decided that topic bored me. If you'd like to hear about my ballet recital, including a summary of the dance in which I was ravaged by pirates, let me know. Also, if you're actually interested in hearing about why the California Department of Food and Agriculture will most likely lynch me or someone I know if the weather doesn't clear up by Tuesday, I'd be thrilled to fill you in. But until then, I think I'll query you 2 on something that I'm curious about right now. So please respond with emails or post comments here!

Have you ever read an ebook?

As you know, I really enjoy reading. So much so that books are one of the primary drains on my meager income. I recently discovered a website with free ebooks. Interestingly, it was Virginia Woolf that led me to this website. I was reading To the Lighthouse, per the recommendation of Mental Floss magazine, which refers to a novel by Sir Walter Scott, though it doesn't mention the title. I read Ivanhoe many years ago, and remember being none too little bored by it. But that was a long time ago. Long, long time ago. And I think it befits me to give Sir Walter another chance. So why not do so with the novel read by Mr. Ramsey? Of course, this meant I had to sleuth out what novel it was. Long story short, after trying various avenues I discovered that it is The Fortunes of Nigel when google pointed me to that website which has its entire text online. It is apparently an obscure work of Scott's, or at any rate, it's not super available on amazon. I've since found at least one other work on that site that I'm interested in reading. But the question is, do I really want to read an ebook or should I stick with physical books?

Naturally, there are pros and cons to the thing. On the plus side, if enough people switched to ebooks, fewer trees might be harvested. That is, unless they're so averse to reading something off the computer that they print out the whole thing, resulting in more trees getting the axe... Which brings us to one of the cons: extended reading off a computer screen. Hello headache... Another advantage is that reading free ebooks could represent considerable savings. Books are expensive these days! Especially good books. Of course, you could also go to a library to get free books, but for some reason I've never really taken to that. I went to the Davis Public Library a few times, mostly to have a comfy chair to read in that wasn't at home where I'd be too distracted, and I wasn't enamored with the smell of child-pee. In our culture of antibiotics and cooties, library books have been touched by just too many people. Plus, I just really like owning books. There's something really awe-inspiring about shelves upon shelves crammed with books. They're like trophies. Trophies of learning. Can't say I don't try to look smart! But an ebook won't give me that. Except for by forcing me to get thicker glasses, but that's an entirely different way to look smart... One I'd rather not pursue, though undoubtedly I will. And of course there's the convenience issue. A book you can take anywhere. A computer, not so much. Lately I've been enjoying my tofu sandwich lunch on the lawn outside of my lab with whatever book I'm currently reading. That's only possible with physical books. Of course, I could bring my laptop to lab and read that outside, but that's a pain, not to mention the difficulties of even seeing what's on your screen in the sun!

Ah well. With Nigel I don't really have any options. It's e or nothing. And I guess the pros do outweigh the cons. Or at least, they do until I really experience reading a 600 page novel off of a monitor... I might change my tune after that! Probably will at that. I've read portions of textbooks online before, and that was surely onerous, though of course they had the added detriment of being textbooks... So I guess I'll give it a shot. I put a little cardboard place marker in my queue of books to be read to remind me to read Nigel when its turn comes. (That's the other thing about ebooks, you can't handily put them in the stack of books awaiting reading!) I'll let you know how it goes.