Relevant post about reading. You don't need to speed read to read a lot. http://...

shardling · on July 3, 2013

Huh, that guy has a pretty fucked up attitude towards libraries.

e12e · on July 4, 2013

Yeah, but he has some interesting recommendations (apparently, just followed the link from here now).

Here in Norway, I'm fairly confident that quite a few great books will be "indefinitely" (at least as long as I would be able to care for my own books) available in libraries. And I see no pressing need to "own" such books -- unless they are truly close to my heart in some way.

But there are some great books, that are unjustifiably rare, and hard to get hold of -- four examples:

  * Islands in the Net (Bruce Sterling)
  * The man who walked to the Moon (Howard McCord)
  * Last Chance to See (Douglas Adams)
  * Literary Machines (Ted Nelson)

The three first I've bought second hand, still looking for a reasonably priced version of the last one. Such books I enjoy having on my wall, if for no other reason, after recommending them to someone, I can lend them a copy.

But while I have a nice romantic, fuzzy attachment to dead tree books, I'm looking forward to moving towards a digital library. Still waiting for reasonably sized full colour (preferably e-ink) reader that has > 250 dpi and is suitable for both reading comics/graphic novels and books though...

shardling · on July 4, 2013

AFAICT Last Chance to See is still in print? (In the US I can get a new paperback from amazon for $10)

I still have a very tattered version of it from when it was first published, though. :)

e12e · on July 5, 2013

Is it? I got mine second hand via Amazon (amazon.com).

edit: It would be reasonable if it is back in print after BBC did the tv series follow up, I guess?