I do maintain a library of old-fashioned books at the house that consists of pretty much all the classics and the really good fiction and non-fiction titles that are out there. In fact, I've purchased electronic copies of many hard-copy books that I already own because the convenience of having them at my fingertips is worth the extra expense. Conversely, if I read a really good book on Kindle, I'll go ahead and purchase the hard copy for my library. I just did that with a book called Appetite for America by Stephen Fried (about an early restaurant chain on the railroad).
Since going electronic, I get way more reading done than I used to. I put the Kindle app on my phone and tablet as well so if I'm stuck in a hospital waiting room, like I was recently for a sick relative, no problem. I can dive into my library and ignore the awful daytime TV that others were stuck watching (or six-month old TIME magazines). Even if I'm waiting in line for coffee or something, I can read a few pages and the time flies right by.
So basically I rule the technology and do not allow it to rule me.
I mostly read the free books on Amazon and I have read quite a few that were really good. If its a stinker I just read a few pages and then delete. Theres nothing good on TV anymore so we read most evenings.
Ya. The big concern though, is what do you do if a company that you have data with in the 'cloud' just closes up shop? Now, I doubt that will happen any time soon with Amazon, but then again, there have been really large companies that have gone bankrupt in the past.
Personally, I prefer to have physical posession of my data. I import all my ebooks into Calibre so I can manage them however I want, including conversion between formats if I want. I make sure that all ebooks I pay for are always DRM-free so I can use Calibre with them without issues. Also been hanging out at Project Gutenberg quite a bit of late. At present, I have have 1236 ebooks. I'm in the process of reading through the entire library of sci-fi at Project Gutenberg. That will keep me busy for a while.
I know a lot of folks who dig their Kindles though. Glad this article was posted. I texted a few folks who it might affect to make sure they aren't caught off guard.
I see a growing trend, in a blurring of the lines over ownership of electronic devices, and electronic materials.
For example, I own my smartphone...but I really could never sell it used to somebody else, unless I were smart enough (and inclined to) ‘jailbreak’ the phone.
Another example would be IPhones - there was recently a story that people who had used a third party repair service to fix the start button were suddenly having their phones bricked. Apple’s reason was legitimate - it turns out merely replacing the button could bypass their security features...but what about the people who owned the phones. Well, they may own the phone, but it became abundantly clear that the phone only functions, if Apple wants it to function.
So now items you may own in cloud storage can be denied to you. I suppose its similar to renting a bay at ministorage...you don’t pay or follow their rules, you lose your stuff.
I can see this mentality entering into other markets, as devices become more connected...in particular automobiles. Just last week there was a story about researchers looking into cars that communicated with each other at an intersection. Well, as soon as that door is breached (cars communicating), there suddenly becomes a ‘network’, and the network will have updates and patches, and cars that don’t get the proper updates may be ‘bricked’ just like today’s phones.
Around a year ago, there was a court case about this (dealing with smart phones). I’m not sure if its over or how it turned out, but I think there needs to be some clarification over who owns what in the digital world.