Book People Archive

Re: MP3's vs eBooks

> > Enough already! But you get the idea. Will instant, total access to your
> > book collection change the amount you read and what you read. To me the
> > answer seems clear, YES, you'll read much more and much more broadly.
> > (Publisher's take note... you will sell more stuff to more people.)
> > But is this a false analogy? Are my non-fiction reference-book type
> > reading habits a peculiarity? Am I just plain wrong? I'd love to hear
> > comments from this diverse and thoughtful audience. But first imagine
> > all your books accessible with the turn of a dial...

> But a lot would also depend on how well organized my
> collection was and how disciplined I was about maintaining that
> organization.  What I find with the many MP3 and text files I have on my
> computer is that they're as good as lost if I don't keep them organized.
> Judging from the deplorable state of just my bookmarked pages, this could
> prove a daunting task.  I usually know where I've put a book; somehow a
> visual memory perisists of what the cover looks like and which shelf it's
> on.  I haven't developed a corresponding sort of memory for computer
files,
> alas.

I had the same problem.  This is what I do to correct the situation.  I have
directories with my interests named.  The etexts go into the Book1
directory, the Palm formatted ones go into Palm1 directory and so forth.
Inside those directories the etexts go into sub directories under an authors
name and I keep track of all the authors and etexts in the the directories
in a regular text file with a brief comment about what it is about.  I do
the same with all the email that I want to save in a directory called email1
with a text file with a brief comment of what it was about.  I do the same
with articles that I come across on the web.  As well as jokes, thoughts
ect.  I suppose that I could set this up with HTML links but that seems to
be too much work.  I spend 5-10 minutes a day doing all this.

This past week two of my children informed me that they had essays due the
next morning on Black History Month (topic was what happened to the
ex-slaves after the Civil War) and the other child had to write about Thomas
Edison.  I was quickly able to crank something out on both topics working
with my children after examining what I have collected over the years.  Both
of the topical collections of mine started with etexts from Project
Gutenberg as well as from the Southern History Collection at Chapel Hill
North Carolina along with books that I have scanned over the years.  I have
300 books that come up under black history.  Not something that I have a
particular interest in except that I want my children to do well in school.
And since I have six children.  I have probably written with them at least
30 essays over the years.   20 titles that come up under Edison. I have
written with my children perhaps 7 essays on Edison and Tesla.  I still
check to see what is available in my non electronic library and on the web
to see if I am current enough.

Over the years I have located all the required reading lists for the Middle
School, High School and General Ed requirements at the local university and
have etext copies of all the public domain books.  Most have been done by
Project Gutenberg but the remainder I have done myself.  I spend 5-6 hours a
week scanning and editting etexts for various etext projects on the web.  It
is what I do to relax so it hasn't been anything really extra to do this.
And it pays off so well when my children drop their little bombshells on me
the night before.

David Reed