Enter the Dragon

I have been going on nicely for the last few months since Christmas, going on about my eBook reader. I bought a Kobo, a Canadian eBook reader sold by Chapters, and I love it. It had the ability to download library books, albeit with 21 day limits, but still, they were free. It comes with 100 Classic books (out of copyright so they can give them away) plus two “best sellers” of their choosing and the ability to purchase a number of titles (thousands of them) on line and wirelessly. They also have almost 400 books on their web site that are free as well. I am basically a slow reader, given I usually just read before bed and like lots of guys, I do read on the toilet. OK, but I don’t spend much time there, and I fall asleep easily, although I seldom stay asleep.


Kobo usually has some sort of sale or another on the weekends, and this week they had a 20% off sale. I am delighted with reading a Howard Jacobson book, “Kalooki Nights” addend I was looking forward to getting his award winning “The Finkler Question”. Jacobson, born the same year as I was, described himself as "a Jewish Jane Austen" (in response to being described as "the English Phillip Roth"), he also states, "I'm not by any means conventionally Jewish. I don't go to shul. What I feel is that I have a Jewish mind, I have a Jewish intelligence. I feel linked to previous Jewish minds of the past. I don't know what kind of trouble this gets somebody into, a disputatious mind. What a Jew is has been made by the experience of 5,000 years, that's what shapes the Jewish sense of humor, that's what shaped Jewish pugnacity or tenaciousness." He maintains that "comedy is a very important part of what I do”.

So, on Saturday I purchased it. It sells for $18 in paperback and as an eBook it was $10. With a 20% discount, it was $8 plus tax. I was delighted. I had several free books as well as my original 100, so I figure, how much time do I have? How many books can I read? If I were to retire tomorrow and read non stop for the rest of my life, how many books can I read?

Enter the Dragon!

Les calls on Sunday morning to say he has been obtaining eBooks. Using his computer and through Torrents, he had downloaded lots of books, noting he is obsessed, as usual, with technological issues. Les has thousands of TV shows and movies as well. He is sure, in the never ending great conspiracy theory in the sky, that there are disgruntled employees of publishers releasing information and they are all “out there” (Mulder and Scully). He has for me, should I desire, 623 novels ready for my Kobo.

I will not go into what was there, and I can not print this because the book police will arrive at my door should I actually do this. I can only say that the download of 623 books (all beyond copyright dates of course) took less than two minutes to get from the flash drive into my computer, less than two minutes to get from my computer into my eBook reader, and two hours for the eBook reader to sort it all out.

There are 32,000 legal books available from Project Gutenberg’s web site http://www.thalasson.com/gtn/ in various formats, and they include such things as all of Mark Twain’s novels. Free eBooks are amazing because so much is available.

Les, the Dragon, let me know later in the day that he was working on a 7,000 volume download!

I’m back to my original dilemma, how much time do I have? How many books can I read? If I were to retire tomorrow and read non stop for the rest of my life, how many books can I read?

My Kobo says I have 732 books available. Borders just went Chapter 11 and will close 30% of its stores. Do you think there’s a reason?

I believe we’re in the middle of the revolution, and we didn’t know we were in one to start. It’s all so gradual. One day we believe one thing and the next day it’s another. All business is changing and we can’t quite figure out how to win in this environment. We used to depreciate computers over five years, and than we went to three years, and now it may be a straight business expense.

Time will sort it all out. I will donate my “real” to an institution if there is one that will want it. My digital library will go down with me, I guess.

When my old friend Dale Landry, the former president of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology was buried in the late 90's, they put one of his favorite novels in his pocket, a wonderful gesture. When I go, I’m liable to carry off a major library, good until my batteries wear out. In fact, I may be good until my batteries wear out as well.