I'm very happy to announce that TDPL has entered the Amazon Kindle bestsellers list for Computer Programming, starting at position 94: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/156140011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kinc_1_5_last

Andrei

On 6/18/2011 5:36 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> I'm very happy to announce that TDPL has entered the Amazon Kindle bestsellers
> list for Computer Programming, starting at position 94:
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/156140011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kinc_1_5_last

Congrats!

On 2011-06-18 17:36, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> I'm very happy to announce that TDPL has entered the Amazon Kindle bestsellers list for Computer Programming, starting at position 94: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/156140011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_ kinc_1_5_last

Well, I'm still not buying a Kindle. Death to e-books! ;)

Definitely good news. Now if we could only finish getting the issues where the compiler is behind TDPL fixed...

- Jonathan M Davis

On 6/19/2011 12:29 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> Well, I'm still not buying a Kindle. Death to e-books! ;)

I just bought a Kindle and I'm running my unread paperbacks through the scanner and then trashing them!

On 2011-06-19 13:26, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 6/19/2011 12:29 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> > Well, I'm still not buying a Kindle. Death to e-books! ;)
> 
> I just bought a Kindle and I'm running my unread paperbacks through the scanner and then trashing them!

I _much_ prefer reading actual, solid, paper books. I don't particularly like reading books in electronic form at all. It works well for documentation and searchability, but beyond that, I don't see it as an advantage at all. And in those cases, I'd be reading them on the computer, not an e-book reader. And of course, then there's the issue of DRM and all that....

So, I don't own an e-book reader and I hope that e-books never become so prominent that I'm forced to.

- Jonathan M Davis

On 6/19/2011 2:18 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On 2011-06-19 13:26, Walter Bright wrote:
>> I just bought a Kindle and I'm running my unread paperbacks through the
>> scanner and then trashing them!
>
> I _much_ prefer reading actual, solid, paper books. I don't particularly like
> reading books in electronic form at all. It works well for documentation and
> searchability, but beyond that, I don't see it as an advantage at all. And in
> those cases, I'd be reading them on the computer, not an e-book reader. And of
> course, then there's the issue of DRM and all that....
>
> So, I don't own an e-book reader and I hope that e-books never become so
> prominent that I'm forced to.


Your last sentence is interesting. I've read many accounts by people who had such a sentiment, and then skeptically thought they'd give an ebook a fair try. After a year, they completely changed their minds.

Anyhow, I hear you.

I've been buying books my whole life. I have shelves creaking with them, boxes of books in the basement, etc. They've simply become a burden. I'd simply like to get all my information properties - pictures, books, papers, music, movies, letters, documents - onto a disk. They'll be always there, sorted, categorized, instantly available, weighing nothing, and taking up no space.

The advent of enormous and cheap disks has finally made this practical.

The migration of my books to the computer has awaited an easy way to read them. The Kindle has finally solved that problem, at least for paperbacks. It doesn't work well for larger books (I presume the Kindle DX will, but I think I'd prefer an ipad for large format books.)

I'm scanning my paperbacks to PDFs, and the Kindle will display them one page image at a time. DRM is not an issue for that. After a bit of a learning curve, I've got it where it doesn't take much time at all to whack off the binding and run a paperback through my sheet fed scanner.

The one thing I'm not ripping are movies. Netflix has changed everything for me. With so much available to watch, I don't care to rewatch any old movies. There's no reason to buy, own, archive, or collect a DVD anymore.

On 6/20/11 4:18 AM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On 2011-06-19 13:26, Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 6/19/2011 12:29 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>>> Well, I'm still not buying a Kindle. Death to e-books! ;)
>>
>> I just bought a Kindle and I'm running my unread paperbacks through the
>> scanner and then trashing them!
>
> I _much_ prefer reading actual, solid, paper books. I don't particularly like
> reading books in electronic form at all. It works well for documentation and
> searchability, but beyond that, I don't see it as an advantage at all. And in
> those cases, I'd be reading them on the computer, not an e-book reader. And of
> course, then there's the issue of DRM and all that....
>
> So, I don't own an e-book reader and I hope that e-books never become so
> prominent that I'm forced to.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

Say that to the trees :-)

On 2011-06-19 20:43, Ary Manzana wrote:
> On 6/20/11 4:18 AM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> > On 2011-06-19 13:26, Walter Bright wrote:
> >> On 6/19/2011 12:29 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> >>> Well, I'm still not buying a Kindle. Death to e-books! ;)
> >> 
> >> I just bought a Kindle and I'm running my unread paperbacks through the scanner and then trashing them!
> > 
> > I _much_ prefer reading actual, solid, paper books. I don't particularly like reading books in electronic form at all. It works well for documentation and searchability, but beyond that, I don't see it as an advantage at all. And in those cases, I'd be reading them on the computer, not an e-book reader. And of course, then there's the issue of DRM and all that....
> > 
> > So, I don't own an e-book reader and I hope that e-books never become so prominent that I'm forced to.
> > 
> > - Jonathan M Davis
> 
> Say that to the trees :-)

Honestly, I don't care. As long as people are smart about logging, trees are a completely renewable resource. But I don't want to turn this into an environment debate.

I don't like reading off screens - especially small screens. I much prefer actual books. And I have no problem with other people wanting e-books just so long as it doesn't result in my not being to get physical books anymore. I'm just afraid that the general trend will lead to physical books dying out, which I would consider to be horrible for reading - especially for novels.

- Jonathan M Davis

They won't die out. They'll just become rarer. Just like vinyl (and
you can still buy vinyl!).

On 6/19/2011 8:51 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> I don't like reading off screens - especially small screens. I much prefer
> actual books. And I have no problem with other people wanting e-books just so
> long as it doesn't result in my not being to get physical books anymore. I'm
> just afraid that the general trend will lead to physical books dying out,
> which I would consider to be horrible for reading - especially for novels.

I suspect that the pulp paperbacks will largely disappear within 5 years, much like film cameras.

The Kindle screen doesn't have the size and aspect ratio of a paperback, I'd prefer that it did.