Yet another Hacker News

20 points matt_kirkland 1 hour ago 13 comments

philips 35 minutes ago | parent

This is exactly why I love e-books as an adult.

As a kid I loved "pocket books"[1] because they didn't make my hand feel weak trying to hold them on a road trip and I could fit a few in my backpack.

But, obviously, not every work was published in a pocket book format.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Books

utopiah 34 minutes ago | parent

At this point if you don't care at all for the book itself as an object just buy an xteink-x3 with CrossPoint or PocketBook then install Koreader.

SmasherEpilepti 27 minutes ago | parent

At that rate, you might as well buy and use an e-reader instead. It really doesn't get any more comfortable in the hands than a light device like a Kobo or whatever one you prefer.

davisr 22 minutes ago | parent

I chop my books and read them on my reMarkable tablet. It really doesn't get any better.

https://www.davisr.me/projects/books/

SmasherEpilepti 17 minutes ago | parent

That's cool and all, but I generally prefer my text reflowable, and find PDF reading on any not-huge e-reader to be a pain in the ass. It's worth it for things that are rich in figures and formatting (like House of Leaves, many textbooks, comics and manga, etc), but for the typical novel or non-fiction book, I really do want just text and the most minimal formatting and layout instructions possible, so I can configure to my own comfort, not to whatever the publisher has decided they want me to see.

ocd 15 minutes ago | parent

I somewhat liked my Kobo except for how much Rakuten kept getting more aggressive with forcing their environment on me. And then my Kobo decided to wipe and reset itself on its own, losing all of my bookmarks and other data.

Nice hardware concept, completely unacceptable software.

drayfield 23 minutes ago | parent

I hate this. Of course it's your property, you do what you want with it. Do your own illustrations, annotate with abandon, get out the red pen for editing practise... But for me, I love nothing more than reading a book so big that I practically live in it.

Rendello 15 minutes ago | parent

I recently wanted to try one of Kató Lomb's [1][2] preferred language-learning methods: getting a book in a foreign language and reading it (and re-reading it), figuring out words and phrases as if it's a big puzzle and writing them in the margins. From her book "How I Learn Languages" (1970):

> I recommend buying your own books for language learning. They can be spiced with underlines, question marks, and exclamation points; they can be thumbed and dog-eared, plucked to their essential core, and annotated so that they become a mirror of yourself.

> What shall you write in the margins? Only the forms and phrases you have understood and figured out from the context.

> Ignore what you can’t immediately understand. If a word is important, it will occur several times and explain itself anyway. Base your progress on the known, not the un- known. The more you read, the more phrases you will write in the margins. The relationship that develops between you and the knowledge you obtain will be much deeper than if you had consulted the dictionary automatically. The sense of achievement provides you with an emotional-affective charge: You have sprung open a lock; you have solved a little puzzle.

I can't really bring myself to write in the books themselves though, so I've been using separate paper. It feels wrong, even in a cheap book, like I'm defiling it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kat%C3%B3_Lomb

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Kat%C3%B3+Lomb

globular-toast 19 minutes ago | parent

I would never do this normally, but when I walked the Camino Primitivo the guidebook contained other routes so was more than twice as big as it needed to. Weight matters so I tore out the bit I needed.

I read most fiction these days on my Kobo. I prefer physical volumes when I'm sitting at a desk.

prydt 17 minutes ago | parent

I came to a similar realization recently. I used to care so much about how pristine my books looked and then I realized that some of my favorite books I have found in used bookstores are ones which are written all over and have a well-worn feel to them. I now annotate all my books with pencil and also write my name in them. I love seeing a history of who's owned a given book when I open the front cover and see a name and phone number.

OroPla 11 minutes ago | parent

Here I thought this was about shredding your books and going completely digital to save space.

usewik 7 minutes ago | parent

I do like when books are wrapped, but to the idea of separating them into parts, I would say probably not worth it. Most books I find myself reading lately are pretty dense, and so my focus is on fitting material in my mind and imagination, i.e. into Gardens of the Moon right now, and I am switching between audiobook, small paperback and companion Claude code wrote for me to help me keep track and visualize what's happening. But hey, if it helps you focus on reading, and you own the book, why not? I do think it is better to just go to your library and work through what they have to offer, without buying the books, so that, hopefully leaves slicing off the table.

delichon 6 minutes ago | parent

The example is the cowboy bible. But we get it, it's not desecration. Chopping it up makes it all the easier for the whole crew to read it around the campfire as the dogies dream. With our Petzl headlamps, we're not savages.