All About Books/Periodicals

[Anisovaya]

I absolutely need to recommend The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson for any high fantasy fans. It's a great read, the biggest problem I have with it is that it's Sandersons entry into long series fantasy, so I'll be forced to deal with waiting for each new book for the next decade or two.

DEFINITELY recommend reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson !!!!!! It truly was an excellent read and the way Sanderson develops the characters into individuals that you care about and are intrigued by is what makes the book such a great read. I too was disappointed that it will be a long wait until the second book in this series comes out. Sanderson was the author that was brought in to finish Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series so that was what got me started on reading The Wheel of Time books. I have to say that while I do find that they initially seemed like a similar version of the characters in the LOTR (can we say bumbling Merry & Pippin who constantly get themselves and everyone else in trouble??!! ugh), I have enjoyed them so far.

[Paxen]

A note about the Way of Kings: it's very different from other Sanderson fare. Those are mostly pretty short (for fantasy books...) and contain a lot of action and events. The Way of Kings is...slower, in a way. More like the Wheel of Time (but better).

[Ironshield]

My wife recently stumbled upon a real gem of a series, and we've both blown through all 6 books and are worried about what we're going to do waiting for any future books.

Temeraire - by Naomi Novik. Basically an alternate history where dragons are just part of the world. Set during the Napoleonic wars. Very well done and thought through.

Don't want to get into the whole competing tech discussion any more than to wholeheartedly endorse my Kindle - LOVE IT, as does the missus, especially as she's currently breast feeding so having a light book with which you can do everything with one hand is a God send.

[benebarba]

My wife recently stumbled upon a real gem of a series, and we've both blown through all 6 books and are worried about what we're going to do waiting for any future books.

Temeraire - by Naomi Novik. Basically an alternate history where dragons are just part of the world. Set during the Napoleonic wars. Very well done and thought through.

Yep. A great 'historical fantasy' series.

[Koatanga]

Wish there was a way to (legally) transfer all of my current paper copies onto my nook without having to repurchase them all. Would allow me to save a TON of shelf space and probably knock out at least 100 lbs of shipping weight...

Not sure how the copyright for books works, but if you own a piece of music (CD, record, tape), you can make copies of it for personal use, and even obtain copies of superior quality for personal use.

If books are similar, then if you have the paper, you should legally be allowed to download and enjoy the electronic version and copies thereof for personal use.

At least that's the way I look at it - we have thousands of books around the house - buying electronic copies of all of them would be horrendously expensive. I don't mind downloading books that I already own.

[Paxen]

then if you have the paper, you should legally be allowed to download and enjoy the electronic version and copies thereof for personal use.

At least that's the way I look at it - we have thousands of books around the house - buying electronic copies of all of them would be horrendously expensive. I don't mind downloading books that I already own.

Two issues with that: Is downloading somebody else's copy legally the same as copying your own?

And if you torrent it, you will share it with somebody else, which is definetly illegal.

Morally however, I see no problems downloading books you already own.

[Cogglamp]

Due to copious amounts of time sitting in airports, trains, and commuter rails, I was able to get through Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power.

Was a fantastic read. Anyone interested in political science studies would enjoy it.

[Koatanga]

And if you torrent it, you will share it with somebody else, which is definetly illegal.

If anyone can get the whole thing from me in the time I torrent it, they'd be pretty lucky. I have a data-capped internet plan, so I am an extremely bad torrent sharer. I download, then remove the torrent. I may share 1% of what I downloaded, but that doesn't bother me - they would have got the 1% from the source I was downloading from anyway.

Until they get rid of this DRM garbage, my heart isn't going to bleed for publishers one bit.

I bought a book from Amazon that my wife wanted. She has a Kindle Touch, but has never eneabled the wifi on it because she likes not having the adverts on it. So everything gets downloaded from her PC. Well, it turns out there really isn't a way to get the book on her Touch without hooking her up to the net and putting adverts on her idle screen. So I downloaded a pirated copy of the book and put it on her kindle. Doesn't bother me, because I bought the electronic book. But the whole thing was an exercise in frustration that illustrated quite clearly to me how much DRM sucks.

We're buyers. We like to support people who produce what we like. We buy books, music, and movies. But when it's made too hard for us to go through legal channels, we will go elsewhere.

[Skye1013]

Otoh, the whole reason I'd be downloading the books would be to get rid of the hard copy... at that point I'd no longer own the hard copy, putting me into a gray area.

[Fridmarr]

Otoh, the whole reason I'd be downloading the books would be to get rid of the hard copy... at that point I'd no longer own the hard copy, putting me into a gray area.

That's not gray, it's fine. Otherwise the concept of having a backup would be utterly useless.

[Koatanga]

That's not gray, it's fine. Otherwise the concept of having a backup would be utterly useless.

Actually, I think it depends on the displosal method of the original books. If the books are sold, then the right to own the work is sold along with it, so keeping the electronic copies would not be legal. I believe even donating the books would constitute a transfer of rights to hold copies of them.

If they were destroyed, then I believe it would be legal, since the right to have a copy of the book never transferred. However, it would also be nearly impossible to prove you once owned the destroyed book and didn't in fact sell it.

[Fridmarr]

Actually, I think it depends on the displosal method of the original books. If the books are sold, then the right to own the work is sold along with it, so keeping the electronic copies would not be legal. I believe even donating the books would constitute a transfer of rights to hold copies of them.

Yes, obviously selling the book would transfer your right to the copy as well.

If they were destroyed, then I believe it would be legal, since the right to have a copy of the book never transferred. However, it would also be nearly impossible to prove you once owned the destroyed book and didn't in fact sell it.

Right, but that's the rub in this whole thing, even when you have a paper copy in hand. There's no reason why a publisher needs to provide anyone access to digital copy of something that they have on paper (after all you have always been able to copy paper text manually) anyhow, so it's kind of moot.

[Koatanga]

Right, but that's the rub in this whole thing, even when you have a paper copy in hand. There's no reason why a publisher needs to provide anyone access to digital copy of something that they have on paper (after all you have always been able to copy paper text manually) anyhow, so it's kind of moot.

The publisher is under no obligation to provide them, but they are readily available online through torrent sites and other places. I am of the opinion it would/should be legal to possess the electronic copies if you own the paper, regardless of where you obtain the electronic copies.

It's the legality of possessing the electronic copies once the original paper is disposed of that is in question, as I believe Skye would actually like to recover some bookshelf space.

That's where I have the problem, because the only legal way to dispose of the books while maintaining a legal right to the electronic version would be to destroy the books, which is a something I am vehemently against.

I suppose I will have to get over that, as the future of books has got to be in the digital medium, but I don't forsee a day in which I will throw away or destroy any of the thousands of books I have. They'll probably live in boxes at some point.

[Arnock]

I used to be of a similar mindset, until I got a job at a public library. Throwing away dozens or even hundreds of books on a daily basis help one get over any aversions to throwing books away.

[Skye1013]

I'd more than likely donate them (most likely option) or sell them, as I personally don't prefer to destroy books. Used to work in a bookstore that would allow us one "free" book every so often, but we'd have to rip the front cover off to get it... I never opted for this route, instead choosing to read them in the store or purchase them outright.

Regardless of how I disposed of them, I would no longer have proof of ownership. This, of course, all comes down to if anyone ever checked up on it or not, but in the event that it did happen, I'd have no way to prove it, unless I kept the receipts for every book I've ever purchased (which I haven't...)