Joined local Library  today, had a wander about and got a book I had wanted to read for a while. Terry Pratchett,  Unseen Academicals ( one of the few not read by him) and a DVD of some Tai Chi exercises I need which would be better suited than some of the stuff I have been doing.
Total cost, nothing, free and gratis.

Place was full of exam age children actually studying and not playing the free games consols.

Was toying with getting a Kindel, but much rather a book. Library is a stroll away, can see they have a new frequent customer already.

Guy goes into a library and shouts "This is a hold up. Give me your money"
The woman says, "Er, this is a library"
The guy whispers, "Sorry, This is a hold up. Give me your money"

Showing your age here..............

Bought the missus a Kindle at Christmas mate as she reads non-stop and I wasn't sure f she'd like it beforehand,but it's brilliant and it is like reading a book as it's not like reading off an LCD screen.
There's over 10,000 free books on it and loads at less than a £1.

I can see benefit in them for say, novels but for reference books, manuals and such types i personally can't cope with them. The flicking back and forwards for the relevant bits, can't beat the book.

How does she find the screen, easy to read? no eye strain?

But it's nice having a bit of a library at home. At present I'd much rather have books.

Thats the thing, I have a few hundred books. A kindel would make them redundant.

It's the tactile thing. We've grown up loving books, not just the content, but the feel of them, the smell of them  .... they're just right.

Yeah!

books are so old hat. Just heard on the radio this morning (R4) that a poet had sold her entire works on e-mail for 32k.

You mean:

Books are so old hat
I've just heard that ...
A poet has sold everything she's written to this day
On the web by E-mail for thirty two k

Passed my Pratchett collection onto my lad last week, he is well up for it.

Our local library is the same tbh - very busy and well loved by the community.  I enjoy reading and have a nice collection myself, you cannot beat the tactile nature of a real book and the ease at which you can fall asleep reading and it not wake you up when a book lands on your head (kindel slightly diff oO).

I think Kindel was a niche product which has now been superceded in eavery way by larger smartphones / tablets provided all the same functionality and more.

'J

Nice

When I moved a few years ago I gave a couple of hundred novels to charity shops. I have a small collection again. It makes me feel more well-read seeing the physical books .

I'm sure very soon books for most people will be a thing of the past - and homes will have even less clutter - which is good as they get smaller and smaller . Just like teenagers today have never experienced old style tape walkmans or even portable CD players.

Sons found my old record collection and asked what they were!
Reminds me to get a turntable and transfer to usb.
Think all the VCR tapes have gone now, but still have some video cam cartridges stored somewhere.