eBooks
I’m not much of a reader. I actually enjoy books quite a bit and have read a lot of them, but I have found that it takes a specific set of circumstances for it to occur. Back when I was stuck in an office doing menial data entry tasks 15 years ago? Conducive. If I’m sitting in my gaming chair in front of my $2500 gaming PC setup? Not conducive. I’m also allergic to cluttering up my house further with physical one-and-done objects; the subtle guilt that arises from even thinking of disposing of books is also something I can live without. So, the rise of eBooks and eReaders has helped the situation somewhat.
…aside from the friction that comes from buying a PDF of words. Who does that?
I have heard a lot of good things about the Three-Body Problem series. I’m a fan of sci-fi and philosophical musings – I really enjoyed the entire Foundation series, Ender’s Game series, and so on. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time though, you understand the problem: parsimony as fuck. So, it looks like the trilogy is $28.78 at basically every online vendor, including Amazon. However, Amazon is selling the first book for $11.99 and the 2nd and 3rd for $5.99 apiece. Shit like that really starts to make you question the subjective value of particular arrangement of words.
So, I then start looking up local libraries in my area. As it turns out, a lot of libraries will loan you eBooks for free, and you can even sign up for a library card without stepping foot in the physical space. Top-tier Millennial innovations, let me tell you. Of course, predictably, this means that the two electronic versions of the books are already checked out and behind a 200+ waitlist of people who probably subsequently went directly to Pirate Bay.
That actually was my Go-To move in past, but I’ve been out of the skull-and-crossbones game too long and the scene moved on without me. I mean, I can figure out VPNs and Plex servers and Usenet groups… but I just don’t want to. No longer do I have near-infinite time with near-zero responsibility. Clearly, all that time is better spent doing an absurd amount of shopping to save a number dollars no longer enough to purchase lunch.
The end result was this: nothing. I gave up and read nothing.
Great story, right? If you could Paypal me $11.99, I’ll be right on my way.
Actually, what will probably occur is that I go to Google Play and spend the $10ish and change I have earned doing random surveys to purchase the first book, then buy the two $6 sequels from Amazon, and then hope they all work on my Kindle Paperwhite. Where they will likely stay dormant until/unless I find myself away from the house and any parental or driving responsibility for a substantial amount of time. Then, I might actually get to reading something again.
It’s a tough life I lead, I know, full of adversity.
[Fake Edit] Don’t worry, after browsing some older folders, I apparently already “acquired” the Three-Body Problem series back in 2021. Now, to read them. Some day.
Posted on January 24, 2024, in Commentary and tagged eBook, First World Pirate Problems, Sci-Fi, Three-Body Problem, Too Busy For Words. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
In An Age 
I like reading in theory but it takes too long. I could read one book or watch 4-5 movies. I have the same issue with TV come to think of it.
LikeLike
Haha, maybe those Boomers were right about our attention spans. Although, they never really respond to the studies showing that they watch 4-5 hours of TV a day.
When it comes to value, I actually “credit” a piece of media for the entertainment or philosophical impact it provides to me over time. For example, I wrote a review of the Malazan: Book of the Fallen series way back in 2013. It was 10 books and took a long time to read through. However… I still think about them damn near a decade later. That was a good investment. Could have watched 20 movies or whatever, but what does that accomplish actually? If I’m looking to just kill time, I’ll play Hearthstone Battlegrounds or scroll Youtube Shorts for hours. I’m looking for something to engage me both while doing it and when I’m doing something else later.
Having said that, I get it. Some books end up being stinkers, and you don’t always know right away that you’re reading one. Plus, a point in your favor, I clearly have not valued books as highly now that I’m working from home and have easier access to more immediately-palatable entertainment.
LikeLike
From what I’ve heard, the rule of thumb for a movie is 1 page of screenplay = 1 minute of film time, so a 2 hour movie is a *novella.* And that 500-page book is roughly the equivalent of 3 movies.
Personally, I read much faster than is considered “normal” so I can generally go through 120-ish pages per hour, so for me reading a book is far less of a “waste of time” than a movie is. I can’t abide audiobooks for the same reason — I can read a book in 1/3 the time that it takes to listen to it.
LikeLike
Anna’s Archive (as a guest, using external partner site links) is quite good for sheer breadth, though you do get the occasional scammy or broken link in the list.
LikeLike
Nice. Bookmarked.
LikeLike
I got maybe 30 or 40 pages into The Three Body problem before I gave up. Very dull, pedestrian prose, possibly the translation, and a not very interesting storyline.
For triangulation, I read more than one book a week on average and have done pretty consistently since I first learned to read. Of the books I start, I probably fail to finish no more than two or three a year. They have to be *very* dull before I give up on them. This one was that dull.
LikeLike
Ironically, I’m a bit more forgiving when it comes to books than, say, video games. Boring videogame? Dropped. Great videogame but I ran out of character progression by hitting level cap or whatever? Dropped. Meanwhile, I’ve read the entire Twilight series and I’m not even sorry about it. Granted, that was back when I was reading while doing menial tasks like literally popping staples off of huge stacks of paper for 8 hours, but still.
We’ll see where things go for me, but I’m not put off by dull, pedestrian prose – that won Hugo awards and coined the term “Dark Forest” as a solution to the Fermi Paradox – as might otherwise be expected. There’s a first time for everything though.
LikeLike
Parsimony-as-fuck would’ve been an absolute all-time blog name.
I stopped reading when I got heavy into WoW in the 00’s (coinciding with getting out of high school), and I’ve really never gone back. There’s just so many games that I’d rather play, that I’d rather spend time on my Steam backlog than reading a new book.
LikeLike
Pingback: Book Review: Three-Body Problem | In An Age