Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
#162561 10/16/06 02:57 PM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1
B
stranger
OP Offline
stranger
B
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1
My friend Joyce, who teaches reading in Chicago, does workshops for adults in which you hold a book in your hand and stroke the pages one at a time without reading them. The act of making contact with the page, developing a sensual relationship with the text, actually increases both reading speed and comprehension. As an artist who creates hand-made sketchbooks, and also dabbles in altered digital photography, I can attest to the added satisfaction of holding the object in your hand, feeling the weight and texture of a book adds something to the experience that digital book readers will never experience. Long live bibliopegy!

#162562 10/16/06 05:17 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
I found it interesting that today's word is sponsored by a guy who wants you to read his e-book.

#162563 10/16/06 07:40 PM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Quote:

I found it interesting that today's word is sponsored by a guy who wants you to read his e-book.




Mysterious motives or maybe this is an unfortunate coincidence.But please Anna, could you explain to me what 'forensic' bibliopegy might mean?
I do not understand what forensic means in this context at all. Dictionaries don't do two words at a time. (not mine anyway)
I'm really curious what it means.

#162564 10/16/06 09:54 PM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Quote:

Quote:

I found it interesting that today's word is sponsored by a guy who wants you to read his e-book.




Mysterious motives or maybe this is an unfortunate coincidence.But please Anna, could you explain to me what 'forensic' bibliopegy might mean?
I do not understand what forensic means in this context at all. Dictionaries don't do two words at a time. (not mine anyway)
I'm really curious what it means.




perhaps learning about the history of a book based upon the style and materials used in its binding?


formerly known as etaoin...
#162565 10/16/06 10:35 PM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2
R
stranger
Offline
stranger
R
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2
For so many reasons, books should not be replaced. The most important is their permanence. So many copies, so widely dispersed makes it likely that our collective and individual literary history will survive in printed form, as it has done, in some cases for nearly 5000 years.

On the other hand, electronic communiction and files, while far more compact and useful in the sort term, have proved to be ephemeral. Change the hardware, change the software, the file is useless. Not to mention that storage media evidently degrades more rapidly than predicted.

On the other hand, The NYT article I read about the new reading machines suggests that travelers, business and otherwise, can pack a crate full of reading material on one slim reader, no net connection or special batteries required.

I should think that school text books could have a home on those machines - a way around 50# back-packs, obsolescence, and cost.

I doubt that I'll ever own one of those machines since I have Powell's books close by and hardly ever travel. But I suspect there is a legitmate use for this "tool" not to be considered a "book."

#162566 10/17/06 03:51 AM
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
B
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
B
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Googling "forensic bibliopegy" came up zero, but googling them separately did bring up various references to this news item:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/4891100.stm and the term 'anthropodermic bibliopegy', which may or may not be related.


Bingley
#162567 10/17/06 04:00 AM
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
according to Bingley's link, the book "may have been stolen", which would bring on the BCSI*, which would no doubt apply the latest forensic techniques...

QED
-joe friday (thanx to ron o.)

*Bibliopegic Crime Scene Investigation

#162568 10/17/06 07:12 AM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Well, Bingley and Tsuwm, Etaoin's innocent and I guess correct answer takes a dramatic turn here and opens a perverse universum.
Books about crocodiles and elephants and cute little animals in Skin-
furry- and feathered covers and Oh no! The Biography on.......

Quite a link, that one.

#162569 10/17/06 09:52 AM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Most of the arguments for brick and mortar books over ebooks are based on purely irrelevant factors which are in no way necessary to the transmission of information. We wax poetic over the feel of a book in the hands and the smell of the pages only because those are sensations we associate with the act of reading. Even the act of reading is irrelevant. It is not essential to the process of receiving a story or factual information. I have, in the past belittled the act of reading, claiming that the sounds of the fire crackling and the bard tuning his harp are superior to the sensations associated with those of looking at a bunch of squiggly lines on some ephemeral piece of papyrus. The argument for permanence is also ephemeral as it depends on the limitations of present day technology. To say that there are written records 5000 years old is no argument since not one person in a million could read them. Information from just a few hundred years ago is understandable only with some knowledge of the language changes that have occurred over those years. If we had a technology that could encode the information in a form that was directly transmittable to the human brain and could store it in a form that was immune from degradation it would be far superior to anything we have today. We could even add ancillary sensations so that people could feel what their ancestors had to put up with to get information.

#162570 10/17/06 11:06 AM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
If there is one storage device that is not immune to degradation it is the humain brain. I would it were different , but alas,real life experience. I have two large book collections to sort out that have survived their owner's brains and bodies in a perfect state.

Only from an ecological/environmental point of vieuw I see the positive side of this superior technology.(less objects)
But the environment- benefit maybe would be replaced by damage caused by these tecnical devices.
Books are never just information. This said I'm going to buy Robert Frost.

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,283
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 302 guests, and 2 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,510
LukeJavan8 9,916
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5