| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Markustay |
Posted - 02 Sep 2011 : 19:41:21
I report this information with both delight and sadness:
As many of you probably know, Borders is in bankruptcy, and I went to one yesterday and got Elminster Must Die and Return of the Archwizards trilogy (in one book) for 80% off! That was four FR novels - BRAND NEW - for under $10.
On the bright side, I was able to buy new FR material without violating my own self-imposed rule of NOT replacing any of the stuff I lost; I owned none of those (and had reconsidered reading RotA only recently).
On the down side, I am upset to see yet another death-knell for printed books. 
As an interesting side-note, the ONLY RPG material still available at that discount (the sale has already been going on a few days) was 4th edition D&D stuff. I can't say there was much, but enough to make note of (I was hoping to pick up some of the Paizo stuff I saw there some time ago, which is why I checked that area). I was almost tempted to pick-up Heroes of the Fallen Lands, just because it was so cheap....... ALMOST. |
| 24 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Markustay |
Posted - 06 Sep 2011 : 18:02:52
When I was a small child, reaching the moon was a dream. Hand-held computers were a thing of the FAR future and stuff of science fiction, the 'theoretical atom' could not be seen by any microscope, and growing new organs from 'stem cells' was completely unheard of.
Did you know the guy who created modern cellphone technology was determined to duplicate the communicators from Star Trek? His friends thought he was nuts.
Today, modern cellphones blow-away OS Star Trek communicators in functionality. 
Johnny Mnemonic may have been a craptastic movie, but the premise is valid (minus the dolphin). 
Just because we haven't figured how to do it yet doesn't make it impossible.
I sometimes wonder.... is EVERYTHING always possible, or does the universe adjust itself to OUR dreams?
Alas, I wax philosophical 
Just get to Borders and buy yourself some books, while you still can. |
| Marc |
Posted - 06 Sep 2011 : 16:43:26
Brain implants that can store and enhance memory have been predicted a lot of times by the futurists and sci-fi. The chances are greater than a ship reaching the closest star. |
| Dennis |
Posted - 06 Sep 2011 : 11:53:59
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Perhaps not: You never know what sort of breakthroughs will be made.
I may not know everything, but I'm certain that's not going happen. |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 06 Sep 2011 : 06:17:05
Nah, we're still okay with stone age, we remember how to use the tools we programmed. It's our kids and their kids who would be victims in a technological holocaust. Too much information without context; people are programmed to watch television or reach for their cellphones whenever they're bored; facebook has replaced faces and books. I don't think current trends are sustainable, consumers are getting happier and dumber and more numerous each decade, something's gotta break. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 05 Sep 2011 : 20:44:06
Perhaps not: You never know what sort of breakthroughs will be made. While our cellphones now far out-strip the performance of ST:tos tricorders, we have yet to make the move into space predicted by the show (and movies).
Quite simply, KHAN!!!! never happened.
Our comp-tech makes amazing strides while our transportation is moving backwards (note the discontinuation of service on the SST transports - the faster-then-sound commercial planes). There is no way to foretell what tomorrow will bring.
And to try and steer there this slightly back on-topic, all of this has lead me down an interesting train-of-thought: If society/civilization collapses in, say, 20-50 years, what will survive?
We have 'printed books' from as far back the early Chinese Empires and ancient Sumeria, but if we do not make physical records of our current civilization how will others know we existed? Wood and metal buildings will be gone in a few hundred years - we do not build out of stone much anymore.
Which of course brings me full-circle to the idea that civilizations far more advanced then us could have existed in the distant past, and we would have very little record of them... if they were a lot like us. 10,000 years from now future-folk may be looking at things like Mt.Rushmore and the Washington Monument and trying to figure-out what type of people built them.
Will we have left enough of a physical legacy for others to know we were ever here? 
The reliance on computers and electronic media scares the bejesus out of me - all it would take is one good solar flare to nuke us into the stone age. Hold onto your books, folks -they may become the most valuable commodity in existence. |
| Dennis |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 15:04:57
quote:
Originally posted by Marc
What if they discover technology to pour information into your head, would you still read?
That's a very long shot... |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 14:55:02
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
They don't even print physical phone books for my city anymore.
Gods, I wish that was the case down here... We get 2 or 3 phone books a year from competing directories. |
| Marc |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 11:43:49
What if they discover technology to pour information into your head, would you still read? |
| Dennis |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 07:37:18
I don't think physical books will ever be obsolete. [I spoke with Zalathorn before the Spellplague. He saw much into the future, and this was one of them: Many people would still read physical books, despite the ubiquity of their electronic counterparts.] |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 06:57:50
Picard once also mentioned Fermat's Last Theorem as being unsolved. The theorem was indeed solved with a formal proof in following years, showing that yesterday's view of tomorrow is not always accurate ... how much worse for today's view of the day following that?
Agreed, eBooks are an alternative, one that won't ever go away, everybody better get used to it.
The question is how long will tree-Books stay around? We have loved books for many centuries ... but few other analog recording methods have survived the evolution of digital supremacy. I have the sneaky suspicion that we'll stop seeing fiction on paper within a few decades, the only physical books remaining in print will be university texts, collector's editions, and endless manuals about governmental bureaucracy. They don't even print physical phone books for my city anymore. |
| Marc |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 06:49:24
When the electronic paper starts to feel less synthetic then the books will be replaced. |
| sfdragon |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 06:22:12
no.. there will always be books.
things in life, never ends; they only transform.
In Star Trek the next generation, Captian Picard was seen with an actual book. at least one or two episodes.
and he was also seen reading a novel off the sub space library( aka a supped up form of the interent).
Ebooks is not the future, nor is it the present or past.
it is nothing more than an alternative.
Borderes did itself in.... and Amazon is a monopoly |
| Dennis |
Posted - 04 Sep 2011 : 05:02:08
All of us in the family are book-lovers. We each have our own personalized library, and one which we call our "main library," which holds most of our favorite books in various genres. It runs in the blood, I guess. |
| Old Man Harpell |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 21:32:32
quote:
Originally posted by Thelonius
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Yoss
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
"Isn't it sad that my children won't even know what books were?"
Man, words don't really express how much I hate that sentiment, however true it will eventually be.
My grandkids will know what books are, but that's likely because I'll be holding on to mine as long as I can!
My thoughts exactly, I plan to force them to make an Inmersion into the Realms, if I do it right they'll end up teaching me. 
Amen. Our house is quite literally stuffed with books, and my game books take up literally four full bookcases, plus 16 large boxes of the game books I have no more shelf space for (because those other shelves are full of...other kinds of books).
My son is 19, in college, and since he isn't a Candlekeep scribe, I can say that he's a better DM than I am (if listening to his friends rave about his games is any indicator). I know that he'll keep passing down the love of the printed page through the generations - I just have to keep collecting more books for him to pass down. |
| Thelonius |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 15:48:52
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Yoss
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
"Isn't it sad that my children won't even know what books were?"
Man, words don't really express how much I hate that sentiment, however true it will eventually be.
My grandkids will know what books are, but that's likely because I'll be holding on to mine as long as I can!
My thoughts exactly, I plan to force them to make an Inmersion into the Realms, if I do it right they'll end up teaching me. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 15:35:55
quote:
Originally posted by Yoss
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
"Isn't it sad that my children won't even know what books were?"
Man, words don't really express how much I hate that sentiment, however true it will eventually be.
My grandkids will know what books are, but that's likely because I'll be holding on to mine as long as I can! |
| Yoss |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 14:33:53
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
"Isn't it sad that my children won't even know what books were?"
Man, words don't really express how much I hate that sentiment, however true it will eventually be. |
| Bladewind |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 14:28:27
Heh, I got a lot of books for free from a colleague of mine saying the very same thing! |
| Marc |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 12:45:46
No Borders here, but once I got from another group about 100 books for 200 dollars. They were too ''grown up'' and quit playing haha |
| Markustay |
Posted - 03 Sep 2011 : 04:59:14
There's nothing like walking into a bookstore or library and holding some cherished novel in your own hands, feeling the covers and turning the pages...
I think I was more upset when my own collection was lost that it wasn't just gone from me, but rather, gone forever. I would have actually preferred if it was all stolen, so there was some chance that someone, somewhere would get the same joy out of all that neat stuff that I did.
The end of Borders rubs salt in a wound not yet healed.
My 20-year-old was with me when I made my purchases (in fact, I had gone there FOR him), and he said "Isn't it sad that my children won't even know what books were?"
Out of the mouths of babes.... |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 02 Sep 2011 : 21:05:15
I have nothing pleasant to say about Amazon. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 02 Sep 2011 : 20:18:43
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
On the down side, I am upset to see yet another death-knell for printed books.
From what I've read, ebooks are only a small part of what killed Borders. They made a lot of bad decisions, such as using Amazon as their online bookstore* and building lots of new large stores when existing large stores were bleeding money. They also went thru a lot of CEOs in a short amount of time.
*Borders did eventually do their own online presence, but not until Amazon was already firmly entrenched as the online bookseller. |
| Artemas Entreri |
Posted - 02 Sep 2011 : 20:13:28
Borders had it coming by refusing to take a more active part in the online book selling game. No big surprises at the outcome |
| Thelonius |
Posted - 02 Sep 2011 : 19:43:28
Always sad to see such things happens, a library in here went through the same short ago and I know how you feel. The excitement for getting so many low prize good original books, was shadowed for the fact I wouldn't be able to go there to get some more any more. |
