It's funny that I don't talk more about books here considering how much reading I do. Not a day goes by when I don't read a e-book or a paperback or a hardcover, and my daily round trip commute gives me at least an hour of reading, regardless of what else is on my schedule. My brother John once asked me if I read while eating - I laughed and replied, "John, I read while I'm brushing my teeth."
However, I'm not buying as many books as I used to. Part of the problem is the fact that I'm out of shelf space again - it's not just a case of buying another shelf, I need to reconfigure my apartment in order to find room for that new shelf.
I'm also torn between on-line shopping and the more limited opportunities of retail outlets. The down side of physical book shopping is that, quite frankly, I no longer remember each and every book that I own. This has not been helped by the e-book phenomenon, which has resulted in confusion between books I own on paper, downloaded, or which I may have borrowed from someone to read and never owned myself. As a result, I sometimes find myself purchasing books that I already own, which is counterproductive. Online shopping allows me to check possible purchases against existing stock, so to speak.
Unfortunately, I seem to experience some sort of basic disconnect in the online browsing experience. Something in the manner that Amazon in particular has set up its system completely disagrees with the way in which my mind processes information - or at least the way that it browses for books.
All other issues aside, unless I'm missing something incredibly basic on their website, they won't let me look at their inventory in alphabetical order! I realize that alphabetical order is an obsolete holdover from the pre-digital age, but you know, Amazon, I think you'll find that a lot of people still sort their books by author's name. In fact, you still do it in your stores. Would it really be that hard to add a "Sort by author" to the options?
Oh, and if anyone's curious, I'll be happy to do a posting on how to brush your teeth while holding a book and turning the pages with the other hand - but trust me, don't try it while you're shaving, there are some things you really do need to watch in the mirror.
- Sid
Perhaps it is time to make a catalogue of your library, complete with ones that have been 'checked out' and ones that have holds on them...
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the fact that Amazon's online experience is totally unsatisfactory. Browsing for books online just isn't the same as in the book store or library. That said not sure as I have come up with a better solution.
ReplyDeleteShopping for books on Amazon is a strange experience. The initial results of a search by author are sorted by relevance but there will be books co-authored with others before you see the authors most famous works. Also, some strange "shopping enabled wikipedia" link thrown in there. You can sort your results by popularity but those results are even more confusing. When sorting a search of Zelazny by popularity the first book that comes up is "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Phillip K. Dick! Wha?
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that twenty years from now small children will point and laugh at us in the street because we don't like the Amazon approach to book browsing - it will mark us as old-fashioned as surely as if we were walking around in bell-bottoms and afros.
ReplyDeleteThe alternative? Good question. I still think that a straight alphabetical sort isn't such a bad thing, but let's see if we can be a little more innovative.
Maybe some kind of more graphical interface, something more like an iPad interface where users could swipe across cover art? I'd certainly like to see a more visual approach, it would sadden me greatly to see science fiction and fantasy cover illustrations go the way of album artwork.
- Sid