Old Fashioned - or just different? (part 4)

A friend and I were reminiscing about days gone by - when we were in that dangerous teenage phase (i.e. driver licenses) when I realized that one of things that I am trying to hold onto are the things that I enjoyed growing up.

(I still find it hard to believe that this year is my 20th High School reunion. I am going to it - but I am not trying to lose weight or re-grow hair ahead of it)

But one of the things that I have done - is to search out books that I enjoyed reading back then - and if I don't have them - add them to my collection and read. Maybe once or twice - sometimes over and over again. My home-office - has nearly floor to ceiling bookcases on the only two walls it has. And they are basically full - of mostly paperbacks, but a couple of rows of hardbacks. And the Office Manager (wife) has said - no double stacking. So my space has reached its limit.

So you wonder where this is all going? How does it relate to 'Old Fashioned?'

Well - a couple of the books I had bought about a year ago - included CD's with previous books in those series - Star Wars and Star Trek - as PDF's on the CD.

- "Why do you want to read a book on your computer?"

- Well - why do you want to listen to a song or watch a movie on your PC?

- Because you are addicted to your PC - and can't stand to move away from it for any longer than necessary.

And you can read the book on a PDA (damn - I love Adobe Acrobat) - in the middle of a meeting - when you really don't need to be paying attention.

DISCLAIMER - read a book on your PDA in the middle of your BOSS's meeting - AT YOUR OWN RISK. Just because someone told you that you could do it on-line - doesn't mean that it is right. Or have you given your personal info to that African banker yet - in hopes that he will send you the money he has been able to smuggle out of the country under your name? HA! HA! HA!

So - what is the REAL advantage of having books as PDF - portability and storage. How much space does 13 paperbacks take up? How much does one CD? For that matter - how much space do 13 PDF files take up? Give up? 39 MB. I put the whole set on my SD card - in my test PDA - and have the whole set ready to be perused in the middle of a boring meeting.

But - what about when you don't have power - excellent point. I'll take a paperback over PDF file - esp on a long flight - stuck back in coach where they don't have power outlets.

BTW - if you want to try out PDF reading - look for this book - Star Trek: New Frontiers - Stone and Anvil (by Peter David). This was the one I bought and it came w/ the bonus CD (of all of the previous books in the series). Peter David is an excellent Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer - who has dabbled here and there, and created this whole 'sector' if you will - in Star Trek as his playland.