He hit so hard, I saw stars

I once had a long discussion with my French tutor about online books. Only it was him doing all the talking and me smiling and saying Je ne sais pas because I had no fucking clue what he was on about. I am most proud of that C. To pass a language you cannot speak is a marvelous thing.

Point is the only thing I did manage to say was that I prefer to own a book. I mean the downloading age is fantastic, legality issues aside. Anything you want you can find somewhere. Radiohead offered their album for whatever anyone felt like paying. Trent Reznor is offering his next album for free in a range of different formats. With downloadable pdf sleevenotes. Melissa Auf Der Maur talked about giving away her next album for free too but it looks like some sort of insane comic/album/short film concept whatsit.

I download a lot of music. Mostly because it's hard to find half the stuff in shops that isn't a ridiculous price. It was an awful awful time when Fopp shut. I've been shopping in there back when you said Fopp and people thought you were talking gibberish. Oh my mainstream friends, how I longed for them to get some sense and listen to less Blue.

Reading books online is what poverty has reduced me to. And I'm using poverty loosely because I don't pay for half the things that keeps me alive. I feel kinda guilty reading stuff for free. It's like stealing words. Saying that I'm not going to stop because dammit books ain't cheap. This morning I read Chuck Palahniuk Guts despite Joe telling me the story before anyway. Last week I read The Laughing Man by Salinger and I'm slowly working through Woolf's Night and Day and Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. I just know if I actually had a copy to hold I could work a lot faster. Not that I'm doing any better with the books I do own but I do try.

Amazon's got this new toy.Kindle. It's a wireless reading device. Basically you buy an online book, it downloads to the thing and you read it. No more need for bulky books! No papercuts! No more knocking yourself out at night with weighty hardbacks! I don't know if these are its actual claims but I got pretty good marks in marketing in high school. Ok so it's revolutionary. It's environmentally friendly I'd imagine. It's handy and shiny and new and depresses me. It eliminates the need for bookshelves. That is where I show off my literature tastes!

Pfft to this technology age I say as I type my two hundred odd post on gorram Blogger. Pfffffft.