179
Posted on July 20, 2017 at 12:00 am by Gene Ambaum
↓ Transcript
Grant: There’s nothing wrong with people who don’t read books.
Martin: Says the nonreader.
Grant: I read. I just prefer books in a different format.
Martin: A book in any other format is no longer a book.
Grant: These two books are the same!
Martin: We’ve been over this before. That doesn’t smell like a book or feel like one.
Grant: They’re the same thing!
Martin: Here’s a picture of a chicken burger. Eat it for lunch and then we’ll see if you’re still hungry.
Martin: Says the nonreader.
Grant: I read. I just prefer books in a different format.
Martin: A book in any other format is no longer a book.
Grant: These two books are the same!
Martin: We’ve been over this before. That doesn’t smell like a book or feel like one.
Grant: They’re the same thing!
Martin: Here’s a picture of a chicken burger. Eat it for lunch and then we’ll see if you’re still hungry.
7 thoughts on “179”
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Text is text, it doesn’t have to be on paper.
Personally I prefer screens because they’re easier to read in an otherwise unlit (or inadequately lit) room. Not to say books are bad, screens are just more convenient.
Once, on a train, I was reading on my Kindle. The person next to me commented that they just hated to see someone “betraying books” like that. I tried to explain that I absolutely love books, and that this was a convenient format for travel. After a little more betrayal talk, I also told them it was worse that they thought–I am a librarian : )
It’s curious that this comic shows that Martin doesn’t care that much about the actual content of books… which could go weird ways compared to how do you interact with people, appearances and personalities, and all that.
yeah,now he is getting too hung up on the physical format of “book” vs the content. While I prefer paper at home, I can also carry quite a few in my phone for whenever I am stalled outside somewhere and have a few minutes to kill
Gaius:”Scrolls! Scrolls are REAL!”
Scipio:”But a codex is so easy to pack and carry about.”
Gaius:”You don’t need to carry a scroll about — you read them in the library.”
I can imagine a dialog like that circa 400-500 AD as the bound book, or codex, became popular compared to scrolls.
People who think that books can only exist on tattooed dead trees are confusing the plate for the meal. A ‘book’ is the words, the meal, it’s what fills you up. The tattooed dead trees are just what that meal is served on. Him showing the guy a picture of a chicken burger on an eReader would nourish him just as much as a picture of a chicken burger in the dead tree variety.
For me personally, it’s the difference between having well made sandwich, and having some fast food. Both have their place, but the well-made sandwich is going to make me feel better in the whole experience. I’d never put down anther person for their choice of reading, though (aloud, I really am more like Martin than is safe…)