I came across these books for sale at a brocante and I could not help thinking "how long before books disappear from flea markets and brocantes?!" For yes people, Amazon has just started selling its Kindle in France ? (If you don't know what the Kindle is, check here). Of course I'm exagerating. There will be books - I mean real ones! - on sale in the street for a long time, but I'm pretty sure that in 50 years or so, people will find it amusing that "back then" people had to go to a bookshop to buy a book and they could not even perform a search, and wait, they had little cute bookmarks to remember which page they were at!". BTW, I'm sure you're dying to know the result of yesterday's survey. So just click here!
Love this one--reminds me of seeing all of the book sellers along the river.
ReplyDeleteBells are ringing in my head! This photo immediately reminded me of all of the houses that were giving BOOKS away this Halloween instead of candy.
ReplyDeleteIt was an organized event called "Books for Treats," and they take donations.
http://www.booksfortreats.org/index.html
The kids were thrilled and took their time picking out just the right book out of the boxes. They weren't shabby old left-overs, either. They were relatively new books complete with one of those old-fashioned bookmarks sticking out.
Eric, I'm not surprised one bit that the Champ De Mars in the Snow is the winner. It is perfection, even without the ET ET ET.
Nothing is as good as a good book. Well, almost nothing. And you can't do either one with a machine.
ReplyDeleteWow, Suzy - books for treats! What a great idea! I love old books, the way they feel and even the way they smell. I fear I'll never be a Kindler because of that.
ReplyDeleteThis photo makes me remember being at the booksellers near the Porte St. Denis with crowds of people meandering around under a grey Paris sky and the smell of rain in the air.
I'm sad to think books might one day be replaced. I love the feel of books, give me the hard stuff any time. Er...
ReplyDeleteI saw someone on the bus reading a Kindle. It's thin enough to fit in a purse or bag, but it's stiff, like looking at cardboard. I read constantly and as a consequence my small apartment is overflowing with books, so a Kindle would cut down on clutter. But .... I love the feel and look of a book so I'll keep buying them or getting them from the library.
ReplyDeleteNice evocative photo, Eric.
P.S. - Suzy - that's a great idea for Trick or Treat!
Oh, I miss shopping at brocantes in Europe, and especially for books. I still treasure my very old copy of Le roman de la rose that I bought from a brocante in Lille a couple of years ago. Memories...
ReplyDeleteNevine
I have books in every room of my house! (Wait, maybe there isn't one in the bathroom. lol!) I'm sure I'll always have books but one day I'll have a Kindle as well.
ReplyDeleteInstead of shipping them to Paris with me when I move (someday!), I'll have to rent a climate controlled storage locker. One day my nephews will have either a great library or a massive bonfire!
p.s. I love the calendar choices!
I think your photo "Yummy" should have gotten more than 39 votes. I voted for it! You must have at least one photo in your Paris calendar of the food from Paris. Paris is famous for food!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting the results of yesterday's poll! Must admit, my apartment is overflowing with books. On the one hand, I love every one of them. On the other hand, my apartment is overflowing with books! I have 2 good friends who each have a Kindle and absolutely love it. I'm resisting for now, but it's probably just a matter of time. I feel you, Wren (and I have books even in my bathroom)—but I'm definitely planning to ship a lot of my books to Paris when I move there. When my kids inherit my library, I hope they'll at least keep the signed first editions! (I'm pretty sure they'll keep all the books about Paris, because they love the city as much as I do.)
ReplyDeleteBy now you probably know that "lilascott" is really me, Alexa (and not my daughter, who has taken over my computer). Zut, alors!
ReplyDeleteI think a kindle is good for traveling, so you don't have to carry a lot of books. But there's nothing like a library or a bookshop.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't make the survey work yesterday, Eric. Is it too late to vote for the boy in the fountain spray? I love that one.
I love all the colors of the books. Books at a brocante are just dreamy.
ReplyDeleteBarnes & Noble just unveiled "the nook," the company's plan to "one-up" the Kindle. However, I don't know whether they have any plans to sell nooks in France.
I'm all for finding ways to encourage reading, but I need to see and touch books. I do hope that books and bookshops endure forever.
A wonderful shot. I can smell the books.
ReplyDeleteDon't have a Kindle yet but am wanting one, yet that doesn't make sense since I love books. Our local library has recently instituted a new e-book "check-out" using Sony's product. I guess Amazon isn't allowing Kindle into the library scene, understandable since it's been in competition with libraries since its inception!
Kindling in the UK is small pieces of wood to start off your fire. How have they chosen kindle as a name for this thing? What does it mean elsewhere in the world?
ReplyDeleteNo to the kindle! It's a debate we already had here but I didn't change my mind, I WILL NEVER exchange my good old book, used, sticky or falling apart for a Kindle!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope we will always be able to buy books in bookshops, and even more to find books in the streets. It's such a great feeling when you find exactly the book you want around the corner, after having been looking for it in each library of Paris... ;)
I wondered the same thing, Lynn. Kindle has the same meaning here in the US - to start or begin something that may grow bigger, so we can kindle a fire or a romance! I only know it as a verb.
ReplyDelete*...bigger. So, we...*
ReplyDeleteI don't think book will disappear, but newspapers? Oh, I love holding a copy of The Guardian or The Observer under my arm. Good photo.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
I may be a Luddite, but can you write notes in the margin of an electronic device? Toss the thing into your suitcase from across the room? Write the phone number or e-address of the person you met sitting at the next table? Can you keep your postcards in a Kindle? Does a paper book contain heavy metals that are 'distilled' over a campfire by Chinese villagers living in poverty whose local officials take money for dumping of electronics? How many electonic gizmos do I need? We buy too much crap already.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see there will always be booklovers like myself :-) I just may buy a kindle for travel and reading in bed (on my back, always holding up heavy books).
ReplyDeleteOne of my treasured possessions is a copy of Jane Eyre purchased at the Puces des Vanvres for 1E.
And great results on the poll! All my picks were winners! Can't wait for the calendar :-)
Ok, maybe I missed the PDP discussion of this, but what about the new McDonald's in the Carrousel du Louvre? A story I read referred to the possible smell of fried food wafting into the museum, under the Mona Lisa's nose.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Jeff. Seriously, is nothing sacred??
ReplyDeleteI also love the feel of a book in my hand. But...
ReplyDeleteBe it stone, parchment, a book or the kindle. It's really about reading, enjoying a story, the ability to learning something new or something from the past. That is what is important here.
I believe any thing that allows or encourages a child or any age group to read is a very good thing.
Past to present to future... change.
Jeff, people still write notes [a phone number or an e-address]. Maybe not in the margin of a book, but instead in the comments section of a blog. Electronics are not so bad, otherwise how would you meet all these wonderful people of PDP? I can imagine people in the past saying "Why cut down a beautiful tree {for paper} for a book?". Lol.
It's all in how you look at it. The message is still there, just the form has changed. There is noting wrong with the kindle if it gets people reading again. ~V
You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something. ~H.G. Wells
Jeff, I heard about that McD's opening up at the Louvre. The smell alone will kill the upscale atmosphere. Isn't there a satisfying alternative out there?
ReplyDeleteMy husband was devastated to see a McDonald's erected in the town where he was born - Neufchateau. He refuses to patronize it of course, but I'm guessing he'll succumb when we bring our youngest daughter to France and she refuses to eat anything else.
OMG, Suzy, you feed McD to your child here? Pas tartare et pommes frites? Pas croque monsieur? Baguette et Bologne sandwich?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I have to agree about the McDouvre.
ReplyDeleteSuzy, I leave this to you, but maybe you can get him not to succumb by watching a quick rental of Supersize Me.
ReplyDeleteI say it because, for me, at least, after watching it, I could never go back in again.
Wait until you see Microsoft's Secret Tablet.
ReplyDeleteJeff, my youngest has never been to France. She's perpetually "in training" for it though. If you could her to try any of those things before we go, I will pay you $1000. Cash.
ReplyDeleteCarrie, I don't blame you. Awful awful things in that movie.
Ooh, Suzy can I try?! : ) Hmm - maybe even 2 or 3 of those things?!! Recesssion and all, you know! ; )
ReplyDeleteI haven't purchased a Kindle, although was sorely tempted. I've learned with new technology to wait until the 3rd or 4th edition of things when the price goes down and the bugs are worked out :-). But, I did get the iPhone app for Kindle and downloaded a book. I was surprised how readable it was even on a tiny iPhone screen. I'm sure the Kindle is a pleasure in comparison, but the iPhone ap works fine for me. I'm with Petrea, in that libraries and bookstores are fave haunts that I couldn't live without.
ReplyDeleteETSuzy, I had one of those kids, too. We found great success in trying a variety of things out of her comfort zone if we engaged her in helping prepare them. Moosewood has a cook book for kids that she adored. A few of her school friends' parents were chefs or in the restaurant business in Berkeley, so when she went to sleepovers she got an eyeful of what good food can be and got interested in trying everything. Good luck!
-Kim
Oh I hope books don't disappear. I love technology. But I have a real love affair with books. Love holding one and turning the pages.
ReplyDeleteA kindle would be good for travel as has been mentioned before, but call me old fashioned................
ReplyDeleteMaybe books won't completely disappear seeing as we all feel the same.
Glad you liked the ideas of Books For Treats! I stared it in 2001 after I'd gotten such good response to my own trick or treaters for 5 years. Yes, kids love to pick a book for their treat -- and their parents love it to!
ReplyDeleteIf you'd like to give books to your trick-or-treaters, we have a free downloadable kit for how to do it at www.BooksForTreats.org
Rebecca Morgan
Founder, Books For Treats
I love ebooks, say what you may, there is no beating the convenience of buying and owning books on the Kindle. The touchy feeliness of books is great, but I care more for the contents of the book and if I can pull out a book on my tiny iPod kindle app when I am waiting at the doctor's or at my kid's tennis class, there is nothing like having a choice of books to read all in a small device. Also save some trees in the process.
ReplyDeleteWhat would really be neat is to have kindle books in all languages, so that buying french books from amazon.fr is a breeze instead of paying hefty fees for shipping and waiting for days for them to arrive.