Thursday, January 17, 2008

pinions of buddy don: steven jobs splains how i am not a people


tuther day i wuz readin sumthin steven jobs had to say bout me, witch twuz his way of attackin one of his cumpetitors or lease whut he mite coulda thunk wuz a cumpetitor sum kinda way. heres whut he sed, frum a articull in the new york times:
Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading.

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
i wood lack to set ye strate on sumthin: people still lacks to read. i know it fer a fack on a counta i leave outta the apartmint ever mornin n git on the bus to ride over to man hattan, witch that thar bus is chock full of folk a'readin thar books with thar em pee three player earphone in thar ears.

so mayhap thays a minorty of folk that dont read but a book ever year. that dont mean that people dont read, only that sum of em dont.

as fer readin, heres sum of the books i been a'readin lately, witch ye mite wonta check em out yer ownself:
  1. The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B. Jansen. i tuck to readin thisn on a counta them waka i wuz ast to rite fer a dojo. mosly whut they wonted wuz sum waka in english that had sum of the sam meanin as them that wuz writ by the Japanese Emperor Meiji, who he writ over 100,000 of em. that gut me to wundern about im n whut kinda worl he cum frum, n nex thang ye know, i wuz hip deep in modurn japanese histry writ by a feller that started out in ww2 a fitin agin em as a translater. tiz a verr mazin tale, witch it led me to read a trillogy of novels bout the tokugawa period in japanese histry.

  2. them three books together is calld The Tales of The Otori: Across the Nightengale Floor, Grass for His Pillow, and Brilliance of the Moon, all three by a woman name of Lian Hearn, witch thats the fake name she uses n dont nobidy know yet whut her real name is, or ifn they duz, i couldnt find nuthin bout it. i will say that even ifn ye dont much lack to read, ye wont be able to putt these down ifn ye once git started.

  3. i have now cummenced a nuther trillogy on a counta readin bout a movie made frum it over on anne johnsons site, The Gods Are Bored. ye mite coulda dun herd bout em, witch they wuz writ by a feller name of Philip Pullman. the trillogy is calld His Dark Materials n cummence with a book name of The Golden Compass. bout alls i kin say bout thisn is ifn ye read the furst 30 pages, ye a'gone have ye a hard time stoppin. ye mite dun alreddy herd bout how that thar furst book has won mos ever prize thay is fer books that kids mite wonta read, n much as i gut lots of pleashure frum the harry potter books, fer my money, thisn is much better with more to thank on. aint no doubt i will finish these three n then carry on to read otherns.
fack is, folks lacks to read, even if mr jobs claims they dont. as proof, here sum more books i red lately n thank ye mite could lack:
  1. Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons—science fickshun that lanks in tales as old as the iliad an oddyssy.

  2. also by Dan Simmons, a fine sci-fi riter, i read a tetrallgy that wuz more fun than disnyland: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. i doubt ye kin find better ritin innywhar, whuther tiz science fickshun or not.

  3. The Hard-Boiled Virgin by Francis Newman, a verr suttle kinda book that mite not seem lack much at furst, but by the end, ye know ye dun herd the voice of a grate critick of the place n lifestile of women in the south at the beginnin of the 20th centry.

  4. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin—probly the best science fickshun novel n one of the best novels of inny kind i ever red, tho it dont grab ye the way sum lesser wurks mite could do.

  5. Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, all by Orson Scott Card, witch the furst book is amazin tho to me they seem to git a lil less with each one.

  6. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd: i pickt thisn up at one of them book sales by the side of the rode, witch i had herd of it but dint know much bout it, so i figgerd i wood give it a try n it wuz shore wurth the effort! whut a fine book tiz.
point is, people still reads, even if mr jobs aint figgerd it out.

corse, i dont thank i will git to the point of readin a book frum a kindle no time soon on a counta i jes luv the feel of a real book. the smell of the pages, the look of it once i am dun with it, the notes i kin make in the margins n so furth.

i wunder, duz innybidy else read? twood be a blessin to me ifn ye wood add mitt it in a commint n say whut book ye red lately that ye really lacked a lot, witch i pall gize bout that commint moderayshun, but seems them lank spammers lacks to use this site fer thar vile lil lanks.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just finished "A Confederacy of Dunces". Yeah. I know the book is damn near 30 years old but it is a classic.

"No Country for Old Men" was wonderful too. Have not seen the movie but I am sure it cannot compare to the book. Cormac McCarthy is great. "The Road" was a great book.

Read "On The Road" (Kerouac of course) a couple of weeks ago.

I can't imagine not reading. Reading is something that I cannot even remember learning how to do. It seems I have just always known how. I feel for people who can't or don't read.

The popularity of blogs shows that people still read. Maybe they just don't read books.

red molly said...

I don't read a whole lot of books in one year but I typically always have a book going. Right now I am reading The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin which I am enjoying very much. I was delighted when I finished your book list and there was at least one book on the list that I have read. Is the Secret Life of Bees and I agree it was a fine book. Mr. Red Molly has at least a half dozen books he is reading at one time. He reads everywhere even when he is walking downtown to go to a lunch place or the library. I guess that kind of balances us out on our reading. Last year or so I read a manuscript written by a favorite blogger and it was very good. Nice post.

Tennessee Jed said...

My fifteen year old daughter reads more than I ever have, and my wife always has a novel in her hand. Me on the other hand I hardly ever read a novel, but I do enjoy reading bloggers, news and conspiracy stuff.

Anne Johnson said...

i jes finnished a book called gray magic an it sure wuz interestin. Fac wuz i coud hardly put it down. i also jes red a book called twilight by william gay, and bd you wood jes love william gay, but read dark meterials furst.

i always say, if i caint read no more, pull the damn plug.

Anonymous said...

"Maiden Voyage" by Tania Abei. A 17 year old girl sails around the world solo on a 24 ft. sailboat in the mid-80s. The first leg was NY to Bermuda. This was before GPS and she couldn't use her sextant, so she hailed nearby ships on the radio to find out where she was and eventually found Bermuda. If you can imagine yourself as a young girl out there on the ocean alone with no experience, the entire book will keep you on the edge of your seat.