When I bought my iPad, I had no intention of buying any e-books whatsoever; I stare at a screen all day, I have a huge collection of “traditional” books, and actually, I like the experience of reading a “real” book. But when I downloaded the iBooks app and saw the Winnie the Pooh book that comes with it, sitting there, all by its lonesome, I knew I had to download more books to fill all that empty shelf space. Plus, I started reading Pooh and liked the experience – the pictures were big, colorful and vivid, the bookmarking feature was nice, the page-turning animation was neat, as was the built-in dictionary and “search” option. I soon started sampling a few free books, like Homer’s The Odyssey, Poe’s Complete Poetical Work and Shakespeare’s Complete Works. Yes: All free, but have since moved on to downloading samples from a large number of books for sale, all just waiting for me to hit the “buy” button once I’ve sampled the 30-70 pages they’ve dangled in front of me. I’m still not sure what book I’m going to read through entirely via the iPad, though. Stephenson’s Snow Crash seemed appropriate, but it wasn’t available in the iBooks store, so naturally, I had to download the Kindle app (which works on the iPad), where I found the book, but then had to download even more books so that it wouldn’t be lonely on the Kindle app’s home screen. *sigh* I shudder to think what will happen if there are books that can only be downloaded via the Nook or Sony eReader.
FIRST
Yes I stayed up til 3am to watch this drop
And I would only be inclined to get an eReader if someone bought one for me. and the Kindle can get to wikipedia and is as close to the Hitchhiker’s Guide that we’re going to get. I like the weight, feel and smell of a real book. and bookstores are wayy too much fun for me.
And the Illiad and the Odyssey are really good, but I don’t suggest trying to read BOTH in two and a half weeks…. -glares at last semesters Classics course-
thanks for staying up, DJ!
love the Kindle (i don’t have one but i’ve played with my friends’ on multiple occasions) and would definitely recommend it to anyone who just wants an eBook reader (although i think the iPad is closer to the Hitchhiker’s Guide than anything invented yet, as said by the voice of the Guide itself, Stephen Fry), but i agree that there’s something about the weight, feel and smell of real books that i’m not ready to give up on yet. i’m going to give the iPad a try by reading an entire book on it, but i doubt i’m going to be giving up my personal library of “real” books anytime soon.
and being an English major, i totally feel your pain re: crunch-reading of classic works. glad i don’t have to do that anymore. 🙂
the shades of firstliness are all yours this time, DJ! 😀
—
edit: okay, you get two shades, DJ, cuz i put the happy face instead of the sunglasses and didn’t notice ’til three days later.
😎 😎
… you forgot the shades. lol
ha! i musta been more tired than i thought when i posted that comment, Animie fan. 😛
HAHAHAHAHA, YOU DID AGAIN JB. Those red eyes and the “slowly move”.
The technology is VERY addictive. I remember with my first Visa or my first time in the Web, I was thinking: I will use it only occasionally not very often .. and now it is impossible not to use them constantly.
I write this at 10:30 am in Spain.
glad you got a laugh from the strip, ContableEnorme!
ha! i remember thinking that very same thing when i received my first checkbook, and later, a visa card. took me several years to pay off that debt! heheh. still have a huge list of “saved for later” items in my Amazon.com shopping cart, but now i only let myself buy one or two items from it occasionally. 🙂
10:30am in Spain – incredible! as a kid, if i had known i would be putting my work on the web and corresponding with someone across the world about it near-instantaneously, my little mind would of been blown.
I just vote for you JB, you win 88 vs 87 now. BANZAI.
gracias, CE! looks like i won my bracket in that first round, thanks to the support of JEFbot readers like yourself! 😀
Brilliant! I love the rage and passion in the last frame!! You’re eyes are perfect.
It’s so true too- yesterday I got stuck in the Mac store for two hours. Love it!
The color in this weeks strip is beautiful! Well done Jefbot!
thanks, Funnyshaffer! i’ve been lost for hours in many an Apple Store, Best Buy, Fry’s – you name it! so i completely understand. 🙂
OMG books. I want an iPad now.
Oh, and I loooove Jefbot’s eyes. red. crazy, crazy red.
when i read through an entire book on the iPad, i’ll post my thoughts about it in the blog, Jaeh, but yeah – the iBooks and Kindle apps make it SOOOoOOOoo easy to find a TON of reading material!
and yes – the more red bot has in his eyes, the more rage he has in his heart! 😉
i always suspected that winnie the poo was evil
heheh. funny, until recently, i always thought Piglet was the evil one, Oddbody.
Venturing out of lurkdom to say:
The first thing I thought after reading your notes was, “It’s not like books get lonely—there’s nothing wrong with just having o-o-one—”
I couldn’t even finish the thought—I think I had an actual withdrawl spasm.
Crawling back into the shadows now . . .
always happy to hear from those lurking in the shadows, Sarah W. and sorry ’bout the spasm, but that’s what you get for thinking such dark thoughts! 😉
I’ve had my iPad for nearly a month and a half, but I’ve resisted reading any books on it so far… I’m moving halfway around the world in a month and figured I’d better read as many of the paperbacks I have lying around so I don’t have to pack or repurchase them once I get to New York.
i shudder to even think about moving at this point, Kevin. lugging all my books, electronics, toys and comics is never an easy task, and since i’ve lived in the same place now for the past 5-6 years, i’ve accumulated even more stuff than from the last (difficult) move. and granted, moving “halfway around the world” is even more difficult (and costly!) in your case, but why wouldn’t you be bringing along those paperbacks, even if you HAVE read them already!? don’t you know they’ll be lonely and sad when you leave them behind? 🙁
have fun in the big apple!
…Jef I told you to stop drinking the Ulta-energy drink. That volatile mix of almost pure caffiene and sugar can, and almost killed the research team. Poor bastard was vomiting for hours, hallucinations of Winnie the Pooh being a meth dealer are new though. I should write down that extended exposure leads to general madness. And, FALLOUT LAS VEGAS BABY!!!! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA… I can’t wait
okay, i’ll try and stop downing the energy drinks, but i don’t know if that’s gonna end my crack-bear visions, Animie fan. 😉
i’m not even CLOSE to finishing Fallout 3, yet! aagh! i’m so behind!
-jaw drop scene- Seriously?
seriously. i have a huge pile of unplayed and unfinished games, Af. i think Fallout 3 is right between Assassin’s Creed II and Fable II. 😛
Well hellllooooo everyone!
Sorry it took me so long to get back. This move had to be the worst one I’ve ever dealt with in my life. In all My *coughcough* years, this was hands down the Nightmare on Move Street!
I’m all caught up now through a haze of no sleep and work. LOVE the look on JeffBot’s face and CF’s responses. Missed this!
welcome back, Pix! i missed you over here! sorry to hear your move was such a nightmare, but glad it’s all over with now and no major injuries or deaths occurred, right? right??
it’s good to have you back. now get some rest! 😀
I loove how Jefbot is grabbing Cornfather’s face…hahahaha…You can almost hear the smushyfaced talk “Are youb shpeakink fromb exberience” hahahaha!!
Oh flame on raging Jefbot!!
glad you liked the smooshy face, ESQ! i had originally written it with the “smushyfaced talk” but i felt it interrupted the flow of the strip, so i ended up changing it. after reading your smushy-talk, tho, i’m thinking of changing it back. hmmm…. 🙂
I downloaded the Aldiko ebook reader for my Cliq… I love traditional books and I have a HUGE collection, but I’ve found that reading books on my phone is great for when I’m on a train… or stuck waiting in an emergency room for 4 hours like this past Sunday. I still like the paper books better, but it’s nice sometimes not to have to carry one around, and it’s nice to not have to worry about having a light on to read.
yeah, no doubt eBooks are way more convenient for carrying multiple books around with you, Shay. makes sense to load a bunch on your phone.
now what, if i may ask, were you doing in an emergency room for 4 hours!? hope everything’s okay…
i’ll never be a E-book kind of guy.books are my “crack” if you will.my wife and i are huge readers (collectors) and our bookshelfs are lined with a mix of everything from fantasy to scifi to quantum physics to horror.it got so bad we started getting them from the library to cut down on expenses and and shelf room.it does help,but it’s like going to the methadone clinic.i always in up in the bookstore perusing the isles.with a cup of coffee in my hand,looking for my next “hit!”
i totally understand, t_d – i hit the bookstore at least once a week, just to look around and see if i’m missing anything in my huge collection of hard and softcover books, most of which are totally boxed up and hidden away. i really need to buy a house and make one of the rooms a library. one as big as the one the Beast had in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast would be preferable.
“Winnie the Pooh, you are found guilty of drug pushing and controlling the masses. I sentence yo-”
“Sir, he didn’t push any drugs. He made people buy more books on the iPad.”
“… It’s always capitalism.”
XD Sorry. Thought it was too funny.
heheh. that would make a nice addendum to today’s strip if you drew that scenario into a few panels, rinthia. 🙂
If only I had a computer’s drawing pad. Sadly, I don’t.
Hahahahahahaha!!! Very funny, bot. Only you could use Winnie the Pooh as a gateway “drug.” I love it. The colors, lines, and expressions are fantastic. I’m just glad you never caught me surfing for porn. That really gives a whole new meaning to the term, “iPad;” as in, “iPad myself all the time.” I know…I know…yep…I went there. 😉 Great strip, bot!!
please don’t go there ever again, MC. 😉
I just got the Nook app for my Android a few days ago, and I shopped all the free books. I now have a bunch of the classics and a few fantasy books that are probably terrible (why else would they be free?). I am going to see how I like it on the plane to lovely Peoria, IL next week. I have to go there for training. You *can* read them on the plane, right? I get the impression the book is actually downloaded and not streamed.
I love your red-eyes-of-rage in the last panel. Tee hee – “that little crack bear.” I’d venture a guess that this is the first time Pooh’s been called that. 😀
BTW, the purple in the background of the first panel is a truly awesome color.
i’ve had the same doubts about those free fantasy novels, Shanna. if you decide to take a chance on one, let me know what you think. heheh. and yeah, if your phone works the same as an iPhone or iPad, once you download the book, you shouldn’t need to have an internet connection to read it. have fun in Peoria!
glad you liked bot’s raging red eyes. and i thought that was a nice purple background, too. it was a combination of the texture and fill gradient, and came out just right. thanks!
crack bear!!! ;D
*blinks at the ebooks fever*
>_<
Not joinning, thank-you-very-much.
Just as the fact that I have no desire to have FaceBook/MySpace sites – being that I'm an antisocial sociopath *diabolical laugh of doom* – I also have no desire to read books through any LCD screen. I prefer and love regular books. Heck. Most of the stories I read in Fanfiction.net I print them to be able to read them!! I spend too much in front of the computer screen as it is to now read 300 pages or more on it!!! (Migraine anyone?!!)
Still, poor Michael. I wonder if Jef's order of "slowly move your finger away from the iPad" is just because of the ebook or because of the "nobody-touch-my-iPad" deal.
*diabolical laugh of doom*
you might give the Kindle or Nook a try if LCDs give you headaches, Sonitan – their e-ink screens look almost like paper, there’s no backlighting, and you can get ’em for pretty cheap nowadays. i agree with you about spending too much time in front of a computer screen, tho. that’s probably the reason i haven’t read a whole book on my iPad, yet.
and as far as jef’s order to the Cornfather goes: hmmm… i’d say “both.” 🙂
Omg! xDDD LMAO no one is gonna download winnie the pooh book or buy it EVEN ON IPAD!!! xDDDDD rolf!!!!! but it’s awesome thing that he have it {I’m saving money to buy one! o-o}
heheh. i probably should’ve made it more clear that the Winnie the Pooh book automatically comes with the iBooks app on the iPad, Alice C. i would’ve never bought/downloaded it myself, but since it was there, i just HAD to check it out. then i was hooked!
Hilarious! They must have a psychologist on staff to figure out how to hook you into buying more stuff — that’s brilliant!
with Apple, i wouldn’t doubt it, Stan!
You know what’s sad? The fact that online manga scans and webcomics have caused me to adapt to online material to the point that it is more natural for me to read comics online than in a physical format. If this problem continues, it may eventually spread to books becoming obsolete! Oddly enough, this reminds me of a webserial I enjoy called “Phantasia”. It’s now almost officially as long as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the author is currently taking a hiatus until September. Anyways, you should check it out.
so far, i can read webcomics and short articles online, NeoDarklight, but i can’t read anything longform yet, like novels or comic books. i think i just need more practice. i’ll definitely check Phantasia out though, the next time i’m on my iPad, although something as lengthy as LOTR sounds pretty daunting.
Great strip Bot! MY wife has been on a Pooh kick as of lately, quoting the stories in her Facebook status. My daughter is also a fan of the “Grand Adventure” movie in which Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Rabbit go searching for Christopher Robin.
What I don’t understand is, how did it become a gateway “drug” for you? Addicted to it like no other book? 😀
thanks, TCG! yeah, Pooh and friends are pretty cool – i especially loved them in Kingdom Hearts. never seen Grand Adventure, though.
and the Pooh e-book is only a gateway drug metaphorically – i’m enjoying the book, but i’m not trying to snort it or anything. 😉
The first thing I did when I got my Moto Droid was install the book reader. And it reads most ebook formats. So the first thing I loaded on it was Snow Crash. Seemed really fitting. I now have around 500 books in my pocket at all time. 🙂
Snow Crash is in the top 3 books in contention for e-reading, Aother Jeff! if it was in the iBooks store i’d already have it, as i’d rather read it there than using the Kindle app. i may give in, though. 🙂
500 books in your pocket = awesome.
hahaha. have an ebook reader on my iphone with classic books in it but i havent got to read it since the iphone i. my opinion is a bad ebook reader. jason bourne trilogy on my nokia n70 was better. dunno why though? well thats my two cents.
ps. could someone just smegging shoot winnie the pooh
my buddy at works says he reads stuff on his iPhone all the time, jf#300, and i don’t know how he does it. i agree with you – it’s not a great e-reader, but maybe my eyes just aren’t used to it.
and don’t mess with Pooh – he’ll cut you. 😉
Did you know that your iPad is compatible with any computer loaded with Windows 7? No software downloads needed. Compatibility with virtually anything is built right into the OS. Just plug in and go.
Ironically, Windows 7 was launched after Bill Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft.
P.S. If there are “i”‘s between brackets, it means that your comments don’t support BBCode.
i was wondering how compatible my iPad would be with PCs, Neo – thanks for letting me know. i’m starting to think about getting a new desktop computer, so if i go Windows 7, it’ll be a must that it work with the iPad.
yep, comments support BBCode. 🙂
You just dont want him to touch your iPad.
But once you uy an ebook you should read it. if for nothing else than to stop your feel of guilt gained from buying useless things.
that’s true, Maryz; the Cornfather needs to keep his greasy little chicken wing fingers away from that beautiful screen. 😉
yeah. if i end up buying an e-book, it’ll be to read through the whole thing. guilt sucks.
You know what, you could probably redo the dialog of the last panel to you being mad at Cornfather for touching your ipad and it would still be funny.
jefbot was a fool to let the Cornfather touch his iPad in the first place, Fijiman! this will be even more apparent in the next strip. 😀
Good life lesson: NEVER let ANYONE touch your shiny new toy, they’re likely to screw it up.
we’re in total agreement on that, Fijiman. 🙂
aah yes, childhood stories, the bane of my existence <__>
face at end = fail….
*>_<
the bane of your existence? how so, Leithal? i’m intrigued…
Jeff I can say that this is one of my favorite comics! Great job Jeff. (:
wow! thanks, Nat. that’s saying something since you’re a longtime reader! 🙂
Hey! I really enjoyed this strip! I don’t know how I missed it. I thought I had caught up on everything when I returned. You know I’m a WTP fan.
Me too, Mombot.