This is just a post to say that I am utterly shocked by the double standards between history and literature students in my field/department/university. I knew they existed based on a colleague’s experiences, and my own limited experiences with a history student last year, but I cannot fathom how a third year history phD can survive if they can’t read the fucking language. Clearly, I chose wrong going the literature route, if this level of understanding, i.e. a complete lack of it, is all that’s expected of English-speaking students studying Japan. JFC.
Going Paperless. February 2, 2011
After the usual blunderful Christmas money exchange with my family this year, I decided I deserved a real present and took the plunge, buying an iPad. Why an iPad, of all the ebook readers out there, when the iPad is so well known for being difficult to read on over long periods of time? Because, after many years, I am finally ready to commit to going paperless.
Here’s the thing, I love books. I really do, I love them as much as anyone. I love the smell when I walk into libraries. I love the feel of the book that my head inevitably uses a pillow when I fall asleep reading in bed. I love owning this physical object that makes me feel connected to something deeper.
But here’s the other thing. I get twenty free pages to print a week and, after that, I have to pay thirty cents a page. For black and white. And there are weeks I have to print out whole novels.
I hear a lot of paper/booklovers out there whine about how paperless just doesn’t have the same feel. And you know what, you’re completely right. But this is definitely one of those situations for me, that if you just decide to commit to it, you will find that life without paper is really not that different than life with it.
On iPad, there are several apps that allow you, not only simulate the feel of writing on paper (my personal favorite is Note Taker HD), but also allows you to upload the ever popular in academia PDF and even highlight and write all over it, just like a real piece of paper. Yes, I spend a half a second zooming in sometimes, to be able to focus on the parts of the paper I want to use, and yes, it takes a bit of getting used to. I don’t deny this. But I feel that many of the objections I see to going paperless, by my peers and professors, are simply based on a misunderstanding of where our current technology is.
I spent three hours walking in the freezing rain to school today, because transportation is a mess, and I brought a fair portion of my papered research with me. Guess what? All that paper is now completely soaked and half of the papers are now ripped from moving around inside folder I’m using while I walked. My iPad, from which I’m writing this, suffered from being cold and from its protective cover being slightly damp.
I’m not saying it’s perfect. A lot of academic books aren’t available in ebook format, a lot of the programs available for our use can still be improved, but I do strongly feel that, as with any life change, you have to make a commitment. You don’t complain that it’s too hard because it’s different from what you’re used to – you try to adjust. As scholars who study foreign cultures, surely such an attitude should be familiar to us.
