Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The unnecessary post

Some days I think I am single-handedly keeping MPH afloat. I know, I know, I have inflated ideas of my own importance.

Speaking of which, a colleague handed me a copy of the July 2011 Reader's Digest. It was meh. I grew up reading RD and used to love reading it primarily for the funnies, not just Laughter, the Best Medicine and All in a Day's Work, but also the little snippets at the end of most articles. These days there's hardly anything, and a lot of the jokes aren't even amusing, let alone funny.

I'm also not sure I like the skew towards more articles about people or events based in Asia. Trying too hard to be relevant, perhaps. The stories aren't even gripping or as poignant as they used to be, and I zoomed through the whole book in about an hour or so.

Now with the Internet, there is so much more to read, and just no time to read it all. The Internet is good for short write-ups, but I like lying in bed with a book, and however much Mr TDH champions digital readers, I still prefer reading the printed word. There is something about reading things on a screen that make them seem a lot more "flat" to me. Perhaps it's just unreasonable prejudice.

The reason why I don't post often is because I write a post like this one and then think about how I'm adding to the vast sum of stuff to be read on the Internet, and how this is just going to suck up 3 minutes of some poor, unsuspecting soul's time (5, perhaps, if he's a slow reader) -- 3 minutes he'll never be able to get back again. He won't be any the worse for not having read this, and he won't be any the better for having done so, either. The futility of it all gets me. As it is, I am also spending 10 minutes pounding this out when I could be reading something inspiring, moving, amusing or thought-provoking.

8 comments:

siehjin said...

where do you go to read things that are "inspiring, moving, amusing, or thought-provoking" online?

i'd like to check out wherever you hang out. =)

Sunflower said...

I like these two blogs:

http://www.revelife.com/contributors/makemeamary/

http://www.revelife.com/contributors/sheworships/

And there are a lot of good writers at
http://open.salon.com/cover.php -- if you go to my page http://open.salon.com/blog/wilfulsunflower you'll see my "favourites" on the right sidebar :D

Alpha Lim said...

Have you tried curling up in bed with a Kindle (EInk - not Fire)?

Sunflower said...

Kindles don't ship to Malaysia, and you can't buy stuff for them in Malaysia... as far as I know :( Even the iPhone Kindle app doesn't allow you to purchase stuff from Amazon as long as you are in Malaysia, grrr.

Alpha Lim said...

There's this: http://kindlemalaysia.com/

Also, you can ship it to a forwarder like borderlinx.com - that's what I did.

And, to buy Kindle content, you just need a US address as your default, plus set it as your One-Click Purchase address :). You can get a free US shipping address at borderlinx.com. There are a few others, too.

I haven't seen a Kindle Fire live, but the E Ink Kindle does an excellent job of mimicking paper, to the eyes.

Sunflower said...

Oooh, interesting! I'm unlikely to get a Kindle since I can read on my iPod Touch, which is also a much more convenient size for carrying around (because I favour small handbags). So if I can get the Kindle app to let me purchase stuff that would be ideal and wonderful :D Thanks!

Alpha Lim said...

Do the US address thing and then surf on amazon.com - you can buy online and it will send to your Kindle app on your iPod via Wi-Fi.

Try it out with a free book first ;).

Enjoy...

Buying via the Kindle iOS app has been disabled because Apple wants to charge 30% of sale for that, and Amazon doesn't wanna do that. So you gotta buy via web. Minor inconvenience, IMO.

Sunflower said...

Ah, I will have to wait till I move and have Internet access in my home again :) I had cancelled my Streamyx subscription when I moved to my current place in May, thinking I'd re-apply when I moved to my own apartment later. So I'm wifi-less... often have to go to a restaurant or other public place with free wifi to update my apps :\