Reddit mentions of Earth

i am a huge fan of reading , and the vast majority of books i have read have been the physical medium type. i tried downloading e-books and reading them on my laptop (at work), but it really was a strain on my eyes. i loved the idea of having all my books with me, but was hesitant to buy another "screen" to read on after the crappy laptop reading. then my local library got some of the original nooks, and i checked one out for a few weeks, and it really changed my opinion on e-readers. the convenience! there was only a few books that it came with from the library, but i found some of the books i was currently reading on a torrent site and found it much easier to read on on the nook. for example, i enjoy reading while laying on my side, if you reading a big hard cover you know how much a pain this can be. this was made 100 times easier with the nook. later on i had an opportunity to see a kindle, and to me it looked a little clearer, but didn't seem like a huge difference. it did seem like a nice user interface overall, and eventually when i buy one (which i definitely will) i'm leaning towards a kindle. i went to b&n and looked at the nook color, and though it looked nice for the color books, i think it would be lousy for regular books.

if you read a lot, but are hesitant to get an e-reader, i would suggest trying to borrow one from someone, i think you may be pleasantly surprised. they aren't for everyone. i am still going to support my library and local book store as there are a lot of books that just simply look better in paper (i have the entire definitive visual guide series for example).

for most books though, it's just about the story. i'm not one of those people that cares if the cover of my book is the movie version, or the "original" 1st edition version. i really could give two shits about the "art" or "smell" of books. for me, it's about the story, not the medium, and whatever conveys that story most efficiently gets my vote. i am an avid reader and and e-reader is a great tool in my reading toolbox to supplement my reading. it's not meant to "replace books".

Wikipedia is your friend. You CAN teach yourself stuff about any of the above. In highschool I decided to pursue playing guitar. Never got very good at it, but I decided to record myself playing anyway. I ended up liking making music with the computer more than practicing, so I did that for a while. Came out with an album with a friend and got some attention at school from it, pretty cool. Then I needed a website for our band, of course, so I learned how to do that by downloading dreamweaver and Flash. I ended up liking Flash the best, and now years later, I've programmed a good number of Flash games and made money from them. None of this stuff happened because of school. It was all because I followed what I wanted to do. (oh, and don't feel bad about pirating software for learning purposes, especially at your age. But also look into educational versions).

Not to say I didn't learn anything good in highschool. I learned a lot from my senior English class because the teacher obviously liked what he did, was good at teaching (taught at Notre Dame half the time, at the high school half the time) and challenged us. Learning how to write a good paper is so important. Oh and I use some basic trigonometry in programming the Flash games. No calculus stuff though.

Ok, my final comment, since you seem to love learning, are two of the coolest books I've read.