388 replies to this topic

[Sneakeater]

I didn't mean I thought it was Cymraeg. Just that I'd have expected it.

[Lippy]

Is "loan" not properly a verb?

"Loan" is a noun; "lend" is a verb.

Merriam-Webster says "loan" may be a verb.

From the "Usage Discussion" section for loan:verb

The verb loan is one of the words English settlers brought to America and continued to use after it had died out in Britain. Its use was soon noticed by British visitors and somewhat later by the New England literati, who considered it a bit provincial. It was flatly declared wrong in 1870 by a popular commentator, who based his objection on etymology. A later scholar showed that the commentator was ignorant of Old English and thus unsound in his objection, but by then it was too late, as the condemnation had been picked up by many other commentators. Although a surprising number of critics still voice objections, loan is entirely standard as a verb. You should note that it is used only literally; lend is the verb used for figurative expressions, such as “lending a hand” or “lending enchantment.”

I don't care. "Loan" as a verb sounds illiterate.

[SLBunge]

Is "loan" not properly a verb?

"Loan" is a noun; "lend" is a verb.

Merriam-Webster says "loan" may be a verb.

From the "Usage Discussion" section for loan:verb

The verb loan is one of the words English settlers brought to America and continued to use after it had died out in Britain. Its use was soon noticed by British visitors and somewhat later by the New England literati, who considered it a bit provincial. It was flatly declared wrong in 1870 by a popular commentator, who based his objection on etymology. A later scholar showed that the commentator was ignorant of Old English and thus unsound in his objection, but by then it was too late, as the condemnation had been picked up by many other commentators. Although a surprising number of critics still voice objections, loan is entirely standard as a verb. You should note that it is used only literally; lend is the verb used for figurative expressions, such as “lending a hand” or “lending enchantment.”

I don't care. "Loan" as a verb sounds illiterate.

I get it. It's still a bit provincial for some.

[Orik]

My complaint is mainly about the loss of directionality.

Neither a loaner nor a loaner be.

[Wilfrid]

Stone, you can buy me the Fallada book if you like.

Altogether now, "Only the loanly...."

[Stone]

You can get it from Amazon in 5 seconds for half the price of a hamburger.

[Wilfrid]

That sounds extortionate.

[Wilfrid]

Ha! Just found the paperback for $1.37. That's what I wanted.

Anyway, these Kindle things. One problem, when reading a long book, is that I often want to flick forward (eg to footnotes) or flick back to check something I read earlier. Pain in the ass with a Kindle. Is there any way to do it other than search? That's really clumsy.

[Lauren]

For those who aren't aware, you can loan some Kindle books for 14 days. Go to your account on Amazon, "Manage Your Kindle". You'll see a list of your Kindle books and to the right of each an "Action" dropdown. Click it to see if "Loan this Title" appears (not all books are loanable). Apparently, the loaned title is unavailable to the lender during the 14 days, and disappears from the lendee at the end of the period.

the lendable books probably correspond pretty closely to the list of kindle books available through amazon from public libraries. it's a clever way to get you to market the service to your friends. at the end of the loan period, your friend will be offered the opportunity to purchase the book, if they want to keep it, much the same as at the end of the the library loan. the best part for amazon is if your friend signs up for kindle in order to borrow books from you, the fine folks at amazon get marketing information on your friend that they might not have had a crack at before and the chance to sell them similar types of material in the future or perhaps a peek at your reading list since you may share taste in reading material

I assumed you could only lend it to people who were already Kindle users. Either way, I think it's pretty cool. Why would you want to buy a book after 14 days? Wouldn't they just read it and move on to the next book?

[Stone]

Ha! Just found the paperback for $1.37. That's what I wanted.

Anyway, these Kindle things. One problem, when reading a long book, is that I often want to flick forward (eg to footnotes) or flick back to check something I read earlier. Pain in the ass with a Kindle. Is there any way to do it other than search? That's really clumsy.

Don't footnotes usually have hyperlinks? They do in Every Man Dies Alone. Of course, you can also bookmark the page you're on and bookmark the footnotes page, which makes it easy to jump back and forth.

[splinky]

For those who aren't aware, you can loan some Kindle books for 14 days. Go to your account on Amazon, "Manage Your Kindle". You'll see a list of your Kindle books and to the right of each an "Action" dropdown. Click it to see if "Loan this Title" appears (not all books are loanable). Apparently, the loaned title is unavailable to the lender during the 14 days, and disappears from the lendee at the end of the period.

the lendable books probably correspond pretty closely to the list of kindle books available through amazon from public libraries. it's a clever way to get you to market the service to your friends. at the end of the loan period, your friend will be offered the opportunity to purchase the book, if they want to keep it, much the same as at the end of the the library loan. the best part for amazon is if your friend signs up for kindle in order to borrow books from you, the fine folks at amazon get marketing information on your friend that they might not have had a crack at before and the chance to sell them similar types of material in the future or perhaps a peek at your reading list since you may share taste in reading material

I assumed you could only lend it to people who were already Kindle users. Either way, I think it's pretty cool. Why would you want to buy a book after 14 days? Wouldn't they just read it and move on to the next book?

exactly, you gotta join kindle, even if you only want to mooch off your literate pals. the offer to purchase after 14 days works in their favor if you are one of those freaks who likes to rerad books a hundred times once you're sure you like them or in the event that you start a book, like it but don't get around to finishing it within the 14 days. one click purchasing increases the odds thqt folks will take the option just to save themselves from having to hunt down the book later or "borrow it" from different friends until you actually finish it

[Wilfrid]

Ha! Just found the paperback for $1.37. That's what I wanted.

Anyway, these Kindle things. One problem, when reading a long book, is that I often want to flick forward (eg to footnotes) or flick back to check something I read earlier. Pain in the ass with a Kindle. Is there any way to do it other than search? That's really clumsy.

Don't footnotes usually have hyperlinks? They do in Every Man Dies Alone. Of course, you can also bookmark the page you're on and bookmark the footnotes page, which makes it easy to jump back and forth.

I don't know in advance which pages I want to jump to.

[Nathan]

For those who aren't aware, you can loan some Kindle books for 14 days. Go to your account on Amazon, "Manage Your Kindle". You'll see a list of your Kindle books and to the right of each an "Action" dropdown. Click it to see if "Loan this Title" appears (not all books are loanable). Apparently, the loaned title is unavailable to the lender during the 14 days, and disappears from the lendee at the end of the period.

the lendable books probably correspond pretty closely to the list of kindle books available through amazon from public libraries. it's a clever way to get you to market the service to your friends. at the end of the loan period, your friend will be offered the opportunity to purchase the book, if they want to keep it, much the same as at the end of the the library loan. the best part for amazon is if your friend signs up for kindle in order to borrow books from you, the fine folks at amazon get marketing information on your friend that they might not have had a crack at before and the chance to sell them similar types of material in the future or perhaps a peek at your reading list since you may share taste in reading material

I assumed you could only lend it to people who were already Kindle users.

sure, but who doesn't have the Kindle app on their phone?

[Orik]

I don't know in advance which pages I want to jump to.

Something they learned from Apple - hide performance deficiencies behind unlikely interface choices. Kindle flips pages much too slowly to support what you want it to do. (not sure about Fire as they seem to have abandoned the e-ink thing)

[SethG]

My mother wants a device just to read books. She doesn't want any monthly fees, and she has no understanding of wi-fi. If I get her the basic Kindle she can put books on it using the usb connection to her computer, right? I think that's all she would ever do with the thing.