How do I cite this?: E-readers

I might make this a running feature. After all, nothing says "exciting blogging" like how to cite random things. But, in this one instance I think it is important to have a discussion about how to cite something because frankly, there's not a lot out there on the subject.

How do I cite e-readers?

Let me start by saying that I love my Kindle. Instant access to books for cheaper? Yes please. I wish I had more time to read more things on the Kindle. I sort of jokingly kept asking my fiance if she got me one for Christmas and then, because she is awesome, she did so. I've been in love ever since (with the Kindle, love with fiance already established).

One of the things that I really like about the Kindle is that old books are cheap. Sometimes they're free. I know some of the first books I downloaded were Treasure Island and The Art of War. I downloaded them because they are famous books and the latter I've been meaning to read. I also downloaded them because they were free.

For my Classical Foundations of Literature class, I am writing a paper on the political themes within the comedies of Aristophanes. Wanting all eleven of his surviving plays, I went online and sure enough, Kindle delivered.  For 95 cents, I had all eleven plays (I later found that I could have ordered Volume 1 and 2 separately and saved the 95 cents, but oh well.)

So, I read all eleven plays, laughed a bit, highlighted key passages and got set to write my paper until I thought of something. How do I cite this?

There are no page numbers on the Kindle. So, if I cite a passage (which I will undoubtedly do), I have no frame of reference. My usual go-to place for how to cite anything, the Purdue OWL can tell me how to cite a tweet, but has nothing on e-readers.

The best solution I can come up with is that the Kindle does have "locations", which are like page numbers. They are smaller though (my last highlight comes from Location 8,009) which makes it a bit tedious, but I think it will work. I think a note in my works cited page will be in order just to clarify what is going on.

It is tricky because its something that Academia simply hasn't caught up to yet. This surprises me, considering that libraries have been lending out e-books since 1998, so we've had over a decade to figure it out. And I don't think e-readers are going away and will be making bigger strides into education soon. I personally prefer a hard copy if its for a class (will probably do a post on this later), but may try and go the e-reader route in order to lessen my cost and physical burden when buying books next semester (18 pounds of reading!).

What do my readers think? How do e-readers fit into education? How should they be cited? Any other problems you foresee with tech and education merging?

I Read: Ready Player One

First off, let me just say that having a Kindle is awesome. My fiance, who is also awesome, gave me one for Christmas. I've already read two novels on it (1984 the other, which I suppose I could review). It took me about three days to get through Earnest Cline's Ready Player One.

The novel is set in the year 2044 and the Great Recession has ravaged the United States. Gasoline is so expensive that no one drives anywhere. Most people live in "stacks", which are stacks of mobile homes placed on top of one another. Poverty is high, crime is high (at one point, the main character actually purchases a gun from a vending machine), and while there is still a government, one gets the impression that corporations are in charge.

Things are, how do I put this delicately, horrible.

Except for the OASIS, a computer simulation that makes the Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft seem like Pong. At its most basic, a person can use a pair of gloves and a visor to enter this virtual reality. At its most complex, you can use "immersion rigs" and full body suits to simulate everything that one can encounter as they enter this virtual world where anything is possible.

The OASIS has everything, including a public school system, which Wade Owen Watts (W.O.W. in case you didn't get that this book is about a MMORPG) is educated in. Commerce takes place there. Wade is raised by his aunt, whom he does not like and uses the OASIS to escape. This is one part where the book could probably do more to explain. Other than a brief appearance, Wade's aunt isn't seen and so we never get a sense as to why Wade hates her. Not much is given into life in the Stacks other than its bad.

What time Cline doesn't spend writing about the world life, he spends talking about the OASIS. When the book opens, the creator of the OASIS has died. When he did so, a game within OASIS started to find three easter eggs began. The first person to finish this game would get the creator's wealth and then be in charge of the OASIS. When the story opens, its been five years and no one has made any progress.

There are a lot of people that are looking. There are the "grunters" egg hunters, that are self-financed and obsessed with solving the problem. Then there's the corporate-based "sixers" who are bound and determined to gain control of the OASIS and then charge people for it. If all these gamers had to pay for the OASIS, they might have to go outside!

So, this hunt for the egg consumes the world. And the clues to the game are found in an almanac left behind by the creator of the game and his obsession with the 80s. Seriously, its almost annoying how 80s all of this book is. If you were a teenager in the 80s, you would love this book.

I suppose I should be rooting for Wade, but I spend most of the book feeling sorry for him. He's watched certain movies dozens of times, he's watched each episode of Family Ties multiple times, at one point, he goes six months without going outside or seeing another actual human being. He does have a love interest with another grunter, but that goes through the fairly predictable arc of interest from Wade, casual hanging out that is misinterpreted by Wade, a public "break-up", self-loathing by Wade, and then finally some reconciliation.

I did enjoy the book, its an easy read. But I think more into either why the world is in this state or more about it in general would help paint the picture as to why Wade and everyone else escapes into the OASIS.