The Question of E-Readers...

[mizzles]

There are places that my kindle cannot go with me that real books can: The beach and the bathtub.
I still can't get over how light my Kindle is, I like to read in odd places sometimes and the ability to be able to actually hold my kindle over my head is amazing. I can rotate the screen to different angles for different hand positions and I no longer feel like I'm lifting weights after finishing a monster of a novel.
I have 62 items on my Kindle right now, some I have read, some I have not, which means I have so many books ready and willing for me to read them. In this manner the Kindle saved me when I realized I had gotten mixed up about which book was next for my class and I was able to download it at midnight the night before to catch up on my reading. Since I am a literature major I saved a fantastic amount of money last semester by using the digital copies of books that were released for free.

The kindle won't replace the battered and bruised books on my shelf, but it does have some amazing features that make it a valued addition to the way I read.

[maxporter]

My problem with e-readers is that I frequently have to flip back in the book to refresh my memory of what had happened prior. Or a previous scene suddenly takes upon new meaning later on in the book, so I have to re-read the scene in light of the new plot developments. It's harder to flip back in a book in an e-reader.

So, if they work for you - great. They just don't work for me.

[mizzles]

Oh I forgot the search feature- I took a class on Literature of the Uncanny, I was assigned to write an essay about the role of servants in Dorian Gray- a quick search for the word servants helped produce one of the best essays I turned in for that class.

I forgot to mention things I don't like about my kindle:
It's difficult to see how far you are in a book or how big a book really is- there is a progress bar and a little meter that is comparable to other books but it's not the same.

[onlyaworkingtitle]

My main beef with e-readers is that the books are so much cheaper -- and that's money out of the publisher's pocket (and therefor out of the marketer, the publicist, the editor, and so many less glorified people) and out of the pockets of the authors themselves. For anyone who wants to be a member of that esteemed number, it is very much in your best interest to fight this market trend and pay the full price for a hard copy.

[andy]

May 31, 2011 0:15:32 GMT -5 onlyaworkingtitle said:

My main beef with e-readers is that the books are so much cheaper -- and that's money out of the publisher's pocket (and therefor out of the marketer, the publicist, the editor, and so many less glorified people) and out of the pockets of the authors themselves. For anyone who wants to be a member of that esteemed number, it is very much in your best interest to fight this market trend and pay the full price for a hard copy.

Actually, in the current publishing market, publishers (of hard copies) have the upper hand because it's so hard to publish hard copies which allows them to push writers to accept book deals which are only to their advantage and to the detriment of the writer. Most writers get less than 9% of the price of a book, the publisher gets over 20% - to me that's not a system I have any interest in maintaining because it's ridiculous and completely unacceptable. Ebooks and ereaders, on the other hand, offer writers a real chance at self-publishing. Several big ebook stores like Amazon's Kindle store and Barnes & Noble's Nook book store already offer writers the option of selling their ebooks online through them - on the other hand, getting your books in major bookshops is one of the biggest hurdles writers who self-publish hard copies. As more and more people turn to the Internet to do most of their literary shopping and social websites aimed at book lovers (such as GoodReads) become more popular, advertising will also become more accessible for writing who self-publish and they'll no longer have to pay publishers enormous sums for it.

I think the best way to illustrate it is through a political regime metaphor. The current hegemony of publishing houses is communist regime - publishers are the ruling party that nobody elected, they decide which books we should read and make enormous profits from convincing us that they're right. If we move to a market ruled by self-published ebooks, publishers will no longer decide which books deserve to be read, readers will.

[Silva]

I spend enough time already looking at a digital screen. I do not need another reason to do this.

Besides, I'm strange and enjoy lugging 1,000 page books around- not that I have that many to do that with yet. I've got books close to that so far though.

[mapachita]

My brother bought a sony reader for me last year, after years and years of hearing how I'd love to have one. It's the best present I could have got.
I love books with my life. I still buy books (not very often, where I live buying books is almost a luxury), but my sony reader has saved my life many times
(Oh, btw English isn't my first language. I apoligize fo my terrible writing skills u.u)

[flute88]

My mom got me a Kindle for my 21st birthday a couple years ago. I still have yet to use it much. I'm not really sure why that is. Part of it is just financial - I get the vast majority of my books from our amazing library system, so I rarely buy books. And the few times I've looked at buying something for my Kindle, the e-book was the same price as a paperback copy, and really, if I'm going to be paying the same price either way I'd rather buy something physical. (I do have a bunch of the free classics on there, though.)

Plus, to me, there's just something satisfying about watching the number of pages between you and the back cover dwindle as you read. I suppose it's silly, but there you have it.

But I do like that it's so light and easy to carry around. What I would really love would be some way to put books you already own on there for free (or a nominal fee), and then that way if you wanted to read something but you were leaving the house you wouldn't have to drag around a huge book. (My back is still complaining about the time that I carried around my three-in-one copy of LotR in my backpack for a month because it was my silent reading book.) Probably a pipe dream, but it would be cool.

[sophi]

May 30, 2011 0:49:42 GMT -5 Dodger Thirteen said:

With physical books, I like being able to see how far I have to the next chapter or to the end of the section.

I don't know about other e-readers, but the Kindle actually includes that feature - at the bottom of each page there's like a little bar graph that shows the entire book, so you can see how many chapters there are, how long each one is, how much of the book you've read so far, and even how much you've read in that particular sitting. It's one of my favorite features, actually.

[sandiek]

First and foremost, I love my books. Just so we're clear.
While I don't have a Kindle, I do have an iPod touch. The stanza eReader is the app I use the most (I tried iBooks when it was released, but I really don't like it). Since acquiring my iPod, my leisure reading has, at the least, tripled. Of the four books I'm reading now, the smallest is a mere 600ish pages. Sorry, but I'm not lugging my hardback 'Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' around every where I go. Unlike the kindle, my ipod is always in my pocket, so it's easy enough to pull out and read a few pages here or there.

[nickusp]

I got a Kindle for Valentine's Day. Until that point, I had been indifferent if not dubious where eReaders were concerned. But I LOVE my Kindle. I still buy twice as many hard-copy books than eBooks. Kindle is reserved mostly for the free classics and the books that are up for free as promotions that look entertaining.

eReaders can in no way entirely simulate a book. You get the same content, sure, but something is definitely missing. I don't think we'll ever see the end of books as some people are predicting (didn't people think the rise of bookstores would be the end of libraries way back when?), but I think it's definitely changed the ways in which people can obtain, share, and learn about books. And in the end, I think it's just important that people read, not the format in which they read the material.

[pjthefey]

I am going to be one of the few users to speak up in favor of these.. I admit that I have never used one, however I have been using eBooks on my laptops for years. I can't even remember the last physical book I read cover to cover, and if a book I want to read is not available in electronic format, I make an eBook out of a printed copy.

The main reason I like e-texts is because of the text to speech options that will enable me to listen to the material. That said, my current criticism of the current e-readers out there is that the voices (from what I've heard) that come installed on them sound really crappy.

The secondary reason for my favoring e-books is because physical books are a real pain in the butt once you develop a collection of several hundred or thousands of them. I can't say that I read them all, all the time, and now they are just taking up space. Every time I move I've got to move several 70 lbs+ tubs of books so that they can just sit around in my new place. With eBooks they can all fit on a collection of CDs.

Once the industry realizes that the DRMs the put on their products are actually discouraging sales and lighten up a bit, I suspect that we'll start seeing far fewer old fashioned texts. As it is, not being able to print pages from some books, or some professionally made eBooks' lack of compatibility with Text to Speech engines are major deterrents (at least in my opinion).

[Umbvix]

We had to have e-books for some of my classes and I hated it. I avoided using them unless I absolutely had to. It's just annoying to scroll through a book, and it's just...not the same. It seems more detached for me. Maybe on something where you can simulate turning the page or whatever (which I'm sure some of them do) then I would be okay. But I'd still much rather stick to hard copies.

[cyanea]

I like how everyone (including me) has to preface everything with "I love books" as if that was being questioned here.

I love physical books, but for me convenience trumps romantic feelings. Last semester I had three classes on Wednesday that required at least two books a piece. I got ebook versions of most of them, and my back thanked me for that. Plus, I can go on trips without having to pack a suitcase full of books.

[Katherine]

Jun 8, 2011 12:05:40 GMT -5 cyanea said:

Plus, I can go on trips without having to pack a suitcase full of books.

This, my mum says, is her favourite thing about her e-reader.