Well it appears you are quite the gadget fan! When I posted the question I meant Mp3 file though:mrgreen:
Printable View
What frustrates me the most is the publisher pricing on ebooks compared to paper versions. In a lot of cases it's cheaper to buy the hardcover version than it is to buy the ebook version.
tbh no matter how good e-books are you can't beat the real thing but then I love reading! can't believe 30 percent though, that is insane oO
E-readers are fantastic, and so are books. It is, in my opinion, horses for courses, with some (but not complete) overlap between the two.
I certainly don't want to give up e-readers, but they'll take my book collection away from me over my recently passed corpse, because I'll keep them or die trying.
Yep, when they get around to e-booking the first edition of the RSGB handbook, or my Fundamentals of Wireless, or my entire Lin Yutang collection, THEN and only then might I consider to start thinking about the merest hint of a possibility of changing to an e-reader full time !
To do that, I'd need an e-reader with the readability and low glare of a Kindle, with the colour of an iPad .... and at Kindle prices. Until then, some books (like recipe books, many magazines and, of course, some technical manuals) aren't suited for a Kindle, because they need colour, and I'm not reading for hours on a transmissive-type screen.
I think that last part will kill you there! Mirasol was the last company I remember seeing doing colour E-Ink style screens, and I believe they stopped. As regards the needing colour for certain books, I'm not sure, its surprising how easy I found it to live without it on my kindle, its the screen size that hurts me with those things personally.
I'm sceptical about the 30% figure. Almost everybody must have a cookbook or something lying around. Or, you know, a Daily Mail Diana Memorial book. I've moved towards e-reading now but there are still loads of good books that don't have e-reader versions out yet, or are massively overpriced compared to paperback.
I'm inclined to that same scepticism. Certainly, everybody I know well enough to have a view has some books. It may be just a few, but for almost everyone I know, it's more than a few. And for many, it's a LOT more than a few.
The problem is, the number of people I know well enough to have a view is limited to family and fairly close friends. So really, I have no basis to judge if the 30% is right or not, but it sure isn't with the people I know.
I have to agree a 30% figure seems ridiculous, yeah some people don't like reading, but even so you can bet there are books in there house nonetheless. Nor are we yet in a situation where ebooks have taken over books so completely that it would be possible to have replaced all your books with ebooks, there are shelves upon shelves of books in my house, and in most of my friends houses for that matter too, so I agree, skeptical.
I'd say 30 percent is way too low. Anyone else not seen the endless benefit-scrounging knuckle-draggers with pushchairs wandering down you average street on weekday afternoon? TOWIE is high culture to them.
I couldn't care less about owning any physical book - though I have accumulated many - they just take up room.
And how many couples have impressive looking shelves of books that they never read ?
I've always read a lot, but now that takes place on kindle, and I don't miss the "feel of paper" as the luddite snobs say
Books are about words, story and knowledge, whether that's on a kindle or on paper makes no difference.
A better survey might have been "30% haven't read a book this year" (to include ebooks).
IMHO, that depends entirely on the nature of the book. If I'm researching, or studying for that matter, I may have half a dozen open at the same time, bookmarks and post-its stuck all over the place, and be constantly moving between several sections in a book with fingers holding two or three places at a time. Even trying to do that on a Kindle is a nightmare.
On the other hand, text search on a Kindle is far easier than in a book.
Horses for courses, IMHO.
My personal opinion is that a physical book >> an ebook, but some people don't mind.
I've thrown most of my physical books out now that I've got the kobo. My eyesight is a bit rubbish but the ability to read without digging out the glasses is nice. Which makes me feel like a real traitor given that i was a printer for about 10 years before I got into IT.