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About LinkBacksLets not forget books r expensive! I always download ebooks and read.
Lets not forget books r expensive! I always download ebooks and read.
They will once they get the "virtual paper" thing sorted out (the ink that moves around on a special film thing) - no glarey screen
i dont see the point of these with existence of laptops unless battery life is significantly greater
I think electronic readers will have their uses.
First of all, students would benefit from not having to carry around all their text books all the time if using an e-reader. I can also imagine it would benefit those who frequently need to refer to technical manuals.
Searching for specific terms would be much faster and annotating texts would be non-destructible and editable.
Add to this the ability to download new content (newspapers, magazines, RSS feeds etc) and I can see the usefulness of an e-reader tempting me into a purchase.
First, however, the technology would have to support large high resolution colour foldable/bendable screens, offering a better user interface for data input and perhaps a fast wireless data connection (although at this point it could be argued you would probably be better off with a smartphone/netbook).
Let's hope we are not far off a device that encompasses all the above!
This is the main reason why i don't see these things taking off for a typical bookworm.Originally Posted by capt_cornflake
How they justify charging the same price for a download as they do for a physical book is beyond a joke, even the music industry has cottoned onto the fact downloads need to be cheaper than physical media.
I'm sure prices will fall and useful features will increase and we will eventually see some overlap with other platforms. For now the technology/market is still in its infancy but a few years from now I'm confident they will catch on....just not yet.
It's all about the prices, same with most technology. When it matures a bit, there will be more demand and then suppliers will increase supply (and make prices cheaper). This cycle will reduce prices enough that it will take over from books eventually.
Having both would be nice but if it anything near the same as reading from a monitor then NO WAY, because i find it much easier and faster to read from paper/books. and the feeling of holding the book is just somehow preferred for me, can't say exactly why, maybe its because we was taught to read from paper and books in the first place. The younger generations may think differently if they are taught from reading for electronics stuff from the start. it does have its pros though like if memory space is not a restriction you can have many books in one device as possible, easier to carry the collection around, save storage space, save money, save trees.
dam! almost lost it and gave in to the pros lol
My girlfriend just recently purchased the sony ebook reader against my advice. And boy does she have me eating my words. If your a book lover they are definatly worth the expenditure as they will far outlive your dusty books on the shelf.
Its not like reading from a traditional computer screen at all. The grey scale pages really do look like traditional paper and dont harm your eyes after a few hours. The only downside im aware of now is the flickering as it turns pages.
Had to be a real book nothin can beat the feeling of turning the pages, prefere fantasy
i imagine they'll become common items to see around but they'll never fully replace old fassioned books.
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You've gotta be kidding. I've got a set of Charles Dickens books here printed while he was still alive, and another set from 1920. And a set of Shakespeare much older than either - old enough to be made from hand cut paper. That first Dickens set is nearly 150 years old. If there's any current book readers still around in 150 years, I'll bet they're either non-functional, or in museums ..... or both.
E-readers are convenient. and let you carry a large collection around easily, but as for appeal to book lovers .... not in my opinion. Not by a large margin.
But how old is the bookshelf on which is stands
Are you saying E-Readers will never take on? Or is it because the screen's not there yet or the cost?
(i'm amazed you don't like the subscription idea. But i suppose people like Safari books have been trying that for a while, but are just too damned expensive imo)
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I couldn't agree more. For convenience I'm sure they're great, but with a printed book you don't have to worry about a power source or compatability issues. Plus you don't get the same tactile feedback when turning pages.You've gotta be kidding. I've got a set of Charles Dickens books here printed while he was still alive, and another set from 1920. And a set of Shakespeare much older than either - old enough to be made from hand cut paper. That first Dickens set is nearly 150 years old. If there's any current book readers still around in 150 years, I'll bet they're either non-functional, or in museums ..... or both.
E-readers are convenient. and let you carry a large collection around easily, but as for appeal to book lovers .... not in my opinion. Not by a large margin.
The shelf the Dickens are standing on - about 40 years. The Shakespeare? Locked away.But how old is the bookshelf on which is stands
Not at all. I'm saying that outside of specific situations, they don't appeal to me. But I'm certainly not projecting my preferences or usage patters on the whole market. Sooner or later, they probably will take off. I'd guess at sooner rather than later and we may be on the cusp of it. For me, though, it requires the confusion over DRM and the usage it allows or doesn't allow to be sorted out, and the cost of the hardware to come down .... quite a lot. And even then, by choice, I'll go for a printed book, every single time, if it's convenient. Any form of electronic contraption will never, ever, for me replace the experience of a book. So it'll be used as second-best, or as a convenience for travel, or as a way of porting a large quantity of material around easily. But I can't see an e-reader ever replacing books for me. I certainly hope not, anyway, because for all that they may be great technology and a useful and powerful convenience, they're 'soulless'.
I read what I fancy, though. I don't currently have any subscriptions to any magazines, and I don't (as a rule) read newspapers. I might have a browse in a paper if one's laying around in a reception area or something, and I certainly read a selected range of articles from selected papers online but I don't (and never in my life have) bought a paper regularly, let alone subscribed.
As for magazines, I browse in a newsagents and pick up what appeals to me at the time, according to what I fancy reading, and what the content of magazines on offer are at the time. For instance, this afternoon, I went out intending to get a PC mag and came home with the Economist, because there was an article that appealed to me. Last time I went out for magazines it was for a photo mag, and I came home with two photo mags, PC Pro, What Hifi, Scientific American and Practical Wireless.
The subscription model doesn't work for me on magazines, and I can't see how it'd work for me on books. If I buy a book, I want one I can read again and again, and that if it sends up getting lost of a train or plane, isn't a disaster, and that I can stick on the shelf and read again, as and when the impulse takes me. I was browsing through my library recently, and ended up reading some Asimov paperbacks I bought was back in the Dark Ages when I was a student. Somehow, browsing through files on an e-reader doesn't have the same atmosphere as wandering into my library, and rummaging up and down shelves looking for something that appeals to me.
And when buying books, I might not buy any for weeks, even months. But then I might have a session in a bookshop, or even pop up to Foyles, and come back with a couple of dozen, or more, and they might include a book on Monet, a James Patterson crime thriller, a computer or photography book, the latest fantasy book from Robert Jordon and/or something like the hunt for Longitude (superb book, by the way).
I usually don't know what's going to appeal to me until I see it, and a large part of the fun is the time spent in bookshops hunting down something that appeals, or a little gem of a rarity.
A subscription model means relegating a large part of my reading choices to what someone else chooses to shove at me. Frankly, shudder!!
Years ago, I subscribed to National Geographic. I still have about 15 years worth sitting on shelves. The trouble is, I don't have time to read everything every month, so I end up reading what appeals to me, and probably never getting to the rest, despite having paid for it. So NG is one of the mags I regularly check out, like New Scientist, SciAm, the Economist, and so on. But I buy if and only if the content appeals to me.
I'm a voracious reader, but a choosy one, and subscriptions don't appeal to me. Apart from anything else, it takes away the fun I have rummaging in the shelves deciding what I fancy this time.
Will e-readers take off? Probably. But I can't see them ever being more to me than a second-rate tool for when a real book isn't an option.
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