E-readers

Delorean · Post by **Delorean** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:39 am

Does anyone have one? What do you think of them?

I haven't actually seen one, though I know people who have them. I don't believe I would be interested, I'm really a book person. It's not just the subject matter, (though that is an important part!), I have bought books just because I liked the look and feel of them. I was absolutely hanging out to read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, but I waited like a year til it was published in a nicer format. I like the way book sets look lined up together on my shelf. I love a book that's printed on nice paper, and the smell of a newly cracked book. It's the whole experience for me. Is that a bit weird? :wah:

I can't imagine being curled up with a screen. I hope these things don't take over from real books

Post by **spot** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:56 am

On the other hand you can be carrying a thousand volumes on a screen lighter than a paperback. I'm quite sure there's a place for it.

A $100 camera can capture pages of out-of-print hundred year old books accurately enough to put them straight through into Word as text. The text can be saved as accurate searchable PDF page images or reset to a more convenient font size for people who used to have to buy from a small selection of large print books. These e-readers will read pages aloud if you're blind or lying in the dark going to sleep.

A good e-reader will let you apply handwritten notation straight onto the screen and store it permanently on the page, displaying the hand notes or not depending on what you want later. I've seen one that pops up a keyboard on the screen and lets you type notes to sticky onto a displayed page, and your sticky note can be longer than the book.

I'm quite keen. A book's a book, but a file on an e-reader is searchable.

Delorean · Post by **Delorean** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:09 am

Yes, I guess they have their place. It would also be good to keep textbooks in for students instead of carrying huge heavy bags of books I suppose. Or commuters. Maybe one day it will have a place in my life but until then I'm happy with my books

I never saw a place in my life for mobile phones once either but now I can't live without one! :wah:

I'm wondering if, with everything going digital, will future historians lack in information about our time here if there are no 'solid' records of our lives? Is digital data more easily destroyed or lost over time than it's paper counterpart? :-3

Post by **spot** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:41 am

Digital data is amazingly resilient. What you just typed will be read a thousand years from now, which is more than you can say about anything your granny wrote.

We didn't have e-readers back in the 90s but I did try handing out all of one department's university course books on laptops at the start of one year. They came to about ten thousand pages, the paper equivalent was about 20 inches bound into a dozen A4 volumes. It was an interesting experiment. I still have all that year's course notes but I don't have any for the other years.

Delorean · Post by **Delorean** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:52 am

Will today's digital data be in a readable format years and years from now? I have floppy discs I can't even use now!

(I'm rather techno-illiterate, so that might be a stupid question, :wah: , bear with me- I might learn something!)

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:37 am

I have been using "Kindle" for the past year and love it. Not only can I download current magazines & newspapers, but current best sellers at low cost compared to actual written text. I am usually reading several books and switch back and forth. Having the capability to carry several volumes in one small device is great. For me, these devices have replaced traditional books.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:23 pm

I've been needing to get back into reading. I just can't get the desire. Something always gets in the way (meaning I always find something I'd rather do). I sometimes think a Kindle or other e-reader will snag my interest enough to start reading for recreation again, but it's a bit of a gamble, isn't it?

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:41 pm

I love to read but find that I can't read for sustained periods of time like when I was younger. In times past I could read for three or four hours continually, now one hour is max for me, and bedtime, how about 10 minutes?

Post by **spot** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:13 pm

Blimey. I have a rule with books - once you're started you have to finish before you do anything else. I except meals, sleep and any office commitment but that's my limit of permissible distraction.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:22 pm

I wonder how many magazines, newspapers & books I have read while sitting on the toilet as my legs go to sleep? :wah:

Delorean · Post by **Delorean** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:25 pm

I could never stop once I had started a book. Sometimes, not often, I'll come across one that I just can't get interested in but felt I had to finish, now I figure there are so many great and interesting books out there, why am I wasting my time on one I'm not enjoying, so now if I don't like it, it goes.

Once I find one I'm really really into, I'm like Spot, stop for the necessary things only - meals and toilet breaks!

These e-readers do seem pretty popular. They would probably pay off, especially with the cost of new releases, downloadable versions would be considerably cheaper. I've been told Australia has some of the most expensive book prices in the world, I don't know what others place's prices are like but here we can pay around $28-$35 for a new release paperback, $32-50+ for hardcover. How does that compare to elsewhere?

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:35 pm

Books are expensive in New Zealand as well and despite that, readership is among the highest in the world.

Post by **spot** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:21 pm

Delorean;1357620 wrote: I don't know what others place's prices are like but here we can pay around $28-$35 for a new release paperback, $32-50+ for hardcover. How does that compare to elsewhere?
We need some form of conversion factor, the Tasman Dollar is an obscure unit rarely found more than a hundred miles from Hobart. How many pounds of wool do you have to trade for a respectable dictionary, for example?

Delorean · Post by **Delorean** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:30 pm

spot;1357629 wrote: We need some form of conversion factor, the Tasman Dollar is an obscure unit rarely found more than a hundred miles from Hobart. How many pounds of wool do you have to trade for a respectable dictionary, for example?

Wool? That's not us, that's New Zealand! We trade in convict labour. You can get a recent newspaper for 2 healthy cons. 7 or 8 might bring in a nice dictionary.

Maristar87 · Post by **Maristar87** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 11:34 pm

I always told myself I wouldn't get one, however, we only have one (really terrible) bookstore and the library is located across town - so I broke down and paid about $150 - a little more than I'd like to spend on it. I like it, I find myself reading a lot more than I normally would. Since all the classics are considered public domain, you can get them for free. So, I have about 80 free books, plus several that cost less than five dollars, and one that cost $10. I'd say it already paid for itself.

I absolutely hate about 99% of best-sellers and popular books, especially fiction. It's really hard for me to find anything I'm interested anywhere - but my e-reader makes it a lot easier. I wouldn't recommend it to my parents though, they're tech-illiterate and they'll only read maybe a book every so often, for plane-rides, etc...

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:51 am

I wonder which the author would prefer. Do the authors make more on the actual book buys or do they make out better on the downloaded version.

Post by **spot** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 3:45 pm

I've heard of an author getting $1.50 per paper copy vs. $7.50 for the download. I'm sure it varies by publisher, but that's an example for a real book by a real author during the last couple of years.

along-for-the-ride · Post by **along-for-the-ride** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:35 am

A parable......substitue eyeglasses for technology: