Less than half of e-book readers finish bestsellers

You could always buy a book. You know, an actual paper book.
They used to have them in the olden days until somebody decided the act of turning a page was too labour intensive.

 

Since the subject relates to ebook readers, that comment is disconnected from the topic. Sure, we all have physical books. The subject matter presupposes individuals who also wish to read ebooks. It's really not terribly hard to follow.

 

No shit, Sherlock.
Now, if I want to pass comment on anything at all without running it past you first, then I will. Even (shock, horror) if it's not directly related to the thread title.
Do you follow that?

 

That's interesting. I wonder about the time period for "finish", though. It says "the most downloaded ebooks of the year were not necessarily ever finished by hopeful readers"--but it's not unusual for a year or more to pass between buying a book and finishing it, for me. My book backlog is substantial, and I'm usually reading four or five books at once.

Edited to add: ebooks, in particular, take me a while to read. My goal is to have at least one absorbing ebook available to me, and I read it when I'm somewhere where I don't have a paper book. It's a "fill in" book.

 

The convenience of ebooks isn't the lack of page turning, it's the cost of the print and the ease of carrying lots of books around.

But back to the topic, having been sampling multiple authors from the library's stacks, it is readily apparent many best sellers are seriously overrated.

 

Ebooks don't smell.

 

Christopher Brosius sells a perfume called "In the Library". He describes it as "...a warm blend of English Novel, Russian & Moroccan Leather Bindings, Worn Cloth and a hint of Wood Polish."

Y'know, just as something to spray around when you're reduced to reading an ebook.

(Seriously, I've been tempted for years to buy a bottle....)

 

That's hilarious.

"In the Library" fragrance by CB I Hate Perfume

 

No, they don't smell, and the smell of which you speak is as beloved by me as any other avid reader , but ebooks open an avenue of availability that simply isn't afforded to some of us. I live in the sticks on a small island that has no booksellers save for some small mom&pop religious lit venues, all of them offering books in Spanish. Ordering online is my only real option and if I'm already going to go that route, may as well get a digital copy for my Kindle that arrives in seconds.

 

Too be fair that smell is the acids in the ink and paper slowly dissolving the book. It's like a slow cooking charnel house for the written word.

 

Save readers with a superior sense of smell. If it's not food, and it's not a woman or an ocean, I dont want to smell it.

 

Oh that's so sad. Have you never smelled the wonderful freshness of the forest after a rain, or the sweetness of a ripe field of blackberries? You are missing so much.

 

Blackberries is food. Forests, yeah forgot about that.

Look books smell like dust and used books make the imagination go wild.

 

Actually, I've read multiple sources stating that decaying paper produces a compound related to vanillin, and that that produces the distinctive smell.

 

If you're going to criticize ebooks you should at least do so by pointing out something that is not precisely the point behind them, grandpa.

 

I was going to respond until I realised I don't have a fucking clue what you're on about.
'Pointing out something that is not precisely the point behind them.'

You'll go far with such articulation.

 

I've bought a few ebooks that I found difficult to read because of the formatting, and never finished them. One didn't even allow me to alter the size of the lettering, and it was tiny. Others, mostly non-fiction, had diagrams etc, which made the book hard to follow.

I also find it difficult to page back through the books to double-check something. Fine, if you've bookmarked a page, but you might not know you want to revisit it until you're many pages on. There isn't any way to return to it easily.

Ebooks are great in many ways, but I'd hate to see them completely replace printed ones. I know when I put mine out on Kindle, I plan to also offer a print-on-demand version as well.

@outsider ...grandpa??? GRANDPA???? !!!!! You sure had us fooled there, with that pic...

 

I've been thinking about this statistic some more and have come to the conclusion that nearly the same would be true for paper books, especially if there was a weekly free distribution of some titles.

 

it is all about buzz

 

Yeah, I doubt the statistic is unique to ebooks, it's just much easier to track.