I wonder what the future holds for eBooks. My first opinion was that the comfort of a warm book could not be replaced by cold technology. There is nothing like the smell of a new book, the crisp pages and the stiff spine. It is an invitation to lose yourself in another time, in a different place. The idea of a circuit board and chips giving you that same feeling seemed laughable. Much to my surprise, I bought my wife a Sony eBook for Christmas. I had talked myself out of it until I went to the bookstore and looked at one, and spoke to the clerk who used one. It was very small and looked very easy to use. There are inexhaustible selections of material to download, with much of the classic, out-of-prints books offered free. What clinched the deal were all the instant rewards. A new adventure is only a mouse click away. Not a trip to the bookstore, or eagerly waiting for the UPS driver, only a simple 5 second download, and you are ready to be swiped away to a new place. I think one she uses it, it will be her new best friend. I cannot help but wonder what this means to new and budding writers. Opinions?
I expect this will expand opportunity for writers, however, it may simultaneously diminish profitability for writers. Musicians went through similar angst when cassette recorders became popular and people began "sharing" music instead of buying records. Same thing happened to musicians when free online downloads and iPods became popular. Musicians and recording companies were forced to find new ways to "get paid" and many musicians lost income due to all the "sharing" of their music. I suspect a similar profitability issue for writers...more opportunity to write and less income for their work. So, how are writers going to earn more money? That's the real question.
i keep changing my opinion on them. I spend too much time on the computer and watching tv, so i don't think i'd like to use one because books are easier on the eyes. Then again i do have so much space taken up with books. I also do like doing to the bookshop and browsing, reading the first page, reading the back page, so I don't think i'll buy one. Also I'm not sure how popular they will be. I think it would be sad if bookshops started to close. (damn posting too much today, must go away and be productive....)
I use both. They're pretty much the same to me, but I try to keep both (e-book and a regular book_ of every book I have.
I believe that the ebook was worth buying if your wife used it and found it helpful. So did she use it?
I'll give it to her for Christmas, so we'll see if she uses it in another month, but I am sure she will.
Don't people already share books? It is when you like the author that you have the desire to own his works and not just copies. For new artists in the field, I think the sharing concept is great. I want to sell copies of my book, don't get me wrong, but I write for the pleasure of the readers. And the more readers see my name, and decide they like my style, the more books I will sell. eBooks could allow writer an easier way to publish their works as well. The product just seems to be developing slow so I wonder if it will fizzle out before it gets a good hold.
Still, we have a long way before usable portable ebook readers. I'm currently using my DS with an M3 as an ebook reader but honestly, it's not very good. I've seen the amazon device (can't remember it's name) but it had so much DRM it made me want to puke. The best one I have ever used was a mini-laptop (think, psp) loaded with vista, best ebook reader I've ever seen.
Well, I can't afford an e-book reader, and don't have a credit card to pay for e-books even if I did have a reader, and wireless Internet or whatever to download it all with isn't available here either, so it's a moot issue for me personally. I've downloaded free e-texts from Project Gutenberg and such but when all is said and done, I prefer real books with pages. I like the look of them on the shelf, the bulk of them, their covers, the smell of their pages when they're new. I'm actually buying some books that are in the public domain online because I prefer the hardcopy version...and I really don't get the chance to sit at the computer and read the monitor. I'm the same way with music. I haven't an MP3 player or any such so I prefer CDs. I dislike how technology is turning formerly concrete things (books, music devices) into abstract concepts (digital downloads). I like real things. Physical things. I'm old fashioned that way, but that's just me.
I've nothing against progress but in the case of reading, I prefer hardcopy to e-copy. It's just the way I am, and it definitely is easier on the eyes.
I generally prefer hardcopy books, but I can see advantages to e-books. The principal advantage I can see is packing efficiency. It you do a lot of travelling, you can carry one book or a couple dozen in the same amount of space.. But hardcopy books don't have to be recharged, and the contrast of black ink on white paper is less harsh than the same colors on a backlit LCD screen. Also, flipping pages is still easier with paper pages than virtual ones. I do have to say my groaning, sagging bookcases would be happier if my collection were ebooks. So would the beams beneath those floors.
I think that e-book readers such as the sony ones are a little on the expensive side, but the e-books themselves can be quite cheap and in some cases even made available for free. I do like the idea of being able to fit so many books on such as a small device and carry it with you wherever you go. For example, on an average day I travel an hour and a half to and from uni carrying any number of text books and research books that could usually be found in e-book format and therefore the weight could be greatly reduced. I'd also get a lot more reading done on such a small device as opposed to trying to balance a big book on a busy tram. If e-books are downloaded legally then the authors still get royalties, and we get cheaper books as the production costs are much less. And we get to save trees There are also benefits for my university studies in other ways. At my university some research documents/journals/books are available to download as e-books/e-journals/e-whatevers lol and this is a good idea because with thousands of students, and just a handful of copies it can be dificult to get the material you need for a class/essay etc. It also means you can keep it for longer, and re-use it. The amount of time i've spent in the library just looking for the books I need is probably enough time in itself to have written my essays!
Sony has a new model coming out so the 500 series should be much more affordable very soon. I found one with a $60 discount and free shipping, which really made it reasonable, I thought. You made an excellent point. I wonder if Sony could market them to the universities, at a deep student discount, then maybe the readers would go mainstream a little quicker. The newer models have a stylus so you can take notes with them as well. I finally had to wrap it up, and put it with the rest of the presents to keep from playing with it.
I am new to this forum, but found aout about it by being a part of Mobileread, a forum for e-book readers. I think that the future of reading and publishing is in the e-book realm. The ability to self-publish without it becoming the usual rip-off track is really very apparent. Getting paid for it will obviously become an issue, but I think that that will get itself straightened out. There is a huge market out there for e-books that is developing as we watch. I think that it will be exciting to participate.
I don't have a kindle or any kind of ebook reader other than my laptop which I can't take w/me to school. Through my library, I can download books and audiobooks; I've done both, but I've never actually read a book off my computer. Just isn't comfortable. I sometimes do math while listening to an audiobook (not always the best way to do homework, I know). I listen to audiobooks on CD while in the car & bus, but nothing beats having my paperback book in my backpack to pull out when time permits that.
Thanks I had heard that Sony were working on being more affordable, but their idea of affordable is still a little too expensive from where i'm sitting lol. The idea of being able to take notes is good too, I had been looking at getting a PDA. With a PDA (for about the same price as the 199.99 model) I could send emails, browse internet on WiFi, read e-books, take notes etc...
E-Book readers and E-books I'm interested in your opinion about E-book readers and e-books. Until now I was opposed to getting, say, a Kindle. I enjoyed my paper library and rummaging through used book stores looking for cheap treasures. Now with the upcoming release of the Nook by Barnes and Noble, I'm rather intrigued by the idea of carrying an entire library in my hands. The highlighting and annotating feature of the Nook also looks great. Are there any e-book reader users here? If you don't use one, why not?
I already do a lot of reading online (typing and editing my work, reading slush for MindFlights, going on forums, etc). So reading ebooks on a computer isn't first on my list. I think with the ebook readers, as long as they don't restrict readers too much what they can do with their books purchased, will eventually begin to increase share in books sold. My novel is available in print and ebook. I suspect that I'll sell more copies via print than ebook, and as NaCl indicated, ebooks are less profitable for the author, and actually the publisher--at least mine. But a reader is a reader, and beyond that I am a person who will pick up a stray penny or dime on the ground, so I won't scoff either at the method someone desires to read my work or if I earn a little more or a little less because of the reader's preferred method of obtaining and reading my work. In the end, I am happy someone decided to read my work over the tens of thousands of titles out there, and I hope they enjoyed the tale. Some day I may break down and purchase some sort of ebook reader (I understand they're easier to read from than a computer screen)--but right now the price is an issue, and my old fashioned preference for the printed page. Terry
My sister works at a book store and her boss is making all the employees promote it, but we are both against it (a book seller and a writer). She said something like you can't share the ebook while your still reading or it will lock up or revert back to the beginning. That would suck if your the first reader. And another thing, what if the scroll button is sensitive? I mean first you'd be reading page 1 and than accidently scroll to page five. I can't stand that on the computer, I hate losing my place. I'm from the old school hard-cover, or paper back...not a hot little device that's gonna crash on me like the computer does. Just my thoughts.
I'm not a big fan of reading from a screen. Most of the time, if there's something on a computer that I'm supposed to be reading, I print it out. It's easier for me having a hard copy of something sitting in front of me. I have a tendency to read three or four books at a time, so would it be more convenient to have them all on one tiny little lightweight device? Sure. But part of the fun of reading, for me at least, is holding the book in your hand, feeling the weight of it in your hands, the texture of each page, getting more and more excited as you near the end...real books are just more aesthetically pleasing to me, I guess.
Nothing will ever beat a real book. The solid, comforting, somehow warm feeling of a book in your hands, and the way the pages open for the first time, and the new-book smell can't be beat by a piece of metal. However, eBooks do have their advantages--better for the environment, easier to carry around......however real books will always tip the scale IMO.
