More in the World of Books
This post is brought to you by my friends E and J, who tag-teamed to send me information about bookstuffs.
First off, J sent me a link to Google's new "library" feature. Which sucks because I'm paying for LibraryThing, and I bet Google will do it even better. Google's like that.
Then E found this article from the New York Times about electronic books. I've always been a skeptic of e-books because as much as I love reading, after eight hours of a computer screen I've had enough. I already avoid getting my news online for just this reason. Still, that's no reason to pretend that big things can't come from this slowly-growing industry.
Read the article (ow! my eyes!)-- if the book readers were in your price range, could you see yourself using one?
6 Comments:
I personally love having a couple of eBooks on my PDA, especially classics that are in public domain. Great to read while traveling.
One of the reasons I've resisted buying an iPhone is I can't load ebooks on without a hack.
September 07, 2007
I would definitely try one out first. Reading is such a personal thing, if it felt like I was just holding a piece of hard plastic with crappy words on a screen, then I would never buy one.
The beauty of books is that light is absorbed into the paper and creates a glow behind the text.
Notes in the margin would be lost. Quick referencing would be gone. I'm still not over card catalogs going digital. The only upside I can see is that trees would benefit and it would be harder for conservatives to burn digital books.
September 07, 2007
I think the biggest improvement in the more recent e-book readers (like the one from Sony and the upcoming one from Amazon) is the E Ink technology. It makes the screen look less like a screen and more like real paper. They are also becoming smaller and more portable, which is a huge advantage over the older models. And when the biggest complaints about e-books are the difficulty reading from a screen and the lack of portability, it's hard to imagine many people not wanting to at least try one out. If they become more affordable, I think they might stand a chance of becoming more popular.
September 07, 2007
A few years back, I discovered Microsoft Reader and totally loved the concept. I went scouring the Internet for as many books as I could find. I downloaded Peter Pan totally seeing myself reading it to my children. Then I discovered Project Gutenberg and thought I would spend hours and hours reading classic literature on my reader. But like yourself, I realized that if I'm going to read a book, I prefer having to wet my fingers to turn real pages. In the end, I had a lot of hard drive space taken up with eBooks that I never read.
September 07, 2007
As archaic as traditional books can seem in comparison to all the nifty gadgets available, nothing can replace new (and old) book smell and the tactile part of reading! I do see the benefit of having a versatile device that lets you read and access unlimited information via the Internet, all while on the go.
However, anyone who flies knows "personal electronic devices must remain off until a the plane reaches cruising altitude and the captain turns off the fasten seatbelt sign!" That eliminates a substantial amount of reading time on short flights, which is a bummer...
Of course, stuff like this is inconsequential enough that I don't think it will hinder the eBook progress, nor do they totally outweigh the benefits. I'm just a sucker for the real thing :)
September 09, 2007
Wow, I am torn! As an avid reader and a true book fan, I can't imagine the experience of reading a book without the actual book - however, could an e-book take my reading to a whole new level? Lugging around four books on a vacation is no fun - if they all fit in a little PDA, that would be great! Could I "carry" all of my top picks on my reading list and read them at my own leisure...waiting in a long line, stuck in traffic, a bad movie in the movie theatre:)
September 10, 2007
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