Comments on: E-Books

By: Mervi

Mervi — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:58:06 +0000

I’m waiting for better eReaders. Right now, they have too many drawbacks, such as price, availability, and the DRM. But when someone comes up with a paperback sized, cheap, and DRM-free Reader, I’m jumping in!

By: heather

heather — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:58:37 +0000

Seems like really what we need is an e-book reader that isn’t outrageously expensive and that as closely as possible replicates the feel of sitting back with a treasured book in your hands. I wonder how long it’ll be before we get something like that?

By: Literary Feline

Literary Feline — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:58:50 +0000

I would be open to giving e-books a shot if I had a good e-reader like the Kindle or Sony E-Reader (neither of which I’d be willing to splurge on right now). Like you, reading at the computer or on 8in 11in paper isn’t too appealing.

By: Tara

Tara — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:55:25 +0000

E books just don’t appeal to me at.all. It’s just not the same. I want to hold the book, look back through the pages, lay in bed with it…My husband has suggested he’d buy me a kindle….I begged him not to.

By: Trish

Trish — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:42:34 +0000

I didn’t read any of the other comments, so I hope I’m not just repeating what others have said, but for me the enjoyment of reading comes from being able to escape (physically and mentally). Being tied to a computer is not my idea of escape and reading printed sheets of paper would remind me too much of my grad school secondary reading. Recently I’ve tried audiobooks, but the experience (so far) isn’t as enjoyable as crawling into bed and diving into my book.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:12:57 +0000

I’ve never brought or read an e-book. Considered it but never did anything about it.

By: heather

heather — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:33:21 +0000

Thinking about what you guys are saying, and my own objections, I guess the problem for me is that I haven’t found an acceptable ebook reader yet. The Kindle was so far out of my price range that I didn’t even bother reading up on it. If I could get an e-book reader that wasn’t much larger than a paperback (maybe between a paperback and hardback in size), had batteries that could last for, say, twelve hours of reading, was easy to backup and download new books to, and didn’t cost a fortune, then I expect I’d be all over e-books. Particularly with a good, back-lit screen with the ability to adjust font size, bookmark my spot in a book, and maybe even make a few notations here and there.

By: robustyoungsoul

robustyoungsoul — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:06:54 +0000

I would jump on eBooks in a second if I could ever find a dedicated piece of eBook reading hardware that I actually liked. Amazon’s Kindle came the closest so far. I’m hoping it happens sooner rather than later because having the ability to carry an entire library of books around on one device would be fantastic, and great for keeping them safe/backed up. I thought I would never get rid of CD collection, but I did. If there was a way to somehow import my existing books into an eBook device, that would be truly spectacular!

By: Zoso

Zoso — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:30:00 +0000

I can’t read anything more than a short story on a normal PC screen, but I’ve been reading the odd e-book on PDAs for several years now. Even an 8Mb device could pack a decent selection of books, with gigabyte memory cards you can have thousands of the things in your pocket… if you have thousands of e-books. I have to confess I haven’t bought very many, I’ve mostly read free stuff (Project Gutenberg et. al., Creative Commons stuff like Accelerando, etc.), and maybe an occasional not-entirely-legitimately-acquired book (though I try and get a physical version from the library at some point, which offers a little moral if not legal absolution). Two main advantages; convenience (easier to carry than a stack of books on a long journey), and I can read in bed without disturbing my wife so much.

Devices like the Amazon Kindle look interesting (if they’d only release it outside the US), in a sort of pre-iPod-MP3-player kinda way (or even a first-gen iPod kinda way). The Readius looks *really* interesting, but maybe there isn’t really a market…

By: ScottM

ScottM — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:50:08 +0000

I’m in the same boat regarding ebooks. I want to like them, and I love sampling older works via Project Gutenburg before tracking it down for real… but it doesn’t feel the same reading on a screen.

I think the cat on the blanket you’re snuggled under is hard for ebooks to match. Physical books– especially paperbacks, just feel more relaxing. Though maybe that’s because computer = work; if I read more ebooks I might break that link.