Comments on: eBooks, Kindle and the Sweet Smell of Electronic Ink

By: Therese Holland

Therese Holland — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:03:05 +0000

It’s odd but my daughter is doing a double degree and this semester (4th year) has been the most difficult to date. In prior years she and her fellow students have been happy to avoid purchasing textbooks and rely on downloaded material(don’t ask don’t tell). This semester they all decided they needed real textbooks to get to grips with the subject (thermodynamics) which seems to support the contention of the original post

By: Will the iPad and the iBook Store Change the Face of Publishing? | Bookshop Blog

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:38:04 +0000

[...] this whole new route to market with electronic books. eBooks are nothing new. The success of the Amazon Kindle has been nothing short of phenomenal, and it is one of Amazon’s biggest selling products. [...]

By: lindy

lindy — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:56:37 +0000

I have a site reviewing ereaders including the Kindle. As I live in Australia I have only recently been able to purchase the new Kindle which operates internationally.

I believe there has been massive improvement in the screen quality in this new version and for me the reading experience is close to that of reading a real book. The thing I actually miss is the book smell – something I had never thought about until it wasn’t there.

I read using my Kindle around 50% of the time, mainly when my eyes are tired as I can boost up the font size & use dedicated lighting. However, I can’t see any ereading device taking over from hard copy books.

Yes it’s convenient to be able to have a book in nano seconds at 3am BUT I still do all my browsing in bookstores and never leave without at least one purchase. How could any avid reader?

These new ereaders will change reading but only I feel as an adjunct to reading and purchasing real books and for the times when it is more convenient such as travelling.

Reader eBook

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:12:14 +0000

I’m conflicted on this one… On the one hand, I hate the Kindle for being a trendy, overpriced new device. On the other, it would be great for the environment to eventually move books off paper. This is something people always seem to forget… We need to chop trees for paper, and trees certainly don’t grow back over night.

I personally find reading on a screen to be painful though, so for now I’ll stick to regular books. I hope the idea develops further though.

By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:59:33 +0000

One of the things that drives me nuts about the Kindle is that I can’t tell where I am in the book, is it half way, a third, or towards the end. Some people say it helps kids read longer books because they don’t know what they’re getting into, interesting thought, but a good book that pulls kids in doesn’t need to worry about length, see books 5 thru 7 of Harry Potter.

By: janet

janet — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:30:10 +0000

Great thoughts, Kim. I just raced down the hill to buy a paperback I need to read for a meeting tomorrow. I could have downloaded it as an e-book, but didn’t even consider that. Here’s why:

I can read my paperback on my couch, sitting at the breakfast bar eating lunch, curled up in bed. In all locations, it’ll be easy to use. I can flip backwards to find something I read earlier while simultaneously holding on to where I currently am in the book, and compare the two sections with utmost of ease. I can tuck it into my handbag and take it to my daughter’s volleyball game this afternoon and not worry that it’ll be so bright out that I can’t see the words on the page. I can tell how far I’ve come in the book, and how far I have to go, and how long it’ll take to the end of the chapter (so I can decide easily if there’s time for another chapter before “The Amazing Race” starts). I don’t have to worry about battery life. If I want to, I can do all those things I tell my kids not to do to books: turn down a page to mark an important passage, turn the book upside down to hold my place if I have to run to the door. I don’t have to worry about getting it wet, I don’t have to worry about losing it (it was all of $6), I don’t have to worry about my kids trashing it.

You’re absolutely right about research and travel, though. I have Wikipedia bookmarked, and click over to it several times a day. The only paper dictionary I use any more is the (uncompleted!) Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang — and if it were online, I’d use it there. I haven’t picked up my trusty Roget’s in years. And I do all my travel research online and, just like you, buy one (maybe two) travel books for any given trip — books that I’ve already researched online.

But if I want to *read*…. it’s a book, a *real* book, all the way.