Ebooks on the way out?

jasper · Apr 1, 2014

Some of could be due the format of e-books. I know certain non-fiction ebooks I bought last year format was bad. Ex. Font changes, pictures \diagrams being outplaced. So I have been wary of buying nonfiction ebooks now.

Nellisir · Apr 2, 2014

Dioltach said:
everybody I know who has switched to an e-reader was instantly hooked, and I'm talking about people who fervently swore nothing could ever replace hardcopy books.

I switched to an e-reader when I went overseas last summer (easier to take one e-reader than 4-8 books), and switched back to hardcopy as soon as I got home. Ereading is fine, but nothing beats a book.

Mark CMG · Apr 3, 2014

In a related story, the Schwinn family issued a statement saying automobiles were soon to be a thing of the past . . .

Hand of Evil · Apr 3, 2014

That is because there is an apocalypse coming.

In a wasteland of zombies, mutant monsters and robot overlords, books may still be around and seen as barter items.

Quentin3212 · Apr 3, 2014

Working in a library I see this topic come up fairly often, and considering libraries the world over are latching on to the ebook technology in a big way I doubt they are on their way out.

In my eyes ebooks are the next step in how humans share written information, they are superior in almost every way to traditional books and the only thing really holding them back right now is people's nostalgic attachment to paper books. Give us a few generations raised with ebook technology and you will really start to see the shift in earnest, this is assuming our technology continues in the direction it's currently going of course.

Books, wonderful that they are have been outmoded, like clay tablets and papyrus scrolls before them they will one day be completely replaced outside museums and collections. As far as I'm concerned anyone who tries to say that books as a mass medium are eternal is shortsighted.

Zombie_Babies · Apr 3, 2014

My wife is a Kindle person and I'm real books only. I don't care what people say about ebooks, they're dumb. I don't need batteries or a charger to read a book. I don't need to worry about eye strain when I'm looking at ink on a page. And if I spill a drink accidentally while I'm reading and soak my book, I'm not out $200+.

Umbran · Apr 3, 2014

Zombie_Babies said:
I don't care what people say about ebooks, they're dumb.

As in most things, I think it depends upon the situation.

These days, I get a significant amount of my reading done on my morning commute. On a crowded train, managing the crud I'm carrying and something to read I've found far easier with my Nook tablet than with a physical book. And getting stuff from the public library on it is dirt easy!

On the other hand, I still find using e-book for gaming materials to be annoying and dumb.

trappedslider · Apr 3, 2014

for some of my books,it's cheaper to get them on kindle when the first come out. However for some of the series i own,some of the books are paperback and the rest are on the kindle.

Dioltach · Apr 3, 2014

Zombie_Babies said:
My wife is a Kindle person and I'm real books only. I don't care what people say about ebooks, they're dumb. I don't need batteries or a charger to read a book. I don't need to worry about eye strain when I'm looking at ink on a page.

I used to think the same. But I decided to give it a try (after I went to the Caribbean with my wife and had finished two of the four books I'd packed before we arrived) and bought a Kobo Touch. I'm very pleased with it. No eye strain because the e-ink is very stable and easy on the eyes (and adjustable font size is nice too). It's easier to read in bed, if I have one arm around my wife I don't have to disturb her every time I want to turn the page. I can download the books straight onto the Kobo without needing to wait for them to be delivered or finding the time to go to the bookshop and hoping what I want is in stock.

And if I spill a drink accidentally while I'm reading and soak my book, I'm not out $200+.

It wasn't a drink, but I did drop my Kobo in the bath once. Put it in a plastic bag with some rice for two days, hit the reset button and it worked fine. (And it didn't cost me $200 either -- 90 pounds, whatever that is in dollars nowadays.)

Zombie_Babies · Apr 3, 2014

Umbran said:
As in most things, I think it depends upon the situation.

These days, I get a significant amount of my reading done on my morning commute. On a crowded train, managing the crud I'm carrying and something to read I've found far easier with my Nook tablet than with a physical book. And getting stuff from the public library on it is dirt easy!

On the other hand, I still find using e-book for gaming materials to be annoying and dumb.

Meh, I'd still rather have a book. There's ritual to it that no electronic device will never capture.

What's odd in my case is that when I game I use my laptop to search rules. I still use a paper character sheet (crafted with Excel and printed off - but that's more to do with my atrocious handwriting than anything else) but when it comes to checking an ability or specific rule, I just use the Pathfinder SRD. It's clunky as hell but it beats lugging around a hundred pounds of books every session. I wonder why I don't crave the physical book like I do with novels.

My refusal to convert is also sort of odd in that I'm in IT, heh.

trappedslider said:
for some of my books,it's cheaper to get them on kindle when the first come out. However for some of the series i own,some of the books are paperback and the rest are on the kindle.

Most of the books I buy are $20 or less. That's plenty cheap and I read a lot. Like, a lot. Right now I have 4 books on my desk at work cuz I don't wanna run out in the middle of one. I never order one book at a time. I guess I either don't buy stuff that's expensive or just don't see the money I do spend as a lot.