E-Readers (Kindle, Nook, using iPad for reading) yay or nay

I've got three books open on my desk. One of them is 1Q84; it's got +/- 44 lines of text per page, +/- 100 characters per line. There are 0-3 hyphens per page, and only prominent – immediately noticeable - weird spacing due to justification. The text is fairly dense, and it easily absorbs a lot of spacing issues w/o seeming too deliberate. I have yet to see an ereader/electronic screen that can display that amount of information in a way that is not overwhelming or eyestrain inducing...

there's also stuff like - pretty much all faber poetry is typeset the same way. it's a part of how the meaning and the weight of the words you read are constructed. i'm not sure i like the idea of taking that away from the interaction you have with the text. (there's an argument that having personae reduced to the same standards as a self-published .epub of poetry about vampires is a democratic step forwards and a good thing but i think it's an argument that's basically wrong.)

xpost yeah that's another thing -- pretty sure that a lot of ppl who read a lot will use this things with smaller text; screenshots always seem to have like a 35-45 character wide line. (this is in part bcz if you want a screenshot that works on a monitor which is most likely going to have a smaller dpi you need to not use the smallest text size.)

only ONE prominent - immediately noticeable – spacing due to justification.

hyphenating bothers me a lot more than weird spacing. I only notice weird spacing in extreme cases. Not being able to read a whole word without moving my eyes from one side of a page to the other is way worse. I notice it every time even after 20+ years of reading books.

hyphenating to facilitate a line break is a crude last resort, compared to deft leding

ur thinking of kerning/tracking

Woot's got refurbished Kindle DXs for $199 today.

Main problem with the Sony one - or my first gen one at least - is that it has a separate socket for charging and won't charge through the USB socket. Which sucks if you forget to charge it beforehand and to bring the right cable when you go home for Xmas.

Weird thing about the syncing is that in my experience the Kindle iPhone app will try to sync to the last page read on the actual Kindle, but not vice-versa.

Just got me one of these things today. Trying to figure out how to hack it.

Had a look at my dad's kindle. Not the latest gen, has a keyboard, but page turning still a lot faster than my v old Sony, and can see the use in having a keyboard for searching. Wifi connection handy too although my uncle wanted to know how much the new Clive Cussler would cost so i took a look at the price, then went back to the home screen - or so I thought. Turned out I'd bought the damn thing, although I never clicked the 'buy' button and certainly didn't see any confirmation screen :|

one of my law partners is obsessed with reading books on his cell phone and -- even moreso -- audiobooks. i have no interest in either option. i want to feel a book in my hands. it's weight, packaging, the pages themselves add something to the experience for me that an efficient machine (or the assistance of a narrating voice) will never match.

I love reading books on my phone on the train while commuting

ditto, it's amazing.

C'mon people don't really give a shit about "the feeling of the paper"
and stuff, is that really what you're thinking abt when you read?

I'm pretty sure my e-copy of Nixon has the same words in it as the physical copy

If reading text doesn't provide enough excitement by itself, maybe you hate reading

no. i like reading. i get no feel or excitement from the technology. feels very cold to me.

i can read!

read a book just last year, in fact.

bizarre.

true story.

I just don't get this hypersensitivity, like is it impossible for you to read an ebook because you can't stop thinking about how "cold" it is?

The Internet is even colder

it's really not hypersensitivity. i'm not adamantly against kindles and similar devices; i just prefer physical books.

i also prefer vinyl to compact discs, and compact discs to mp3s. but i've made the switch to mp3s because they're so much cheaper. if the price-gap with physical and electronic books reaches those levels, i'd likely go with a kindle-type device.

alright fine but you could have mentioned that in the first place before I started goin all hardman

merry christmas!

(from a jew)

The tactile qualities of a physical book are a bonus for me.

kindle evangelists really will not stand for any dissenting point of view, will they

You are a ding dong. xpost Jesse.

That is not what the content of this thread would show. At all.

Xpost to lex

Also to lex, you are a ding dong.

you know he won't be swayed by anything resembling a fact, right?

William (C)

i don't really get the impression that you think there are any valid facts or reasons not to want a kindle

The tactile qualities of a physical book are a bonus for me.

― Sandbox Jesse, Sunday, December 25, 2011 9:11 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Dont agree with ding dongs.

The ergonomics of books are pretty important (re: paper feel, etc.) - mass-market paperbacks usually have shitty printing and paper and especially with longer books are unpleasant to read. I don't like hardbacks in general (more of a pain to carry and read), but I especially don't like books with uneven pages opposite the binding.

Reading a quality trade paperback is probably still better than on a e-ink reader, but I'll take my Kindle over mass market pbs or hardcovers whenever possible.

Simply not wanting an ereader is reason enough for me.

I have the ability to see why one would want one

And reasons one would not want one.

I have problems with the unilateral damnation of them with attendant refusal to acknowledge any good in them, "lalala no no no not listening."

Xp

Ok, got the thing working. Not bad, but I already brought 4 other books with me on this trip along

Overall experience of reading physical book still the best. The iPhone is obviously the most portable but after a while the glare causes a bit of eyestrain, find it good for reading samples but not whole books. The Kindle device with the e-ink splits the difference.

I like my iPhone Kindle app for non-fiction, stuff I can pop into for a few pages while I'm in line somewhere. Can't get into novels that way, though.

amazon kinder

I just got one for Christmas! And I can apparently get books from the library, which was one of my main concerns.

Dont agree with ding dongs.

No one was agreeing with me. Or with lex.

I don't care if people like kindles or not but the whole "books are better because they have soul" thing is dumb as hell. Hearing about how people like to run their fingers through pages is gross.

I mean, what the hell is this "experience" people talk about wrt real books? Is it erotic?

sometimes.

brb . . .

Sensual yes, erotic no.

What books have going for them is that, when they are well-designed, they represent the culmination of many centuries of design iterations and refinements. otoh, only some books are designed with that level of care and knowledge. Cost factors almost always rule the book design process, so in a typical year you get a ton of shitty airport-bookrack mass paperbacks, a plethora of mid-range coffee table books, a smattering of oddly sized and self-concious "look at me" designs, plus a few well-printed literary books that make good use of quality paper, binding, typeface and typesetting.