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

including loads of stuff that (surprise) is not available for e-readers

iPad, some reading but not the majority yet. I've bought e-editions of the 2nd Alex Ross book and the ESPN oral history, gotten a bunch of older free stuff in the public domain, and *cough* discovered some science fiction and Faulkner here and there on the web.

if i find myself on a bus or train or in a room with some time to kill, and maybe i'm not sitting comfortably or whatever, it is obviously easier to pull out a paperback and then shove it back in my bag or pocket if i need to move on quickly, then to pull out and switch on a whole fucking machine that definitely won't be as easy to shove away afterwards

You really have no clue what an e-reader is, do you? Also, no interest in learning; only decrying (cf. Cooking) .

I love my Nook mostly because I don't have a lot of storage space in my house for print books and it is very portable -- I can throw it in my purse and have lots of books available to read.

The reason I favor the Nook over the Kindle is that Amazon has not been crazy about Kindle users using Overdrive so that they can borrow ebooks from libraries or to share books. I'm not trying to sound like a Nook commercial, I'm sure that's probably true of the iPad or other ereaders that aren't the Kindle.

No it's cool, Amazon really are a bunch of assholes.

You really have no clue what an e-reader is, do you? Also, no interest in learning; only decrying (cf. Cooking) .

wtf? fuck you, seriously

i'm sure amazon are assholes but kindles are compatible with overdrive now

i have seen e-readers, both other people using them and ones belonging to friends of mine. they don't look anywhere near as easy to handle as a book.

as for cooking i tried for ten fucking years.

Yet you still have enormous misconceptions about them that you insist on defending despite hearing evidence that contradicts them.

did you even read my post?

Bickering aside, what do advocates of e-readers have to say about their effect on the availability of books, etc. to those who can't afford the readers, or otherwise don't have access to them?

I own an e-reader but I think it's mostly dud/still mainly read regular books

I own an e-reader and it's pretty classic but I still mainly read regular books.

Was sort of considering buying my mother one for Christmas but she is not super comfortable with computers (she is fairly competent at various Office tasks but will complain about how illogical they are all the way) and I think she is kind of attached to the idea of paper books

(also e-books are super expensive unless you are adept at finding real ebook links among download scam sites, which is totally not a route I want to have to coach my mother to go down - the Amazon ebook price is rarely more than a couple of pounds cheaper than the paperback price, and I don't see my mother wanting to pay that for something "virtual" which she'll be scared she'll delete by accident, or which Amazon have the right to take away from you again without warning)

case spudette's mother is the person in this thread i feel i have most in common with (and all her concerns otm!)

i'm with lex on this one

also it's kind of annoying posting in a thread with actual reasons that haven't been disproven and being shouted down just b/c i'm not on-message technologically - how do you people cope with the vast majority of people who are even less comfortable using new technology than i am?

Your positions have been rationally countered. You had no rebuttal except to restate your original positions.

how do you people cope with the vast majority of people who are even less comfortable using new technology than i am?

laughing and pointing, mainly

"nope", "nope", "nope" ≠ rational countering

c'mon lex they told you you were wrong, what more could you want

kindle for majority

Easy, cheaper, instant access to books

Lighter and more portable than one paperback

Free books

easier to read in bed/bath too

E ink screen does not strain eyes/cause headaches like backlit screen can

Basic models are very simple to use. I recently got my 1st cell phone ever, a very basic one, and it was more complicated than my e-reader.

Lex: n/a, ledge, julia, silverfish and others have presented benefits that counter your detractions. There are on 54 posts itt atm so they should be pretty easy to find... Or Are you trying to rea this thread using a paperback format?

fake sandbox lex

ie: an object composed of toxic chemicals that will be obsolete within several years vs. object composed of renewable resource that will last forever

― aesthetic partisan (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:16 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

this kinda analysis is actually very difficult to do cause "someone buys a paperback" involves more emissions than just cutting down some trees, you also have the emissions from a. transit of object b. brick+mortar store c. transit of human being to buy object. then if you really want to drive this to the ground you can say 'well what else would people be doing with that bookstore location, what happens to the money we'll save/spend w/ ebooks, etc. also w/ the way the economy works right now, isn't any new economic activity basically bad for the environment somewhere down the line? a: yeah...' even 'just go to the library' is like, fine, okay that works on an individual level, but libraries w/ physical books depend on a system where lots of people publish and buy physical copies of books.

you also have to consider that people are buying tablet type computers *regardless* of how much they read, so it's not really and either/or decision w/ paper books. using myself as an example I might buy a tablet *instead* of buying a new laptop and eventually tablet-devices will probably do everything our laptops do so reading a book on them won't be any 'worse for the environment' than reading ilx.

in conclusion there are better things to worry bout.

I read pirated ebooks on my iPad, like I downloaded every Discworld novel recently. l1br4ry.nu is hit-or-miss for textbooky things. I bought a few indie tabletop roleplaying games as PDFs that I read on the iPad.

Basically I might pay $3 but not $10 for an ebook of what would be a backlist mass-market paperback and I don't really want to buy a physical backlist mass-market paperback. Humongous postmodern novels, physical all the way.

I say, "get that e-reader offa my lawn, you punks!"

iatee otm. Just think of the carbon footprint of this baby
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/libraryken.jpg

reading a kindle in the city vs. reading a paperback in the suburbs

classic

Ytvgyivihbhi hjkhi

I just read that on my ereader.

The abridged version of Finnegans Wake with shorter thunderwords?

l1br4ry.nu

hmm, is this something that requires an invite?

Is the name in the URL of the image above being familiar just a coincidence?

Jesse, read me an ebook before bed. Plz.

The one with all the pretty pictures.

I am not especially for or against e-readers or paper. What was bugging me was that a couple advocates of paper ITT have been ardent and unrelenting in their derision of e-readers. Of course the poll is pretty inflammatory, but to me it feels like a reaction to the sanctimony coming from some of those in the throes of a backlash against e-readers.

I do not own an e-reader, but I will probably wind up with one sooner or later. I do most of my pleasure/personal interest reading on my iPhone, on my personal laptop, or my work computer. Reading on the iPhone is not great b/c it's just too small, and it's not e-ink.

As I see it - the merits e-reading and dead tree reading:

Paper:

- Flipping through and skimming is far easier

- Enjoyment of the tactile aspect, holding a real object, and being able to write on it (this is especially important to me). And autographable.

- Feels familiar and somehow wholesome, authentic, natural, earthy

- Won't malfunction, for the most part

- No great initial expenditure

- Accessible to more people

- Related to the last three: When the revolution or Armageddon comes, we will be able to use printed matter long after e-readers' batteries have died. (also, easier to smuggle paper - just try to carry a Kingle or Nook in your own "nook")

e-reading:

- Index or Table of Contents look up are much easier in a physical book. I find that this view is the other way around for me.

Nearly every single time I'm reading on paper, I wish for Ctrl+F capability. Especially if it's informational reading.

- Hyperlinks. To definitions, allusions, related information, etc.

- Portability. One light-weight device holds voluminous amounts of text.

- After the cost of purchasing the device, e-text is comparable or cheaper. And, as I understand it, e-books are available on loan from libraries (many? some?).

- Convenience of downloading reading material v. borrowing at the library, buying at a store, ordering online, borrowing from a friend, stealing.

- Kindle is idiot-simple to use. There are people in my life who are profoundly tech illiterate who enjoy their Kindles.

That is a big post.

maybe that poll option got truncated?

― nuhnuhnuh, Thursday, December 15, 2011 5:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

It said something about liking other people to know what you read in the park/on the subway etc. (b/c kindle ain't got covers right)

Anyway for the most part I just haven't taken very well to the e-reader experience. I don't especially dislike it, it's more like I just never felt like a book was something that needed improving. With the iPod I quickly saw the advantages of having a ton of different music in one tiny place, not having to change CD's, etc. With books it's pretty rare that I'd want more than one on me - in fact the vast possibility of e-readers is a distraction from reading for me (it's even worse with the iPad).

ie: an object composed of toxic chemicals that will be obsolete within several years vs. object composed of renewable resource that will last forever

― aesthetic partisan (Shakey Mo Collier),

this makes me realize you've never been to a paper mill.

Tonight I started some music with the Eno app Bloom, then I browsed through some books trying to decide which one to read next, and then I wrote two emails, and then Jaq started a Words With Friends game against me. Did all that from the same screen. SO difficult.

Lex's adversarial relationship with tech is such that I'd trust his opinion on e-readers as soon as I trusted his opinion on kitchen gear.

l1br4ry.nu

hmm, is this something that requires an invite?

― William (C), Thursday, December 15, 2011 9:17 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

lol no it's just g00gl3proofed

though when you visit it asks you to log in, and has no options to sign up

the ebook era adds a weird dimension to digital rights stuff - like I have a nypl card and my gf's college library has like every book known to man - between the two I can at the moment check out any book I'd ever want w/ a bit of legwork. and when I want to read something I generally do one of the two. otoh, if I found and illegally dl'd that same book for a kindle, it somehow seems harder to defend?

there was an ilxory party last week where virginia plain (librarian) and I were having a discussion w/ this twirpy author who kept claiming (w/ a shit eating grin) that he felt like libraries violated his property rights.

maybe there should be a spotify for books, idk.

xp to self whoa wait does it? I don't think it used to. I guess it does.

I own an e-reader and split my reading between that and regular books was my vote. Haven't bought a single e-book, I use gutenberg and yes I get pirated copies of non out-of-copyright stuff - but since I got my e-reader I've borrowed and bought more real books than ever before.

I don't especially dislike it, it's more like I just never felt like a book was something that needed improving. With the iPod I quickly saw the advantages of having a ton of different music in one tiny place, not having to change CD's, etc.

^^^^

textbook rental is a beautiful thing yeah.

I had no idea that was possible. And I've only been out of the textbook market for less than a year.

i have two copies of 'postwar' if you want one

i ended up making it part of my annual book-raid on my parents' house (along with two volumes of robert a. caro's a song of ice and johnson; the plane home was the first time in my life i've struggled w/ the overhead bins). much thx tho!

(did you like postwar?)

yes v much so

me too.

wait there's textbook rental??? swoon

Amazon UK is doing a '12 days of kindle' with lots of good, cheap (99p) titles: http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=1503253031
I looked to see if Amazon.com is doing the same but it seems not - I could only find a list of '$3.99 or below' titles that all looked shit.

You can rent physical text books, too - http://www.bookrenter.com/

I've rented text books. I've also sold text books I've found in dumpsters. Protip for all the hobos out there, untapped market.

I just want a cheap source of 60's scifi stuff. Tho, this format seems to work with all the classic short-story collections put out back then.

i picked up the entire wheel of time series for free, that was pretty economical imo

jibe i had to convert those, fwiw- i used an online converter but can't remember what it was called so i'm not actually any use to you but there you go

me too.

have you read 'ill fares the land'? i cant recommend it highly enough tbh

ha thanks darragh. i'll see how those books come out without any settings modified.

thanks to the democratization of publishing my friend who is way better at writing lots and lots of words than he is at writing good ones now has a bunch of ebooks in the kindle store. I don't recommend spending yr money.

unless you want to read his self-insert fantasies about managing a rock band or being a computer hacker and dating large-breasted women

have you read 'ill fares the land'? i cant recommend it highly enough tbh

― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, December 29, 2011 6:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

yeah i read this in like two hours and immediately donated my copy to the occupy portland library; as a (very personal and rightly so) manifesto against The Problem it's sterling.