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

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xp

iatee, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:26 (twelve years ago) link

Apple is known to be targeting schools for replacing textbooks with iPads. Besides not having to lug around a heavy backpack, the contents can easily be kept up to date, and unlike textbooks can offer links, sound, video, etc.

>- no noisy turning of pages in bed
- less heavy to hold and carry (especially if it's a big book you'd like to read in bed)

I've already heard some lolworthy "i take my iPad to bed" stories from friends, and given how many times I've awakened with my laptop on the floor, I fear that if I'm reading an iPad/e-reader i'll fall asleep, roll over it, and crush the screen. Still, reading in bed is why I prefer the backlit, color iPad-type screen to the "e-ink" Kindle screens that are great in sunlight, but not in dark rooms.

Which is less bothersome: your bedmate reading a book using one of those little book lights and flipping pages, or taking an iPad to bed and reading on it?

Everything else is secondary, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:35 (twelve years ago) link

iPad is grrrrrrrrrrreat for graphic novels. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it over a dedicated e-reader, though. Like I may have said, I often waffle about wanting an e-reader and then thinking it's just a waste

if you already have an iPad, I don't see any compelling argument to get an e-reader aside from wanting something smaller

OH NOES, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:36 (twelve years ago) link

That's my only compelling argument.

I prefer Jeff to read quietly using the iPad than rustle pages with a book light. iPad Kindle app has a white-on-black function that makes it easier to read in the dark and less bright to sleep next to.

wore glasses and said things (thejenny), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:51 (twelve years ago) link

(note: hate the white on black thing because I can't see it as well.)

wore glasses and said things (thejenny), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:55 (twelve years ago) link

I find reading real books harder. I get distracted by the shadows cast in the page, the edges of the page.

Jeff, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:58 (twelve years ago) link

i find e-readers less distracting too because the one-page-at-a-time thing keeps my eyes from drifting over the next page

n/a, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:59 (twelve years ago) link

i love reading, don't care that much about books.

I have had an increasingly hard time reading books for a few years, so sincerely, no challops intended, I'm finding myself loving books more than reading.

Sandbox Jesse, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:28 (twelve years ago) link

Because you don't read them?

wore glasses and said things (thejenny), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:29 (twelve years ago) link

I like having them around. I've had a few books on my night stand for months that I don't read, but I like having there. They're nice objects.

Sandbox Jesse, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:31 (twelve years ago) link

I just got a set of lamps for my birthday made out of old books

smoove operator, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:32 (twelve years ago) link

find ereaders more distracting because my eyes can't drift, but I've made my peace, sort of.

I have had an increasingly hard time reading books for a few years, so sincerely, no challops intended, I'm finding myself loving books more than reading.

feeling this.

wang dang google doodle (James Redd), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:34 (twelve years ago) link

That makes me angry.

Sandbox Jesse, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:41 (twelve years ago) link

Show me other pictures and I will tell you how they make me feel.

Sandbox Jesse, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:41 (twelve years ago) link

^^ at last a use for coffee table books

Aimless, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:42 (twelve years ago) link

i get the sneaking feeling that i will be getting one of these for christmas (kindle prob) and i dont know how i feel about that yet really. i buy almost all my books (and i buy lots of them) used so idk if there will really be any cost saving aspect. i guess we'll see.

PROVEN BY BOOZE SCIENCE, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:48 (twelve years ago) link

The thing I love most about my Nook is that I can jump back and forth between reading on it and reading on the Nook application on my phone and the applications will sync to the last page I read if I am in a wi-fi location.

this is awesome

thompp, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:02 (twelve years ago) link

so which e-reader has the least ugly kerning

thompp, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:04 (twelve years ago) link

i don't know that books are any more linked form-to-content as a uh fetish i guess than eg music to vinyl sleeves or film to reel/vhs case. Maybe a little more so, but not to the extent that books won't nonetheless become a vintage statement accessory for future hipsters or w/e

twice banned gabbage is death (p much resigned to deems), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:07 (twelve years ago) link

they're significantly more linked form-to-content than are music and films, which themselves are significantly more linked f-to-c than software, say

thompp, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link

wait i sort of skipped over 'as a fetish' there, though i probably still agree with myself (i always do)

thompp, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:17 (twelve years ago) link

I dunno. Based on the fact that books-as-fetish-objects have been around for 575 years (and even before Gutenberg, as rarer things), they're probably going to stick around in a way that cassettes/vinyl/film reels won't. There have been lots of challenges to the physical form of the book before, schisms and failures, and I doubt that a new form of distribution is going to kill them b/c it is currently in nascent vogue.

remy bean in exile, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:18 (twelve years ago) link

People thought vinyl was dying in the 90's, and it still hasn't.

flexidisc, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:20 (twelve years ago) link

for some reason ereaders are like the one piece of new-ish technology that seems tailor made for old ppl, like they feel really stodgy and middleaged to me.

ice cræmde (є(٥_ ٥)э), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 19:20 (twelve years ago) link

for some reason ereaders are like the one piece of new-ish technology that seems tailor made for old ppl, like they feel really stodgy and middleaged to me.

― ice cræmde (є(٥_ ٥)э), Wednesday, December 21, 2011 1:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

Because you can make the font bigger.

wore glasses and said things (thejenny), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:44 (twelve years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:01 (twelve years ago) link

one my e-books I had on hold from the library is now available. i wonder how this will work....

calstars, Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:14 (twelve years ago) link

it will only be a matter of time before the number of e-copies of titles will go from finite to infinity

calstars, Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:15 (twelve years ago) link

After which, it will go to infinity plus one, then plus two...

Aimless, Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:31 (twelve years ago) link

interesting thoughts here on how primitive and perhaps wrong-headed the epub format is, don't necessarily agree with his conclusions but errrrrrr makes you think...
http://crookedtimber.org/2011/12/21/e-books-and-ipads-and-pdfs-some-thoughts/

ledge, Thursday, 22 December 2011 09:37 (twelve years ago) link

I pretty much completely disagree with that article

ebooks becoming more like pdfs would be terrible

silverfish, Thursday, 22 December 2011 13:56 (twelve years ago) link

ha yeah that guy doesnt really get technology

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:27 (twelve years ago) link

"b b but why would you want to do it any other way?" = apple user.

You failed, you didn’t eat the whole pizza (NotEnough), Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:31 (twelve years ago) link

I don't get the problems he's talking about. Websites might show up with problems on certain devices, but ebooks are usu just text, right? And it's pretty readable? Idgi. What is he getting at?

Sandbox Jesse, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:33 (twelve years ago) link

lol its funny he has a whole long update clearly inspired by people telling him hes an idiot where hes all yeah i know ebooks need to be readable on lots of different devices but what this blog post presupposes is what if they dont

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:33 (twelve years ago) link

Aye you're right, there's nothing wrong with text that flows to fit whatever device it's on. "Layout" beyond chapters and paragraphs just isn't an issue for 99% of books.

ledge, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:36 (twelve years ago) link

hes right that ebooks tend to lack the polish of printed matter, but his solution is just silly, and he doesnt even particularly identify the specific qualities of the problem, like there are a lot of people working really hard on this doggie, lol pdf

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:41 (twelve years ago) link

Well I don't know that things are that easy. I think there is a place for both a variable, scaleable, context-/device-dependent format and a locked-down, .pdfish model. (Although something a little more sturdy and robust than .pdf would be nice...). In other words, I can see, say, comic book geeks really liking to read things w/ certain well-defined dimensions and presentation standards, while most books/articles will be seved equally well by being read as 160 words on a b&w iphone screen as enlarged on a 27" monitor.

remy bean in exile, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:44 (twelve years ago) link

yeah obvs 'books' thatre primarily images have a whole nother set of demands

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:45 (twelve years ago) link

This issue is v. prominent in adaptive/assistive/instructional info techology, where the divide b/w 'image' and 'text' is pretty fuzzy.... somebody's gotta come up with something better than a .pdf to allow input and the preservation of precise, functional formatting that is somehow useable on more than one type of device. HTML5 isn't a bad option, frankly, but it'll need wider acceptance/support.

remy bean in exile, Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:54 (twelve years ago) link

was just thinking abt ui design in adaptive/assistive technologies, not really something i know anything abt, but it seems p interesting

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:13 (twelve years ago) link

OK, so I guess I was understanding him to the extent that he was making sense.

But is flowing text "plug ugly"? It doesn't seem that way to me, a non-techy consumer.

Sandbox Jesse, Thursday, 22 December 2011 17:37 (twelve years ago) link

its just 'people talkin abt fonts for no good reason' m/l

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 22 December 2011 17:38 (twelve years ago) link

But is flowing text "plug ugly"? It doesn't seem that way to me, a non-techy consumer.

c/f images upthread

thompp, Thursday, 22 December 2011 17:53 (twelve years ago) link

I meant, does it seem "plug ugly" to you, dear reader.

Sandbox Jesse, Thursday, 22 December 2011 18:03 (twelve years ago) link

the problem with the crooked timber thing is that 'just use pdf!' is a ridiculously awful solution to the problem. but it's still a solution which would produce better looking results than the current paradigm

here's some text on the nook:

http://int64.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/badjustify.png

that's from an article which has the even better thesis at least if you have a nook you can dump your epubs into pdfs and redo the typesetting yourself and read that which i am guessing probably even more of a non-starter for most people

however i feel like this is right:

"My only real gripe is that, like al­most every other e-​read­er out there, it has such poor type­set­ting that you have to won­der if it was de­signed by soft­ware en­gi­neers who aren’t big read­ers"

which, you know, ding ding ding

xpost: yes.

thompp, Thursday, 22 December 2011 18:04 (twelve years ago) link

I tried for like 5 minutes to be a typeface snob, but I realized that I don't detect any difference in value between similar typefaces. "Readability" is not an issue for me beyond actual illegibility.

Sandbox Jesse, Thursday, 22 December 2011 18:11 (twelve years ago) link

Concur

Jeff, Thursday, 22 December 2011 18:15 (twelve years ago) link


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