Quote:
Originally Posted by alexxx
I owned ereaders since their beginning. - and I'm posting this from my ipad.
Yet reading about the sarcasm everywhere in this thread, I'm a bit saddened... Nothing for me will ever surpass the pleasure of holding a real books in my hands, nor - laugh as much as you want - its texture, its smell.
Please, feel free to swim in the digital seas as much as you want - I'll remain convinced that the zealots among you have lost a lot.
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Why do you think though that those of us who prefer e-books over "real" (i.e. physical) books have lost anything at all, never mind "a lot"? Is it so impossible to believe that for some of us, e-books are a genuine improvement in many ways, not just a way to make do?
I am likely in a minority here, but if I can
smell a book at all, I hate it. I can't stand the smell of ink; in fact, I'm somewhat allergic to it. I'm also allergic to dust, which the 1000+ paper books in my home tend to accumulate. I've always found it difficult to hold most mass market paperbacks open and reading them, while certainly being a tactile experience, is mostly a struggle, where the tactile experience of struggling to hold the book open enough to see the text (what with the often-narrow inner margins) takes the focus away from what I'm reading, enough so that I often needed to re-read a paragraph several times because my attention was on keeping the book open.
I do still buy the occasional paper book, if it's something I really love - although only if it has beautiful cover art (or isn't available electronically), which makes about five books a year (out of 300+ books a year I've been buying since switching to e-books). I prefer good quality hardbacks if possible, not because I particularly enjoy the tactile experience but because they tend to not stink, the ink doesn't rub off onto my fingers, and they are easier to hold open without a struggle.
I have a very hard time imagining what I have "lost" by shifting the overwhelming majority of my leisure reading (non-illustrated fiction) to a format that lets me focus on the content instead of making me sneeze or struggle with it.