pbook vs. ebook(s)

[twowheels]

Bought this pbook for my daughter for Christmas. Already had a copy on my Kindle, along with others (of course), and the distinction was especially striking.

[SeaBookGuy]

I had been interested in E. F. Benson's "Lucia" books - my library had the omnibus edition ... all six, only 1200 pages!

Then, I thought ..... let me check ....

It's here at Mobilereads as an available public domain download. One for me, and one e-mailed to the friend to whom I recently gifted my Sony 505.

[John Carroll]

I definitely think the ebook wins. I'm really wanting to get one for my wife and I so we can start moving our bookshelves out of the house. 5 people in 1200 sq ft doesn't leave a lot of room for printed books.

[Steven Lake]

Ya know what's funny? Logic would say that the ebook is the better choice, but if you ask 1000 people which they'd rather have, like only 3% will say ebook, and the rest will chose the print book, not because of simplicity, ease of use or anything like that. It's because they're most comfortable with them. There's also an increasing number of people who read because they want to "unplug" from their daily deluge of electronic gizmos. For me there's never been a need to unplug at the end of the day. I could go straight from work where I spent all day bathed in electronics, to home where I'd continue to bathe myself in them all over again. Most people however can't. When the day is done, the plug comes out and the paper comes out. It's probably why ebooks haven't gotten any bigger than they already are.

[daffy4u]

Hmmm, I've seen posts on MR about the growth of ebooks. I just did a Google search using "ebook sales growth" and found one article from Publishers Weekly dated December 10th that says:

Facing some harder comparisons, e-book sales posted their slowest growth rates in 2010 in October. Still, sales jumped 112.4%, to $40.7 million, from the 14 publishers who reported results to the AAP’s monthly sales program. For the first 10 months of the year, e-book sales from the 14 houses rose 171.3%, to $345.3%, 8.7% of the trade sales of reporting publishers. The three adult categories all had declines in October and for the 10 months of 2010 adult hardcover sales from 17 reporting houses fell 7.7%, and sales from 9 mass market houses were down 14.3%. Sales of trade paperbacks from 19 publishers were flat.

To twowheels, I weighed my hard cover version of "Under the Dome" and it was a hefty 3 pounds. I was very happy to carry it around for reading on my Kindle.

[mldavis2]

Ultimately, ease of use transcends the media. An eReader is lighter, easier to hold (a real one-hander), eliminates the need to keep up with your bookmarker, and has a built-in dictionary for those of us who are vocabulary-challenged and don't want to get up to find one. Slightly lower book prices is a bonus. Unless you still need to fill holes in your bookcases, what's not to like?

[Latinandgreek]

I commute, and I read a lot during my commute. I used to have smaller "commute" books and would leave the doorstoppers at home, so that I wouldn't have to lug them on the bus. Thus, I'd always be reading two or more books at the same time. My Sony reader solved that problem. (Well, I still often have several books going at once, but at least now I can carry them all with me!)

[pholy]

Originally Posted by John Carroll

I definitely think the ebook wins. I'm really wanting to get one for my wife and I so we can start moving our bookshelves out of the house. 5 people in 1200 sq ft doesn't leave a lot of room for printed books.

Wouldn't it be easier to get one or more of the people to move out? Of course, you may have to wait until they are 18. Still, and all...

[JeremyZ]

I just read that a few months ago. When I found out how long it was, I thought: "Wow, I'm glad I'm reading this on my Kindle and not on paper. It would be a killer."

Recently, I wanted to re-read the Dragonlance Chronicles from my youth. Looked for them on Kindle: no dice. Bought the trilogy in one book. (saved a bunch of money that way) The weight and size of the book really took some of the fun out of it while reading in bed or while commuting. When it is not super cold, I commute by bike, train, and bus, every day. One really notices every extra pound when carrying it on a bike!

Reading in bed is also not as nice with a big paper book. Can you imagine trying to hold that monster up with one hand?

e-book readers have really succeeded in making the device transparent. When I put down my Kindle after an enjoyable reading session, I can't help but marvel at the device itself. I forgot I was using a device! it doesn't FEEL like an electronic gadget.

[John Carroll]

I still like the paper books. I really do, and I honestly don't want to switch, but I like the idea of 1 small reader with thousands of books and I like that it's the way of the future. I think our children and grandchildren will be looking at our paper books and wondering how we ever managed.

[jbcohen]

If you ever saw my library in my basement you would understand why I have gone digital with my reading habbit. The basement is almost filled to the gills with dead tree books and no more spce to put any additional novels. Thus I have gone digital out of necessity, it gives me the ability to read additional titles without adding the spawl in the basement.

However, there are probably several reasons why electronic reading is not more popular than it is at the moment:

1) Cost: The most prominant of the electronic readers readers are rather expensive for most perspecitive readers $300 to $180 for the more prominat readers is a bit high for most perspecitive readers. Most do not know about the Aluratek Libra Pro or the Jet Book which typically sell for around $90, more doable for most perspective readers.

2) Electronic Readers have not obtained the level where they are considered to be trendy or fasionable as yet. Not like the Ipod, Ipad and Iphone has managed to achive.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

There's also an increasing number of people who read because they want to "unplug" from their daily deluge of electronic gizmos.

While I also love to continue to mess with my electronic gizmos I personally feel like the Kindle *IS* unplugging. That's why I like it as a reader over the iPad, Nook Color, etc. It has a laid back feel, and I'm very happy that it doesn't have games, excessive internet connectivity, etc. It really only does one thing, without distractions, and does it quite well. It hasn't been plugged in in almost a month and might as well not be electronic, I can almost forget that aspect.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Bought this pbook for my daughter for Christmas. Already had a copy on my Kindle, along with others (of course), and the g]

Just looking at that picture made my hand ache!

Originally Posted by John Carroll

I definitely think the ebook wins. I'm really wanting to get one for my wife and I so we can start moving our bookshelves out of the house. 5 people in 1200 sq ft doesn't leave a lot of room for printed books.

I did that about this same time last year. I checked the ISBN on Amazon, took the "used" price for all of them, donated them to my library, and had a nice verifiable charitable deduction for my taxes. We cleared out everything except travel books and rock books (because we are rockhounds). Then we quickly re-filled the shelves with mineral displays.

It felt great to get rid of all of those books. My degree was Eng Lit, so we had shelves and shelves of textbooks of the classics. Most of which are available here in the MR library. So once I got over the anxiety of committing to getting rid of books, it was liberating.

[Dark123]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

If you ever saw my library in my basement you would understand why I have gone digital with my reading habbit. The basement is almost filled to the gills with dead tree books and no more spce to put any additional novels. Thus I have gone digital out of necessity, it gives me the ability to read additional titles without adding the spawl in the basement.

Same with me. I filled up an entire bookcase (it was a small one) so I bought one which was 3 times it's size then filled that one up as well, then I put half the books into a box then filled that up and the bookcase as well. In the end I was starting to run out of space for books. So I decided to go digital. eBooks win easy. No need for extra space. No need for me to carry around 1 book only.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

Reading in bed is also not as nice with a big paper book. Can you imagine trying to hold that monster up with one hand?

e-book readers have really succeeded in making the device transparent. When I put down my Kindle after an enjoyable reading session, I can't help but marvel at the device itself. I forgot I was using a device! it doesn't FEEL like an electronic gadget.

I agree with you 100% about e-book readers not feeling like a gadget. As for reading in bed, my husband read The Count of Monte Cristo a few months ago, and was begging me to borrow my reader after seeing me read one-handed.

And no, I didn't let him borrow it - I wouldn't have gotten it back!