Has the Kindle Ruined My Bookstore Experience?

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by david_e

I've even given up my monthly stop for magazines as they're all available digitally.

I haven't purchased a paper magazine in years. Decades even. But now that there are so many available on the iPad, I have several subscriptions. For me it's a much nicer reading experience, and I don't have to carry the things to the recycle bin.

[LovesMacs]

I didn't quite answer the original question in my long post. I still enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the serendipitous discovery in brick and mortar stores, but e-books and online shopping in general have diminished that. Bookstores are no longer the special destinations they used to be.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by david_e

I've even given up my monthly stop for magazines as they're all available digitally.

This is one switch I am in the process of switching back from. I have an iPad3, with the great resolution etc, but somehow, I just can't read mags on the iPad.

I have subscriptions to nine magazines. They come to me via Zinio and Apple's Newstand. They include major magazines and niche magazines. All of them basically ape the magazine format, without availing themselves of the possibilities inherent in the digital world.

For example:

1. If you've tried out the DC Comics app, you know that by an appropriate tap, you can go panel by panel through the comic. The panels refit to the screen, taking into account the orientation of the device. Yet not a single one of the mags I get makes it possible to adjust the content in any similar fashion. About the best you can do is unpinch to enlarge the page, then move it around to the place where you want it.

2. The ability to share articles, or even copy & quote paragraphs or sentences, does not exist. It seems to me that the people who publish these magazines simply don't grasp that "sharing" is targeted advertising for the magazine. For instance, it should be simple to allow clipping & sharing, while at the same time including advertisements and subscription come-ons. And why don't the publishers allow each subscriber to "share" an issue in its entirety to a couple of other people, as "free samples" or simply to recognize that digital magazines which are "passed around" might lead to new subscribers (ala all those blow-in suscription cards in pmags)?

3. There's no "interactivity" connection. No built in "letter to the editor" functionality. No comments functionality, either in the issue itself, or linked to a web page.

4. None of the magazines have an interactive contents page - they are all linear. I have to page through to what I want to read. I don't understand why the apps aren't designed so that you can tap a contents entry to go directly to the article, and then return to the table of contents. I don't understand why the reader can't select a view which gives him only the first page of each article, and allows him to page through those first pages, then drill down into a specific article by taping that first page. I don't understand why the reader can't select scrolling or pagination as the method to read an article.

5. Why don't these magazines, via their apps, allow the reader to select articles of interest from all issues of the magazine, as well as issues of other magazines, to be compiled in one "favorites" section, ala Pocket or Instapaper? That is, why don't these magazines allow for "clipping and storing" articles of interest?

6. And why can't they be printed? The reader should be allowed to select and print, for instance, recipes contained in an article.

Now, perhaps some magazines are doing these sorts of things, but not the ones I have. The ones I have are simply transferring the pmag to the digital world, and in the process, making the mags MORE linear rather than less, and leave them with LESS immediate accessibility & functionality than a pmag has.

So I am gradually drifting back to the paper versions.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Harmon

So I am gradually drifting back to the paper versions.

The paper versions tend to be cheaper too.

[Santos]

Originally Posted by david_e

I stopped buying books from B&N long before I transitioned to ebooks, preferring to get them delivered from Amazon.

I've even given up my monthly stop for magazines as they're all available digitally.

I still buy mag's n comics once in awhile.. I still like the feel of them

[djulian]

Originally Posted by Santos

I still buy mag's n comics once in awhile.. I still like the feel of them

I just can't go digital on comics--I love holding them, and I tried reading digital versions and hated it.

[crich70]

I know my Kindle Keyboard isn't good for reading comics on. Maybe the Kindle Fire or one of the other models but not the Kindle Keyboard.

[DreamWriter]

I haven't been in a bookstore for a very long time. There aren't any in my small town, so it's easier to buy books at Amazon. I still borrow hardbacks from the library occasionally, but I do much prefer to read on my Kindle.

[david_e]

.....

[Santos]

Originally Posted by djulian

I just can't go digital on comics--I love holding them, and I tried reading digital versions and hated it.

I feel the same way. I love holding the comics, smelling them.. etc. Vintage

But at the same time, I like reading Emotobooks.. and they are only digital. So I like both mediums.. just some I like to hold, and some I like digital.

I love both worlds

[spindlegirl]

I love shopping for e-books and queueing up library e-reads to wait for, and nabbing freebies when I see them here, but I still love sitting in the library with a book.

I was never much of a bookstore buff, but sitting in the library, was my ultimate introverts hangout.

But yes, with the internet being one big giant bookstore, it's so easy to find good deals on books.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

Local bookstores can't compete and I'm not willing pay an extra $8 per book just to support them. But I will be sad when they close.

In some cases yes. I still like printed books. It's nice having a readable book that expects to outlast my gizmos- I expect real books to cost more and don't mind it if it's a title I really want to keep forever. That having been said, the physical books are fewer and farther between.

I've bought a few books for my son, and the anticipation of them arriving in the mail just for him was nice.

[Blossom]

I gave up sleep today just to wait for UPS to deliver my husband's psychology textbook. This made me think how much easier buying it from a store would have been. Although the price difference is what kept me from doing that. $200 for the text book locally or $170 with Amazon Student Prime. I went with Prime and Amazon got the book here overnight. Classes start Saturday of all days.

I can't see paying a price like that for a ebook though.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

I was never much of a bookstore buff, but sitting in the library, was my ultimate introverts hangout.

We have a lovely library with interesting architecture, lots of natural light, decorated with art. There's an especially nice, walled-in outdoor area with a fountain. I've read my Kindle there just for the ambiance.

[bminata]

Umm.. I used to have stomach ache whenever I walked into a BN or Borders.. Must be the hormones or adrenalines or some other chemicals kicking in due to excitement

Since I have Kindles that is no longer the case. I can now walked into bookstores safely