Since you have been reading electronic books

[crich70]

Originally Posted by usuallee

Owning an ereader probably has led to a bit more reading.

Surprised that no one has mentioned audiobooks. In the past year I have rediscovered them, and that has been the factor that has led to a big jump in reading. Having a smart phone that you can effortlessly load several audiobooks onto with an app that can skip back a few seconds if I missed something, and speed up pace of the narration has really revolutionized audiobooks for me. In the past audiobooks just were not appealing or convenient enough. I can now "read" while at the gym, doing housework, going for walks, etc. I used to listen to a ton of music, but that has been reduced dramatically as a result of audiobooks.

The K3 does have TTS capability but for some unknown reason Amazon didn't see fit to implement that feature into the PaperWhite. I don't know why not as it would certainly be useful if you are out and about and want to listen to a book, or have bad eyes so that the increased font helps you find what you want and then you can listen to it. Hopefully in the next Kindle they will put that feature back in.

[SouthernSun]

I've been reading about the same amount since getting my Kindle - I've always been an enormous bookworm and I'm a frequent victim of the "woman's purse", so I can always fit a book into my handbag. My reading selections have changed, though, as the Kindle has made many different kinds of books much more accessible (something that immediately comes to mind is the tens of thousands of public domain texts available in my country). In that light, I'm reading more in terms of what I'm reading, but I haven't noticed any change in the quantity of books read.

[Geralt]

Definitely more.
And now I've started with this whole audio book thing too....no stopping now..

[simplyparticular]

My sense is more, although it might not be a fair comparison. I've been e-reading for a decade, and almost exclusively digital for 8 years.

In the 5 years prior to my e-reading, I was in college and graduate school. My leisure reading was very limited, since I had heavy school reading loads (grad school averaged 4 books and 12 journal articles per week. Luckily, I worked in a library, and then a bookstore - places that didn't frown on reading on the job)

And really, when you're doing that much required reading, leisure time isn't usually spent reading.

I think the contrast between lugging heavy tomes for school and reading novels on my Sony Clie made the transition to ebooks easier.

[Namekuseijin]

much, much more, dude. In my home-work-home bus trips I spend around 2 hours daily. Having a library in my pocket makes it a breeze. That's it, no more heavy tomes, no more backpacks or mallets, just a library in a pocket.

It's amazing how quickly even something like A Song of Ice and Fire melts away during bus trips...

[mvo]

I am reading a lot more, and a wider variety of genres. I read much more non-fiction than I used to. The two main causes of my increased consumption are cost [e-book is nearly always cheaper than (paper book + postage)] and portability - I always have an e-reading device with me.

[caleb72]

Much more.

[Yapyap]

It depends - compared to when? I read a LOT as a child/teenager/in my twenties, but then I pretty much ran out of space for new books at home (small flat, no more space for more bookshelves) and by then I was largely reading in English and didn't really care for translations for anything I was able to read in the original, so libraries became as good as useless as well.

So there was a good few years in my early thirties where I basically just read fanfic - a LOT of fanfic - but relatively few actual books.

Once I got my first e-reader though, it's been back to 120-170 novels a year, which is still less than what I read as a child but considerably more than in the pre-ereader years.

[BearMountainBooks]

About the same, but I read and try out a wider variety.

[Lili819]

Living abroad means very few books available besides NYT Bestsellers.

Super excited since getting the PW

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by usuallee

Surprised that no one has mentioned audiobooks. In the past year I have rediscovered them, and that has been the factor that has led to a big jump in reading. Having a smart phone that you can effortlessly load several audiobooks onto with an app that can skip back a few seconds if I missed something, and speed up pace of the narration has really revolutionized audiobooks for me. In the past audiobooks just were not appealing or convenient enough. I can now "read" while at the gym, doing housework, going for walks, etc. I used to listen to a ton of music, but that has been reduced dramatically as a result of audiobooks.

I don't think the e-reader changed the number of books I read, but getting an mp3 player and discovering audiobooks have made a huge difference. As you say, it's now possible to "read" while doing other mundane things, and more time to read translates to more books read.

[teija]

I have never been what I'd consider an avid book reader, but since I bought my first eReader in April (4 months ago), I've probably read more books since then than I have in the past 5+ years! For text-only books/novels I find it is just so much more convenient & easy to read.

[Ansileran]

Less for me, but it has nothing to do with ebooks: I started working around the same time as I started to read ebooks. Less free time = less reading...