Has owning a reader changed your life?

[Pookeysgirl]

My answer is yes. Before I bought my Kobo I read occasionally (1 every 3 months), and everytime I finished a book it took me a day to figure out where I was going to keep it in my xsmall 2 bedroom apartment (which has 4-6 people living in it). Now I'm going through 2 books a month and only have to worry about putting my reader in a place that the kids/cat/husband won't touch/drop/sit on.

[Stitchawl]

Absolutely! And in many different ways.
I like to read 3-4 books at a time but was reluctant to carry all of them every day. Now I can! I use a motorcycle as my main means of transportation, as well as often travel by plane. The e-book reader saves me quite a bit of valuable space in my luggage. I am more apt to experiment with different genre then when I was buying paper books and less reluctant to stop reading a book I'm not enjoying after trying the first several chapters. Thanks to the e-reader's wonderfully large memory I can carry lots of different books at all times so finishing one book leads to the next in a series immediately, not having to wait until I can get to an English language book store.

And one more, even more important life-changing effect; I read a lot more now than I ever did! Hours more per day.

Stitchawl

[chilady1]

Not really, the only way it has changed me is that I am reading more than ever.

[dapriuk]

- I read more now
- I never read many of the classics when I was young, they are instantly accessible now via Gutenberg, so no more excuses
- I have been able to get rid of many of my bookshelves and re-purpose others, so a lot less clutter
- When I travel I can take a library with me rather than spend time chosing a few books
- I don't print maps or bus/train schedules anymore, I just put them on my Sony

- yet another wall wart to charge the thing

[Lady Fitzgerald]

[QUOTE=dapriuk;1111812...yet another wall wart to charge the thing[/QUOTE]

That's one of the things I like about my JetBook Lite. Instead of an additional wall wart to charge the thing, I just pop in four of the NiMH AAs I always carry with me. I can recharge the spent batteries at my leisure with one of the smart chargers I keep at home or in my luggage when I travel.

[speakingtohe]

Not changed as as I have been a big reader since the age of three (thanks to my grandmother who patiently read to me sitting in her lap while pointing at the words as she read)

I consider my life enhanced significantly by me ereader though by reasons already mentioned by others.

Didn't need it before I had it but try and pry it away from me now.

Helen

[bridgetostars]

My reader definitely has changed my life, with regards to reading!

First, the large selection of free books (especially free classics) and the ease of sampling paid ebooks (I have the nook, so it's easy to just download and read away). AND renting ebooks from the library is fun! I've never had much money to spend on books, so now I have even more easy choices.

Second, I'm reading much more. I'd been in a slump for a while, college really took it outta me in terms of reading, because I was doing so much non-fun reading for classes, I just couldn't read for fun anymore, I wanted something else to do in down time. I've slowly been picking up books here and there again, and reading them, but I think having a new gadget to fiddle with and a whole new world of reading opportunities has really pushed me back into the 'reading world' with a new sense of enjoyment and pleasure.

[ficbot]

Yes, for the reasons people have mentioned. I love books but simply do not have storage space for all the books I may want. Ebooks let me have over 1000 books in a one-bedroom apartment.

Also, here is something I have not seen others mention, but I am reading more non-English stuff than I used to because the on-board dictionary makes it so easy. I used to need a paper dictionary, then I upgraded to a hand-held computer-like device that was even handier but still meant that every time you wanted to look up a word, you had to turn it on, enter the right mode (French to English, English to French etc.) and then key in the terms and scroll down that tiny two-word screen. On the Kindle, I just move the cursor and boom, there it is. Makes reading in French much easier for me and my fluency in reading has greatly improved. I am a fairly fluent speaker but was always weak in reading with French, so it has been nice to see gains in this area---I am using the dictionary less than I used to, enjoying the reading more and no longer feel like I am translating in my head as I go.

[jeffcobb]

We had to move from a 4 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom condo in San Francisco (job move) and lost tons of storage space which is when we bought our first ereaders. Now, when I am on a long flight and the person next to me closes the last page of a dead-tree book and sits through 2 1/2 Men reruns the rest of the flight I just snicker as I move to the next volume in my series.

[CatsMeow]

No. Having an eReader has not changed my life or reading habits. When my local library went online in the mid-1990s that was a major change in my reading habits. It meant I could look online from my home computer and if the book was in the library catalog (which 95% of the time it would be there), I could easily put a hold on the book and see what it was about. So my reading expanded exponentially. I began to read far afield of what I thought I was interested in.

eReading has, in fact, constricted that thinking. I find myself unwilling to purchase books on a whim -- particularly if I can still check them out in DTB form. I'm still using my local library for over 95% of my reading. When I travel, I use my nook; but I rarely travel these days.

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And the question is.. has owning a reader changed your life in any way?

Smaller pile on the bedside table. More room for clothes in my travel bag. Wider range of books and genres, especially books I'm reading at the same time, now I can easily read so many of the free ones from gutenberg.org et al.

Less willing to waste time on new books. I can let time sort out the best ones.