What is it with people and their paper books?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I get a sense of accomplishment watching the pages shrink with my book mark, I enjoy the artwork on the covers.

This was what I was missing most when reading on my Gen 3. Nowadays I mostly read all my unread paper books and are waiting for the ebooks to become better and for them to give a better reading experience.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by estrial

My mom goes for a walk to the library every week to borrow up to 11 books a week, I asked her If she wanted a kindle. She said that the titles she would read wouldn't be free.

The typical library system uses Overdrive for their ebooks, which are compatible with the Sony ereaders.

Originally Posted by Suzanne Tyrpak

A lot of people haven't discovered they can download kindle for FREE onto their MAC, PC, IPAD. So you don't have to buy a kindle device in order to download books.

Yeah, but I don't want to sit in front of a computer and read. Tried it way back in the day, and though monitors have gotten better, it's still not fun. I can curl up with my Kindle in a way I can't with a laptop.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I get a sense of accomplishment watching the pages shrink with my book mark, I enjoy the artwork on the covers.

I have the same feeling watching those little dots on the Kindle fill up and having it tell me what percentage of the book I've read.

[John1997]

I think for many people ereaders are simply beyond their abilities. I've met people who could mess up any piece of electronics they could touch. Not a matter of intelligence, just somehow not one of their talents, for lack of a better word. Most everybody on the forum is more or less self-selected for comfort with technical stuff.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by John1997

I think for many people ereaders are simply beyond their abilities. I've met people who could mess up any piece of electronics they could touch. Not a matter of intelligence, just somehow not one of their talents, for lack of a better word. Most everybody on the forum is more or less self-selected for comfort with technical stuff.

I don't know that I would call it comfort. I see it as a challenge, and I never could turn down a dare!

[JeremyZ]

Originally Posted by John1997

I think for many people ereaders are simply beyond their abilities. I've met people who could mess up any piece of electronics they could touch. Not a matter of intelligence, just somehow not one of their talents, for lack of a better word. Most everybody on the forum is more or less self-selected for comfort with technical stuff.

I thought this for a while too, John. But then I handed my Kindle to my dad. He needed a written list of actions to take to boot up his computer and check his Yahoo Mail. But he figured the Kindle out without any instruction whatsoever.

[Andrew Kaufman]

I understand the attachment to paper books. I still have a bookcase filled with some of my favorites. But I kind of get the feeling it's more about change; some people are very resistant to it. I'm sure eventually, they'll shift. Someday, our grandchildren's grandchildren will look at pictures of people reading paper books and ask: "Daddy, What's that?"

[jhempel24]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

I understand the attachment to paper books. I still have a bookcase filled with some of my favorites. But I kind of get the feeling it's more about change; some people are very resistant to it. I'm sure eventually, they'll shift. Someday, our grandchildren's grandchildren will look at pictures of people reading paper books and ask: "Daddy, What's that?"

I hope that NEVER happens. I still get a good feeling walking into a book-store and browsing through, i will never be a complete e-Reader, it's like curling up at night with a toaster, only thinner. I use mine alot, almost exclusively, but when I'm at home sitting on the couch or reading in bed, it's always a book. when I want to go somewhere, it's the e-reader.

[hardgainer]

you wouldn't want to damp kindle in the toilet for a week or stuff it under your bed,or drop it on the floor or sit on it ... i still love paperback coz they are more reliable. I'd like to see the toughbook version for kindle. That would be real fun. That what all these ereaders lack. toughness It is a good toy but they are far too fragile yet...

[dcptcons4evr]

I think e-readers are going to be what the automobile was to horses, in ten or fifteen years paperbacks will still be around but their uses will be different probably more for novelty.

[John1997]

There's really no substitute for the experience of a real book.

I was in Uppsala, Sweden, two weeks ago and discovered a _real_ bookstore. I haven't been in one for years. Wonderful, beautifully bound (and not so beautifully bound) books from floor to ceiling and in piles on the floor. I still haven't learned to read or speak Swedish, and the owner wasn't comfortable with English, but I still had a wonderful time browsing and came away with a bunch of books. Maybe they will motivate me to learn the language!

And my Jetbook Lite and Dell Axim makes it much easier for me to read to a wide variety of places.

[bluemoonjules]

Some interesting - and some bizarre - comments here!

As several people have said it is not an either/or. I LOVE books, and I LOVE reading, what I do not love is carting a whole load of books around with me.

As for robust....paperbacks have been known to fall in the bath while I am reading them....some did not survive the experience!

I find reading good quality print/paper hard backs or large paperbacks very difficult - too heavy to be comfortable, but they look, feel and smell wonderful!

Many of my paperbacks are old from long-keeping or having been acquired from charity shops, and I can assure you dark grey print against a beige or almost orange page is NOT a good reading experience.

I have hundreds of 'real' books and I will not be replacing all of them with electronic versions. What I will not be doing is buying any more paperbacks!

[RDaneel54]

I've been reading on hand held devices, up to my Sony 505 for years. My son and his family, whom we are very close to, are aware of this. However, He, his wife and 2 daughters are more likely to ask "What are you doing?" when I'm reading on my 505 (and soon to be Kindle).

It still hasn't sunk in. They are extremely literate and both read as much as they can (with two young daughters). The children like being read to and trying to read for themselves. But it's all pbooks. They go to the library a lot and buy books from Amazon. My son has worked in several areas of the computer and tech field for 15 years; his wife is a museum curator. All except the baby use computers daily (that includes the 6 year old).

So, it is more than a computer literacy issue, or an intelligence issue, or a gadget issue. I don't think there is near the market penetration in e-books or e-readers relative to the press hype or our familiarity.

I also think for most people, books are objects, not data. And they do judge the book by its cover.

[HarryT]

I love eBooks, but, on the other hand, there's something about a well-made book that's very satisfying too. I have a number of books that are several hundred years old - several with many owners' signatures in them, and it gives me a real feeling of "continuity" to know that I'm reading the very same book that was being enjoyed by someone 300 years ago. I often wonder who those people were, and what kind of lives they led.

[pagansoul]

I remember when I first moved out of my parents home. I had 5 months to the move from New Jersey to San Francisco. In that time I trained 3 different people to do my job at work, sold my car, sold all my records and gave my player to one of my sisters. I got rid of dozens of pairs of shoes and my bedroom furniture. I ended up with 7 Zerox boxes to be sent to me at a later date but did not get rid of my books. They stayed until I over the years, slowly moved them over. I still have most of my big art books (I was a Fine Art Major in college) with me today, 30 years later. I didn't get rid of my National Geographic collection till I got the DVD set. I still miss my Golden Book Encyclopedia set which I gave to the library. I also still have a S**tload of comic books. A book is more than a story, it can be a memory. If someone would put the full Golden Book Encyclopedia in a pdf form with all the color pictures I would buy it in a second for my iPad. I just can't buy the physical book again, they take up too much space and it took me forever to give them up.