MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Are you happy with your EReader form factor?

mldavis2 · 12-23-2010, 07:36 AM

Most of us here are avid readers who go through dozens (or hundreds) of books a year. It doesn't take long to read all of a favorite author's output and move on to another, change genres, or go back to the classics. Heavy readers are mostly either retired on fixed incomes, or independently wealthy persons who have discretionary time on their hands, or disabled persons, again with limited resources.

To read 200 books a year, paying current new retail prices in the U.S. for hardcover first editions would cost perhaps $7,000 (@ $35.00 each). Clearly, this is unreasonable for most of us, so we find ways to maintain the volume to fit our resources....library loans, used books, book sharing with friends, waiting for paperbacks, and other means of saving money. Most reading budgets are rather fixed, I suspect. We are willing and able to spend a certain amount and we will eventually spend that amount -- somewhere. The question becomes, where?

Part of my reading budget went for an eReader, so my year's book budget took a real hit. So I am reading free classics, new authors and promotional offerings along with a few current releases. My switch and enthusiasm for eReaders came only after I was asked to 'research' them for an elderly friend and, in doing so, I became hooked. There is no telling how many people out there might find an eReader more to their liking that a box full of hard covers, but the gap is filling -- perhaps rather rapidly over the holiday gift-giving season.

So I read both. I can borrow and loan pBooks but not eBooks, which will continue to be a big factor in what I read on a fixed budget. I can obtain classics for free and will catch up on long-overdue reading that is fundamental to literary intelligence. I will continue to wait for what should be reasonable pricing on popular authors, and unless or until publishers reduce prices and rely on volume, I will resist purchase of any eBook that is either DRM-protected or priced at the pBook level. No paper, no ink, no printing cost, no transportation, no shelf space, no middleman profits. We shouldn't be paying for any of that overhead inherent to a pBook.

So the form factor of an eReader should dictate the upcoming market based on the percentage of access to the reading public and the availability of the current number of loaned, borrowed or used books currently available. "Books" are text and the current eInk screens may be improved in coming years, but for now, they are an excellent path into the future.

12-23-2010, 07:36 AM	#72
mldavis2 Coffee Nut Posts: 410 Karma: 298350 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Missouri Device: Kindle 3; K4PC; Calibre	Most of us here are avid readers who go through dozens (or hundreds) of books a year. It doesn't take long to read all of a favorite author's output and move on to another, change genres, or go back to the classics. Heavy readers are mostly either retired on fixed incomes, or independently wealthy persons who have discretionary time on their hands, or disabled persons, again with limited resources. To read 200 books a year, paying current new retail prices in the U.S. for hardcover first editions would cost perhaps $7,000 (@ $35.00 each). Clearly, this is unreasonable for most of us, so we find ways to maintain the volume to fit our resources....library loans, used books, book sharing with friends, waiting for paperbacks, and other means of saving money. Most reading budgets are rather fixed, I suspect. We are willing and able to spend a certain amount and we will eventually spend that amount -- somewhere. The question becomes, where? Part of my reading budget went for an eReader, so my year's book budget took a real hit. So I am reading free classics, new authors and promotional offerings along with a few current releases. My switch and enthusiasm for eReaders came only after I was asked to 'research' them for an elderly friend and, in doing so, I became hooked. There is no telling how many people out there might find an eReader more to their liking that a box full of hard covers, but the gap is filling -- perhaps rather rapidly over the holiday gift-giving season. So I read both. I can borrow and loan pBooks but not eBooks, which will continue to be a big factor in what I read on a fixed budget. I can obtain classics for free and will catch up on long-overdue reading that is fundamental to literary intelligence. I will continue to wait for what should be reasonable pricing on popular authors, and unless or until publishers reduce prices and rely on volume, I will resist purchase of any eBook that is either DRM-protected or priced at the pBook level. No paper, no ink, no printing cost, no transportation, no shelf space, no middleman profits. We shouldn't be paying for any of that overhead inherent to a pBook. So the form factor of an eReader should dictate the upcoming market based on the percentage of access to the reading public and the availability of the current number of loaned, borrowed or used books currently available. "Books" are text and the current eInk screens may be improved in coming years, but for now, they are an excellent path into the future.