Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthem
As I have said in other posts here on MobileRead, e-book readers and e-books in general are in a very awkward position. They are real book impersonators at this point in time. ...
I am crazy and I do end up reading the sorts of books where those types of activities are necessary on my e-reading devices and I almost always end up looking at myself in the mirror and wondering, "What is wrong with you?! Buy these in print you idiot!"
|
Thank you Anthem for having articulated my thoughts so clearly! It's a bit soothing to see my own feelings written here...
I know that for all the others (the so called "linear readers" as mentioned so), this technology suits to their needs so well, and it's a little difficult to have been left aside by the engineers : If I remember, at the very beginning of the e-ink, medias were professing a multiple page books made of e-ink. I was already imaging myself with that! A book where all the pages could change, thanks to this technology. So disappointing to see the evolution.
I am not a luddite neither. I 've put so many hopes in this e-ink technology at the beginning.
I don't think that (maybe I'm wrong but I'm already using an ereader and see its limits) it reflects my inability to adapt to a new technology (as the horse riders in their times who couldn't see the benefits of cars for example...) :
Granted there's the enormous benefits of the size in your pocket.
But imagine you've got a book with multiple references, placed as usual at the end of the book (as you find in all academic books, papers). Going back and forth from the paper to the references is quickly excruciating. You can always put a bookmark on the references, but how do you do when there are 30 pages of references to flip through?
It's only an example, but personally, for what I see in the academic field, when there is a an important document to peruse, a book to read (not a simple case-report, letter-to-the-editor), everybody still -unfortunately- print the thing (or buy the book).