Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony1988
All of which are not needed to read a book.
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Changing font sizes and types is definitely required for some people to be able to read books. I can get by with normal books, but just barely. My eyesight is very poor, and paperbacks often have very small print and/or bad fonts.
An e-reader displays all books with the same quality and same font size.
The front-light is a godsend as it greatly improves contrast of the screen, especially in mediocre lighting condition. For someone with my eyesight, basically every lighting condition except a sunny day is mediocre.
The size of an e-reader is much smaller than that of many books, even when including a cover, making it easier to hold it for long amounts of time.
Maybe it sounds strange, but the older people get, the more advantages an e-reader brings. There is one old man that I support in using an e-reader. He read many books in his earlier days, but stopped reading for several reasons.
1. His "old peoples home" is too small to store many books.
2. His eyesight is too bad to read paperbacks.
3. He needs a lot of light to read.
4. He can't hold a hardcover for a long time.
I suggested an e-reader, but he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to use it. As he's a family friend, I told him I'd maintain the reader for him. Now, he just sends me an e-mail with the (mostly old) books he wants, in Dutch or German. If they are classics and free, I donwload them from somewhere. If not, I buy them for him, and de-DRM them.
(Of course, he re-imburses the costs of buying those books, and quite liberally too, as his pension is very good. He is quite good with computers, but is uncomfortable buying stuff over the internet.)
Then, I go over to his place, put the books into Calibre (to be 100% sure, I keep a backup as well) and side-load them to his Kindle. After the books are in Calbire, he can side-load them himself.
Mostly, this gives him enough to read for about two months or so, and when he starts the last or next-to-last book, he sends me another list and it repeats.
He's very happy with his e-reader, as he can read again without having to stash away many books, and he can read more easily because of the bigger fonts and lighting. Sometimes he's lucky and half of the books he wants are Dutch or German classics for which he doesn't need to pay. Such a message quite often nets me a good bottle of whiskey
