[Panchax]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

What degradation is there in digital media?

I think the poster was referring to the tendency of SD cards, hard drives and CDs to corrupt the files stored on them over really long periods of time. Not relevant to you (or me) in any way, I think.

Originally Posted by darryl

That's one I haven't actually heard before. Is it because you have paid more for the print book and feel you need to finish it to get value? Is it because you have so many alternatives at your fingertips on an ereader? If the book you are reading has failed to hold your attention you may in fact be better reading something else.

Originally Posted by John F

If 2 is important to you and you give it a little thought, you should be able to come up with a way to have just one book on your ereader.

You have a point, but I have a hard time sticking to one book sometimes, even if I like it. It happens more when I'm reading nonfiction then when I'm reading fiction, but sometimes I start to itch for something else. If I stick to the book usually it redeems itself, but if not I end up with a 'stack' of unread books. With an ereader you have them calling to you all the time. Yes, John F, if a book isn't holding your interest and not teaching you something, it needs to be forgotten. To keep only one book on my ereader would be destroying its biggest advantage, It would be like removing your browser to help you focus.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, Readers are MORE delicate than pBooks. A Reader has to be treated carefully because of the glass substrate. The pBook has none and doesn't need to be treat with such care. I can put a lot of weight on a pBook and the pBook will be good to go. Put that same weight on a Reader and chances are, the Reader's screen will be damaged.

I guess the ereaders are delicate. The only time I know of anyone breaking one is when I got into a fight with a friend of mine in highschool, which ended with me throwing him into a bush. His ereader screen broke. However, pbooks fall apart from regular use. Unless you have a good binding, just reading them will break them. The tiniest drop of water will make a pbook swell, turn wavy and sometimes even make its pages stick together (sometimes this can be fixed with a knife and a vise, sometimes not). There are cases where a pbook will hold up better, but my bets will stay on the ebook.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Of course, the problem with that argument is that everyone who has moved exclusively to e-readers at one point read a paper book and then followed it up with an e-book and did not agree with your statement. Unless there has been some recent advance in book technology that we are unaware of

Yes and no. I own an ereader and still feel the pbook wins in many cases.

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I do not think there is some 1 dimensional better scale that can be applied to books, so no universal claim can be made that one is better than the other or regarding the size of the difference.

I did read a hardback paper book a few weeks ago and another a few months before that, and I will say that for some books, an e-book is every bit as good as a physical book. I also say that sometimes an e-book is much better, sometimes much worse, and everything in between.

And those differences are not carved in stone, We are nearing the time when e-books can blow coffee table books to smithereens.

Yes and no. A pbook can be handed from one friend to the next, from one generation to the next, can sit on your bookshelf for you to look at, and is not subject to the whims of a monster like Amazon. Are pbooks obsolescent? Yes. Will they ever be obsolete? I don't think so. At this point, I think they are two different tools, both good each for its own thing. You wouldn't want to be without a car, but there are times when what you need is a bicycle.

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

A paper book may be better for you but that is not the case for everyone.
1.) I tend not to flip back in books.
2.) If you do not have another book with you, what do you do when you finish the book and are stuck somewhere with nothing to do?

Curiosity,
You have been saying how much better paper books are, so why get an ereader? You said yourself you like one book at a time in more than one post. You did get one for a great price.

The answer to your question is that, like you said, an ereader can carry many books, while a pbook can carry only one. Another reason is that I read a lot of classics - three or four books and the ereader will pay for itself. The main reason I bought it, though, was to root it and get a distraction free word processor. The best case scenario would be to have both
I also have to say that when I wrote my first post about the superiority of the book, I hadn't had an ereader in two years. Now that I have one again, I am not so sure. I am not giving up my pbooks anytime soon, though.