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Originally Posted by AnotherCat

My personal observation is there is a comfort thing in the manner of the "something" being a comfort blanket substitute for a paper book. One can settle down with an ereader which can do nothing else than allow reading, just like a cozy book which can also do nothing else. "I am absorbed in my interest and it feels great".

Yep, I get involved in the book I'm reading whether on my ereader or a dead tree book.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

But when in public perhaps with flavors of comfort from the silent announcement of "I am a dedicated reader of books, having my ereader shows that is so", with the hoped silent reaction of "Oh, he is a reader of books" (Or from those of us familiar with the constraints of E Ink's abilities "Oh, he is a reader of fiction").

I read fiction on my ereader. I also read non-fiction though at time I wonder about some of the non-fiction's more imaginative content (read 99 - Stories of the Game as an example). I also read tech manuals, text books and cookbooks. I've really don't see much difference in reading an ebook on an ereader or a dead tree book in public though it is harder to be pretentious with an ereader -- after all, how is the casual onlooker to tell if you are reading the latest light fiction or War and Peace when you can't hold it so they can view the cover.

I must admit to finding a good deal of amusement in your apparent belief that eInk is only good enough for fiction. Real serious readers still stick to dead tree books -- they were good enough for great-great-grandpa and they're good enough for me.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Of course, overlaid over these "comfort" things is hopefully the enjoyment of the book itself; however I do know people who carry books to impress but not read, perhaps some pretend to use ereaders for the same reason?

Interesting viewpoint. Given that for the cost of an ereader, you could buy several nicely massive hard covers with more than a soupçon of snob appeal, I find it rather doubtful.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Whereas use of a tablet demonstrates nothing. Its a job machine and one could be doing several of many different jobs all at once, so much less of a comfort effect. To others in public observing ones tablet use there are no comforting assumptions able to made about you apart from "He is using a tablet".

A tablet is a job machine? Considering the sales of tablets for home use by people who will mostly browse the web, view videos, play games and handle their email?

I can see you sitting in a Starbucks looking at another customer who must be doing something important on their expensive (fill in brand name of your choice) tablet while sitting in Starbucks -- otherwise, they'd be using a cheap Fire tablet. More likely than not, they are sitting there checking their Facebook timeline, looking at the latest cat videos on Youtube, checking the latest in Chinese hip-hop on Weibo, reading MobileRead forum messages, whatever on Twitter, Instagram, etc. The same as the rest of the customers are doing on their smartphones.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

As far as they know one may be working on a spreadsheet, watching a porn video, surfing the internet, writing or reading emails, writing a report, etc. or perhaps reading a book. Perhaps even writing a book. It may be that one just uses a tablet only for reading, but they do not know that. The only image projected is that one is using a tablet for something or another and who cares.

Remove most of that paragraph and you have the opinion of most people who see someone using a piece of electronic gear in public -- they don't care. Even if they are sitting where they could look over your shoulder, they don't care enough about what you are doing with your ereader, tablet, laptop, Chromebook, etc. to make the effort to look at your screen.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

When in public, perhaps tablet users are less inclined to care about the visual messages to others that provide comfort to oneself if using an ereader or reading a paper book?

Hmmm... Perchance could I interest you in purchasing a bridge? The sad part is that you might actually be serious about what you wrote.