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Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern
There's also another debate going on which is the way we interact with material objects versus virtual environments. I've been talking all along about how difficult it is to simply do one's reading (reading includes marking up and interacting with the text using a writing instrument) just on the screen if the reading is more than just for leisure.
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Yeah, I've hit on this a few times already.
But again, to expand more, I have little interest in readers for my work documents (do research and teaching) as it's just easier to mark up printed out PDFs of scholarly articles or books, have several scattered around the desk to grab and flip through, or two put a couple tables from different studies side by side etc.
No electronic device can ever have that level of ease. But I do see the appeal for taking a bunch of articles on a trip or something. But working in my office (where I do the vast majority of my work) I'll always prefer hard copies as they're just quicker and easier to mark up and flip through and always will be. And I doubt I'll change my tune on that.
But I love ereaders for leisure reading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zerospinboson
Well, the thing my iLiad comes in handiest for is for putting papers on it.. If i see the 30-40cm stacks of printed papers that some people have lying around in their offices, having them all in PDF form would make that stack a lot more searchable.
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Can't speak for all academics, but I have good memory and my small stack of papers is stuff very related to my research so I know it pretty much inside out (since I work in a fairly small niche within my field).
So I only have to pull out an article when I want to grab a quote and reference a specific quantitative finding, or see how to spell a name etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern
We don't have to think of ebooks and paper books as an either/or proposition but rather as a both-and possibility.
I see no reason to ever be such a fanatic about dumping one technology (paper, in this case) when using both kinds of technologies (paper and digital ebooks) can be productive.
I'm a both-and person :-)
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Same here. Like I said, I love ebooks for leisure reading. I'm not marking it up and I'll never read it again so there's no reason to have a physical book.
But for work I prefer physical books and documents, and always will unless something vastly different than our current conception of ereaders comes out.
The other factor is that storage space isn't much of a barrier as I have plenty of filing cabinets and bookshelves in my office (perk of working in academia). Where as at home it's tough to find space for books when so much is already taken up with my DVD/Blu Ray and CD collections.
If that wasn't an issue then I'd honestly never buy an ereader as I do prefer reading a physical book, but the convenience of not buying a copy of something I'll read once or not hassling with the library sold me. That having books when traveling without having to lug them around.