Quote:
Originally Posted by cellaris
Is there really an ideal size for reading novels among the books in the attached image, and are other sizes unsuitable? Why can you read novels in a large book but not on a 10" e-reader, which is smaller in size and weight?
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I think that's a simple question with a complicated answer, that varies per person.
Part of it is text width:
1. If you need a really big font, then 10″ is better than 6, 7 or 8.
2. At common font size the lines might be too long on 10″, but you can read two pages side by side in landscape or have big margins.
Weight: Obviously a book with more than about 50,000 words at a reasonable font size, or highly illustrated on "art" paper, or a serious text book is heavy. It's not that people choose to read heavy paper books because they are heavy, it's an unavoidable side effect of the content. A 32 Gbyte ereader with only illustration-free novels might be able to hold 18,000 ebooks. That could be 175 bookcases, a considerable weight to move. So many people like to be able to read an ebook of LotR or War and Peace, or 600+ page fantasy epics or a Bible without the weight. Personally I read heavy books (weight) for decades before getting an ereader and I don't miss that.
Size, as in width and length: Paper novels tend to just get fatter, though many novels have an outer larger length than even 8″ ereader. Some books, especially with photo illustrations, are much larger than a 10″ ereader, but if it's a novel, in reflowable text, then a more portable ereader is nice. Sadly 5″ are gone. The 6 and 7 are more portable than 8″, though there are jackets that take an 8″ Kobo Sage I've not seen one that takes a 9.7″ or larger. You can use a bag of some description. If you only read at home then a 10″ might suit.
For some content there is no affordable eink large enough, or with good enough colour, then a 14.25″ TCL Nxtpaper 14 (or similar, not a shiny tablet) is a good compromise.
I'd like a new 300 dpi 5″ for very portable. I have the old falling apart Sony PRS-350 in that size. The P47L mini ereader (4.7″ elongated) was too small and limited and my Nxtpaper phone is better. I have also 6, 6.8, 7, 7.8, 8, 9.7 and 10.3 inch approx 3:4 aspect ereaders in eink. I have two ancient LCD ereaders.
I read reflowable novels most on 8″ Kobo Sage eInk. Notes on a 10.9″ TCL Nxtpaper 11 (approx 10:16 aspect and PDFs, magazines, comics, etc on a 14.25″ TCL Nxtpaper 14 (2:3 aspect or 3:2 aspect for two page in Landscape).
So most flexible solution is to have all the sizes of ereader, after all, printed books come in roughly miniscule A7 sized to huge A3 size.
There is no perfect answer till there are ereaders like the communicators in Earth: Final Conflict.
Cost: You can buy a mono 6″ Kobo, 8″ Kobo and 14.25″ Nxtpaper 14 (non-pro) and covers and pens all for less than the price of a decent iPad. Maybe less than the price of a PS5 pro with 2T storage.
A Sage in Ireland is about the cost of 25 local average non-discount paperbacks (we have a high VAT rate for electronics and paper books are zero VAT).
My original reason for buying an ereader wasn't to buy ebooks. I'd been trying to read Gutenberg free ebooks on screen for over 15 years. Also printing a draft of a novel was expensive and time consuming. So now I've about 7,000 PD ebooks and have saved a fortune in ink, toner and paper by proof & anotating on Kindle, then Kobo for more than a decade. Maybe 160,000 A4 pages saved.
I copy / paste to LO Writer, or save HTML with wget to read larger amounts of web content as decently formatted epub, via docx and Calibre.
Get as many sizes as possible, or at least two sizes.