Quote:
Originally Posted by Ea
Ebook readers are very convenient. The adapt well to individual needs for font size. A reader device weighs a lot less than books. It's more comfortable to sit with because you don't have to hold it open (and it doesn't weight 5 pounds like the pbook I'm currently reading). Takes up less space. When you get used to all this, it goes a long way to make up for the more basic aestethics of the e-ink screen. However, printed books are far from always nicer looking than an e-book 'page'. Paperback certainly aren't.
Edit: Good article, and it adresses many of the issues that does exist. I like to compare the situation with the early www - lots of possibilities but now enough knowledge about how and why
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Sadly even my cheap Pratchett paperbacks with mediocre paper and uneven ink density are a dream to read compared to any e-ink device I've seen. I certainly can see the benefits of readers (if I couldn't see benefit, I'd be printing my own personal tomes rather than wasting it on ebooks and a reader). You can use any language you like to try to marginalize the screen quality and response issues, and many people do exactly that. And perhaps there are extremely conservative folks out there who will never be satisfied with anything that requires electricity or offers intangible pages.
Perhaps I can satiate myself by imagining the future while trying to ignore the present, or by reveling in features like the mp3 player and image viewer that make the reading experience so much more enjoyable, or the text enlargement that will enable my vision-impaired friends to read over my shoulder when I am not reading in the smallest fonts possible. Reminding myself that it's somewhat portable (though not especially durable or disposable if it comes to that) doesn't always convince me.
It's certainly not a technology for everyone, and I'm right on the threshold. I'm sure there are quite a few people in a similar position who joined this site to get some justification in ownership (either by impulse or by careful, deliberate purchase), and found themselves wanting (either by file formats, ownership rights, device technology, or publisher support).
Were I truly unhappy, I would simply offload my player on some poor schmuck at a bit of a loss and stop posting criticisms. I may be critical, but I'm not irrational enough to bind myself to a device I hate simply to have something to complain about.
One thing I am very happy about it is that unlike some other communities, criticism here is rarely met with complete fanboy/girlism towards a given product or brand. That's refreshing.
