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zacheryjensen · 08-17-2009, 07:33 AM

Back on topic, and off the elephants...

Personally, I've been reading since I was a young kid. The main thing I've always hated about reading has been the books themselves. I hate folding them back, losing my place, the stink of moldy paper, the weight of 10 novels in my backpack, etc. It has always kept me from being very motivated to read.

So, at least 20 years before the idea of an eBook exists, I was already wishing for them. Seriously. I was a sci-fi reader, what can I say? I guess I can say that the future is grand!

Anyway, fast forward 20 years and I'm reading Doctorow's books on a Palm PDA and remembering just how much I love books now that I can ditch all the anchors and annoyances.

So I'm probably a perfect example of the opposite of all these people wishing for the paper book as though it had any real advantage over the concept of an eBook. I'll grant that current consumer devices aren't really sufficient, though they have come a long way. It's only a matter of time before we have READERS that are capable of displaying whatever the author wanted. It will help to have authors anticipating reading devices and even taking advantage of them (I was a big fan of choose your own adventure books as a kid, can imagine how awesome they could be with a reader supporting links!).

Anyway that said, I wanted to point out that my wife, she really likes the physical book. She's always telling me how she won't give them up. Which is fine, whatever, I can afford the 50 book cases necessary to house her insanely large collection of bad vampire fiction. What I really find amusing, and relevant is that despite her claims, she's ready to read any book I already have on her iPhone or my Kindle 2, particularly if it's a book she doesn't really know if she wants to keep.

I think the attachment people have to physical books will be similar to what you see with people still obsessed over crappy vinyl records. Sure they sound great. Once. Just like a book, after you read it, it's never the same, no matter how nice you are to it. They are organic and they rot, they absorb moisture oils etc. from you and the air around you. They aren't meant to last. You listen to a vinyl record and it inherently loses a bit of its fidelity each time.

So looking at the market for music, it's clear that vinyl is still sold, there's a whole subculture around it. I'm sure eBooks will go the same way. People will have a spot in their heart for paper, they'll gripe about how great it is, how it didn't need batteries (or solar chargers which should be on all readers, wtf?) and then they'll pull out their personall communicator or giant blooming screen reader or whatever nonsense we're using then and they'll forget about it as they enjoy what really matters:

The words and the images presented by the author.

08-17-2009, 07:33 AM	#43
zacheryjensen Addict Posts: 229 Karma: 887 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Utah, USA Device: iPad, iPhone 4	Back on topic, and off the elephants... Personally, I've been reading since I was a young kid. The main thing I've always hated about reading has been the books themselves. I hate folding them back, losing my place, the stink of moldy paper, the weight of 10 novels in my backpack, etc. It has always kept me from being very motivated to read. So, at least 20 years before the idea of an eBook exists, I was already wishing for them. Seriously. I was a sci-fi reader, what can I say? I guess I can say that the future is grand! Anyway, fast forward 20 years and I'm reading Doctorow's books on a Palm PDA and remembering just how much I love books now that I can ditch all the anchors and annoyances. So I'm probably a perfect example of the opposite of all these people wishing for the paper book as though it had any real advantage over the concept of an eBook. I'll grant that current consumer devices aren't really sufficient, though they have come a long way. It's only a matter of time before we have READERS that are capable of displaying whatever the author wanted. It will help to have authors anticipating reading devices and even taking advantage of them (I was a big fan of choose your own adventure books as a kid, can imagine how awesome they could be with a reader supporting links!). Anyway that said, I wanted to point out that my wife, she really likes the physical book. She's always telling me how she won't give them up. Which is fine, whatever, I can afford the 50 book cases necessary to house her insanely large collection of bad vampire fiction. What I really find amusing, and relevant is that despite her claims, she's ready to read any book I already have on her iPhone or my Kindle 2, particularly if it's a book she doesn't really know if she wants to keep. I think the attachment people have to physical books will be similar to what you see with people still obsessed over crappy vinyl records. Sure they sound great. Once. Just like a book, after you read it, it's never the same, no matter how nice you are to it. They are organic and they rot, they absorb moisture oils etc. from you and the air around you. They aren't meant to last. You listen to a vinyl record and it inherently loses a bit of its fidelity each time. So looking at the market for music, it's clear that vinyl is still sold, there's a whole subculture around it. I'm sure eBooks will go the same way. People will have a spot in their heart for paper, they'll gripe about how great it is, how it didn't need batteries (or solar chargers which should be on all readers, wtf?) and then they'll pull out their personall communicator or giant blooming screen reader or whatever nonsense we're using then and they'll forget about it as they enjoy what really matters: The words and the images presented by the author.