American Adults Reading More Literature

[lilac_jive]

I read about this on DearAuthor, and apparantly they widened the scope on what accounts for reading, to include internet reading.

But anyway, I'm reading more than in 2002, just because I was in college and working full time

[yekim54]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

* Are you reading more than you did in 2002?
* Do you read more because of e-books?
* Do you read more because of MobileRead.com?

Yes, yes, and yes.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

* Are you reading more than you did in 2002?
* Do you read more because of e-books?
* Do you read more because of MobileRead.com?

I am definitely reading more now than I did in 2002 and that is because of ebooks and my Sony Reader. I find the experience of reading on my Reader to be very pleasurable and because of its portability, I am reading in more venues than I could when I was reading only pbooks.

But I do not read more because of MobileRead. The MR community enhances my reading pleasure, but does not stimulate an increase in my reading.

[mjh215]

* Are you reading more than you did in 2002?
Yes, I had some health issues that caused problems with me staying still, not to mention concentrating, at that time.
* Do you read more because of e-books?
Having been online since the late 80's I have been exposed to ebooks for quite awhile, I want to expand the question because of this. I don't think I read more because of ebooks, I think I read more because of dedicated ebook readers, particularly because of eInk. Until my Sony I read and -finished- very few ebooks.
* Do you read more because of MobileRead.com?
Definitely. Between getting tremendous help to fully utilize my Reader with 3rd party utilities and formatting tools, to the wealth of available texts presented by members of MR, to just the motivation and reminder that, "Hey, you have the Reader there, go use it" I feel whenever I'm on here I think MR has had an impact on my reading. When I bought my Reader I had intended to focus on non-fiction texts (from www.mises.org and such), I think MR reopened a wealth of fiction, both newer texts and classics, to me.

-MJ

[montsnmags]

* Are you reading more than you did in 2002?

No

* Do you read more because of e-books?

No

* Do you read more because of MobileRead.com?

No, less.

Cheers,
Marc

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

* Do you read more because of MobileRead.com?

No, less.

Cheers,
Marc

Keep your reader next to your PC then you can read while you surf...

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Keep your reader next to your PC then you can read while you surf...

Bit tricky. The Loved One says I have a "single stream processor" - I have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Cheers,
Marc

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Bit tricky. The Loved One says I have a "single stream processor" - I have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Cheers,
Marc

There are times I'd like to swap - I have problems if I only have one thing to concentrate on...

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I'm not sure if I'm reading more than I did in 2002, but I'm definitely reading more e-books, and finding more material to read thanks to MR. My reading was beginning to slack off due to trouble finding material that interested me, until I found MR and it introduced me to a lot of new material (and re-introduced me to a lot of classic material).

[Enraptured]

I'm not reading more than I was in 2002. But I've always read a lot, so that doesn't mean much.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

* Are you reading more than you did in 2002?
* Do you read more because of e-books?
* Do you read more because of MobileRead.com?

I can't say I read MORE in terms of hours, 'cause I've always been an avid reader; but I am buying and reading more books (as opposed to re-reading existing ones), largely they are cheaper than paperbacks and also I don't have to worry about them taking up valuable space.

[purl4peace]

I loved to read as a kid and read Tolstoy while I was still in High School. But going into college, I really didn't have time for "recreational reading" any more. Then, add a job, husband, and babies and by then about the only "literature" I was reading was "goodnight moon".

Last year, I got one of the first batches of the next gen Cybook and that was ok. But there were problems with that first batch -- like bookmarks didn't work and formatting wasn't great and lost interest again.

However, when I bought my Sony Reader, I have taken a huge interest in reading again. I also gave my Cybook to my son (11 years old) and he is more interested in reading on that than reading an actual book -- I guess if it doesn't have buttons, he doesn't want anything to do with it!

Right now I'm reading East of Eden by Steinbeck and don't remember having enjoyed a non-fiction book this much since high school.

This forum helps keep me interested and helps me know where to look for books but have to say that my reading "ideas" are still what they were back when I was in high school -- Literature -- particularly Anthony Trollope, Tolstoy, etc.

I do think that the price of ebooks is highway robbery -- not to have the other thread bleed into this one. I wanted a nicely formatted "East of Eden" for my Cybook and the online bookstores were charging 8-17 bucks for them... Ridiculous! I can understand paying this sort of money for a "new" book -- the author is still alive, there are marketing costs to recoup... But a work of literature that has been around for over 1/2 a century? It also seems like the cost of ebooks has gone since Christmas like they are wanting to capitalize on all the readers given as christmas presents and take advantage of folks new to the electronic read scene who don't know about how to get cheaper content or may not have the computer skills to use format converters etc. Again, I think that is where this forum really helps...

The thing I really like about readers is that sometimes I'm not always in the mood to read whatever I may have had with me in the past. So I wouldn't read. But with the reader, if I'm not in the mood for East of Eden, I can look around and usually find something on the reader that I am in the mood for...

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

I loved to read as a kid and read Tolstoy while I was still in High School. But going into college, I really didn't have time for "recreational reading" any more. Then, add a job, husband, and babies and by then about the only "literature" I was reading was "goodnight moon".

Last year, I got one of the first batches of the next gen Cybook and that was ok. But there were problems with that first batch -- like bookmarks didn't work and formatting wasn't great and lost interest again.

However, when I bought my Sony Reader, I have taken a huge interest in reading again. I also gave my Cybook to my son (11 years old) and he is more interested in reading on that than reading an actual book -- I guess if it doesn't have buttons, he doesn't want anything to do with it!

Right now I'm reading East of Eden by Steinbeck and don't remember having enjoyed a non-fiction book this much since high school.

This forum helps keep me interested and helps me know where to look for books but have to say that my reading "ideas" are still what they were back when I was in high school -- Literature -- particularly Anthony Trollope, Tolstoy, etc.

I do think that the price of ebooks is highway robbery -- not to have the other thread bleed into this one. I wanted a nicely formatted "East of Eden" for my Cybook and the online bookstores were charging 8-17 bucks for them... Ridiculous! I can understand paying this sort of money for a "new" book -- the author is still alive, there are marketing costs to recoup... But a work of literature that has been around for over 1/2 a century? It also seems like the cost of ebooks has gone since Christmas like they are wanting to capitalize on all the readers given as christmas presents and take advantage of folks new to the electronic read scene who don't know about how to get cheaper content or may not have the computer skills to use format converters etc. Again, I think that is where this forum really helps...

The thing I really like about readers is that sometimes I'm not always in the mood to read whatever I may have had with me in the past. So I wouldn't read. But with the reader, if I'm not in the mood for East of Eden, I can look around and usually find something on the reader that I am in the mood for...

I'm guessing you are a knitter? Have you tried putting a pattern on your Reader at all?

[purl4peace]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I'm guessing you are a knitter? Have you tried putting a pattern on your Reader at all?

You're right -- I love to knit. I haven't tried putting a knitting pattern on my reader yet. I've thought about trying that but haven't gotten around to it yet. I *would* love to see more knitting books formatted for readers, though. I have a HUGE library of knitting books and if I could get them on my reader, somehow, my life would be nearly complete.

Interestingly enough, I also play cello and piano and you can get music in PDF form. There is an actual dedicated "music reader" on the market which costs around 900 bucks. But music really needs a larger screen than the current readers on the market. Tablet PCs are probably a better device for that.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

You're right -- I love to knit. I haven't tried putting a knitting pattern on my reader yet. I've thought about trying that but haven't gotten around to it yet. I *would* love to see more knitting books formatted for readers, though. I have a HUGE library of knitting books and if I could get them on my reader, somehow, my life would be nearly complete.

Interestingly enough, I also play cello and piano and you can get music in PDF form. There is an actual dedicated "music reader" on the market which costs around 900 bucks. But music really needs a larger screen than the current readers on the market. Tablet PCs are probably a better device for that.

I uploaded one for my personal use. Maybe I'll compile something using freely traded patterns.