Poll: Age of People who Read E-Books

[RobbieClarken]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As an author of physics textbooks myself, I'm sure you'll appreciate my interest in the fact that they are being made available free of charge. I know that some publishers are releasing PDF versions of textbooks, but I hadn't come across them being made available without cost. How do the economics of this work? ie how does the author get paid?

In some cases, like Warren Siegel's Fields and Motion Mountain the author gets no monetary compensation. They just do it because they love the subject I guess. Mark Srednicki released his book for free online and hopes people that like it will buy it off Amazon.

Many of the ebooks I used as textbooks are really a collection of lecture notes. I don't think you could find a similar occurrence outside of the science genre of textbooks.

But ultimately, most of my ebooks are 'pirated' (if that's the correct term).

[binzer]

Wow, some of you guys are HARDCORE. I can't imagine reading on some of those old PDAs. When you hear people complaining about the modern devices it much be really tempting to get into the "back in the day I used to walk barefoot in the snow uphill both ways" conversation.

Out of curiosity, what kind of ebooks were available 20 years ago? Just self-made content for the most part?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by binzer

Wow, some of you guys are HARDCORE. I can't imagine reading on some of those old PDAs. When you hear people complaining about the modern devices it much be really tempting to get into the "back in the day I used to walk barefoot in the snow uphill both ways" conversation.

Out of curiosity, what kind of ebooks were available 20 years ago? Just self-made content for the most part?

Gutenberg started in 1971.

Dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by binzer

Wow, some of you guys are HARDCORE. I can't imagine reading on some of those old PDAs.

We thought we were being "cutting edge" at the time, I'll tell you . No, reading books on the Psion II with its 2 line, 40 character display wasn't really terrible practical, but on the Psion 3 it worked just fine.

Out of curiosity, what kind of ebooks were available 20 years ago? Just self-made content for the most part?

Quite a lot of the classics had made it onto PG by the late 80s. As Dale says, PG was almost 20 years old by 1990.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by llasram

I thought you old fogies (Joking!) would be the ones most attached to your paper books. Hardly a statistical sample so far, but perhaps the age distribution here is more skewed along the lines of readers-by-age than along the lines of technophiles-by-age.

As one of the fogies (not joking), I'd say that a lot depends on the way you were raised, and the times.

I, for instance, was raised during the Apollo era 60s... was into science fiction in my early teens (watched a few of the original Star Treks the night they were aired, if my parents let me stay up)... and played with tech-related toys like 150-in-1 electronics kits from Radio Shack. So I was prepped for electronic devices at an early age.

As I got older, I learned frugality, and saw the value of using electronic devices to replace older, less efficient tools and processes. So I was using my first PDAs to write my first novel, in the early 90s.

For my first e-books I was getting ahold of text-based classics like War of the Worlds, purchased at computer stores and conventions, and downloading them to read on my Casio Zoomer.

[tsgreer]

I'm 39 years old and have been reading e-books for about 4 years now.

My girlfriend is 24 years old and not techie at all, but I got her into reading ebooks, and she reads on my older Sony Reader 500.

My son is 17 years old and he also reads ebooks on my other older Sony Reader 500. So my whole house is e-book compliant! As a child of the 80's, I have always been a fan of sci-fi. Ooh the early 80's was great for sci-fi books! Oddly enough though, I never even thought of e-books until I got the idea that maybe I could try reading a book on an old palm about 4 years ago.

I went online to do some research, found the ereader website, loaded onto my old palm and started reading. Now I'm on a Kindle and there's no turning back.

[maggotb0y]

Well, I'm 36 now and read almost exclusively on my Sony reader. My first ebook reading was on the first version of Tealdoc on a Palm II, but I would simply load a book that I was reading on paper onto the device for moments when I had extra time but not my book. It wasn't till my Sony 500 that I started reading ebooks cover to cover (even today I'll sometimes load a book I'm reading on my sony onto my blackberry, just in case).

Also, I kept my 500 when I upgraded and this device is shared among my wife, 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son (they started at 9 and 7 i guess). However, I only let them read from the reader in the house- they don't get to carry it around.

[binzer]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

So I was using my first PDAs to write my first novel, in the early 90s.

Ok wait. You WROTE a novel on a PDA? I'm pretty sure that makes you officially crazy or crazily devoted, but either way there's some crazy involved!

[The GreatGonzo]

Just turned 41 ... saw the first Indiana Jones movie when I was 14 and just found out I will be watching the next one through bifocals... aaargh ....

Never enjoyed prolongued reading on any kind of backlit screen much, so it wasn't until e-ink that I got really, really interested in the whole e-book thing.
Though somebody let me play with a Newton once and I almost caved in...

Now if only more use was made of the fact that text on e-ink CAN look like a printed page; right now, it feels as if the makers of e-books are still stuck making books for devices from ten years ago.

Imperfect and incomplete as it is though, I couldn't imagine living without my Iliad now.

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

We thought we were being "cutting edge" at the time, I'll tell you . No, reading books on the Psion II with its 2 line, 40 character display wasn't really terrible practical, but on the Psion 3 it worked just fine...

Wow! I've never even seen a Psion until your wikipedia link. Ok, that was some serious e-book devotion to read on one of those.

I read on an old Palm III (bought for $5 on ebay) and I thought that was hardcore. Geesh!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Quite a lot of the classics had made it onto PG by the late 80s. As Dale says, PG was almost 20 years old by 1990.

I just found an old CD called the Complete Bookshop from 1993. It contains Classics, Poetry, Humor, Cookbooks, America's Founding Documents, Novels, history, Short Stories, Home Improvement, Computer Instruction and more! or so says the cover. It was made by a company called Chestnut Shareware out of Cambridge, MA.

Also included were heath and nutrition guides, drink mixing, business resource, dictionaries and thesauruses. It was great for searching and reference in its time. It was a DOS CD that claimed compatibility with Windows. A reader was included.

Dale

[spirits]

I'm 24. One of the things that may stop us from purchasing is the price of the reader. That being said, I don't see anyone around my age without an at least $200-$400 ipod with them. Really just depends on our desire for it. Sony Playstation 3 during the first 2 month of launch costs $699CAD and those who want it were able to afford it.

[bookwormfjl]

I am 55 and started reading ebooks and magazine articles in PDF format six years ago on a PC. Got my 1st ebook reader three (?) years ago--an Ebookwise 1150!

[binzer]

I'm 24. One of the things that may stop us from purchasing is the price of the reader. That being said, I don't see anyone around my age without an at least $200-$400 ipod with them. Really just depends on our desire for it. Sony Playstation 3 during the first 2 month of launch costs $699CAD and those who want it were able to afford it.

I am proud to say I don't own an ipod! That being said, I do own a ps3 (as well as a wii, 360, DS and psp) but I think I will value my Cybook the most.

It actually sort of makes me mad when people complain about the supposedly absurd prices of e-ink readers. It's just the way it usually is with new technology. Do you guys remember how expensive terrible laptops used to be? At any rate, I think books are one of the greatest pleasures and most valuable resources on the planet, so I can't see why you WOULDN'T want to carry around hundreds of them at one time. Personally I think hiring a servant to follow me 24/7 carrying all my books would be too expensive (not to mention socially awkward) so a Cybook seems like a good alternative :P

(Sorry to go on an off-topic rant, but I'm recently annoyed by some Fantasy book forums where people are terribly resistant to ebooks. It makes no sense!)

[Anthuzad]

20 here, and I bought the thing with my own money too ...

I just happened to glance over an article on the Sony 505 and since I'm an avid English reader (born German) eBooks are my redemption. Living in a rural area doesn't make for a wide choice of English books and ordering every book and waiting for one or two weeks for it to arrive is annoying.