"Why wired.com is wrong about ebooks"

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

I don't find books to be very decorative. Here and there they can add a bit of chaos to an otherwise "cold" room, but shelves full of books of all sizes and odd colors just don't seem aesthetically pleasing. And in my case, they sit around in piles because I don't have shelves for them or wall space for more shelves. Most are in boxes in the attic and the garage.

not to mention gather dust and require dusting xP

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

When I was younger, I was always jealous of Captain Picard's ability to read all of Shakespeare off of his little datapad. Thank you Gene Rodenberry.

I have converted most of my substantial library to ebook and sold or donated the DTBs. Most of my library was classics, so this was fairly cheaply done, and our house is much, much neater for it. I have converted most of my music as well, same story.

Even more like Capt. Picard, it gives the ability to "up stakes and go" should you want to see some "elbow room", without giving up your libraries. Hook up a travel trailer and explore the US, and Canada.

As a bookworm, the choice was "your books or your travel". Usually the books won. Now, if I want to spend a month in Hawaii, It's just a mini messenger bag and some clothes.

To quote a minor character in an obscure pulp juvenile S/F series from the late 1950's to early 1960's "Aye, we live in an age of miracles."

(Old Dorcas in the Dig Allen series)

[TenaciousBadger]

All this fandango surrounding books and ebooks and which is better, stronger, etc. is simply an sign of an ongoing paradigm shift.

Ebooks are here to stay, much like the automobile was, no matter what barriers some might try to put up (and that;s what the first article - and many others like it - is attempting to do.)

I wonder if my great-grandfather and his father headbutted about which was better: the horse or the car?
Hmmm....

[elcreative]

Tut, tut... proper bibliophiles don't dust because after a while it doesn't get any deeper and, if you've got a computer. you know where the dust is, not in your computer...

Originally Posted by wyndslash

not to mention gather dust and require dusting xP

[aktarian]

I kind of agree with first point. Seeing a book you bought but not read is constant reminder of your "failure". But maybe I'm different reader that author and rerely don't finish book once I've started, even if I don't like it much. My reason is "if I've started it I might as well finish it, maybe it will improve and even if it doesn't I'll be able to form a better opinion".

You can keep your books in one place. I keep them on external (backup) disc on computer, neatly divided into fiction and non fiction. Fiction further divided by authors, non fiction by subject. When I want to read one I simply transfer it either to reader or open it on computer.

Notes don't help me. I don't write in books. For one reason I prefer longer notes, for another it's ruining the book. I did underline textbooks. Another reason is that I porefer to keep notes in one place. If I write them in books then when I need them I have to go through book to find them.

Ebooks are as disposable as ordinary books. Even with paper books there are books you read once and put them soewhere, never to pick them up again. Some you reread once in a while. Some you keep coming back to. And ebooks are small so you can keep them in some folder with ease, even if you don't plan on reading them again.

People who use books as interior design try to create an image about themselves that's not true. Let's face it, room full of books implies you are well read and that you've read them all.

There are some reasons why ebooks aren't "there yet".

Size. 6'' is good enough for text. Once you have non-text elements (tables, charts, pictures...) ereaders are worse even than A5ish paperbacks. Books allow one such element to be on one page, acconpanying text on next one and since you have pages side by side you don't get lost. With ereaders you'll have to switch between pages. And don't get me started on colours..... I guess this could be solved by bigger screens (7''+) but then you get larger readers that aren't as comfortable to hold or carry around.

Looking for something you have vague idea where it is. The part you are looking for is couple of pages after first picture inset, right page, 2nd or 3rd paragraph from top and it starts with "economy". Yes, you can insert bookmarks but you can't insert bookmark for every interesting part.

There isn't interest to get some older, but still relevant, books in e format. OK, my experience is mostly about non fiction. I can understand that for more prolific writers publishers would rather have new book in e format and market that rather than offer a book that was published 10 or 15 years ago.

Overall, I think ebooks are slowly maturing and adapting to new technology. Publishing industry will adapt. People will say what they want, technology will provide hardware and publishers will provide books to suit them. Text-only books will adapt fastest, books with other contents slower because of different needs of consumers and format.

[DMB]

I have to admit to being a scribbler in books. I haven't ever done it in a fiction book, a library book or a hardback I owned. But there are certain types of non-fiction paperbacks that I buy just for myself for specific purposes and then I do tend to annotate what I think are the most important bits so that I can quickly find them again.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

My two points:

1) Who are these people who are writing all over their books? I'm not the biggest reader in the world but I like to think I read more than the average person and have read a lot of books in my time but I can't remember a single time I have ever written in a book other than to put my name on the front cover.

Same here. I didn't even let people sign my school yearbooks because I wanted to keep them pristine.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I'd set someones head on fire and submit them to a 10 hour marathon of Shamwow and "Sweatin' to the Oldies" commercials if I caught them writing in one of my books.

I remember once buying a 50-ish year old hardback copy of an OOP, hard to find English translation of a book of Japanese folklore. The day I picked it up from my mailbox, I was out with a cousin, who picked up the book to glance through-- and, when putting it down-- DOGEARED THE PAGE! It made me want to kill.

(For anyone who wants a free digital copy of the same book, click here.)

[warrend405]

Wired has a history of not understanding e-books. In September 2010 they published a short article by Rick Brodia on why the costs of e-books were high. He quoted a publishing industry source saying people would have a heart attack if they knew the costs of producing an e-book. The costs were digital warehousing, programmers to convert the books to various formats, extra legal support and copy protection software. He also stated the physical production of p-books could be as little as 15% of the cost.

The article is here: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/0...estion_ebooks/

[tompe]

Originally Posted by aktarian

I kind of agree with first point. Seeing a book you bought but not read is constant reminder of your "failure". But maybe I'm different reader that author and rerely don't finish book once I've started, even if I don't like it much. My reason is "if I've started it I might as well finish it, maybe it will improve and even if it doesn't I'll be able to form a better opinion".

I agree also. I have a lot of half-finished ebooks but not so many half-finished paper books.

Other disadvantage with not seeing the physical book is that I do not remember the author and the cover of the book since a reader program usually do not show the cover each time you start to read.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

I remember once buying a 50-ish year old hardback copy of an OOP, hard to find English translation of a book of Japanese folklore. The day I picked it up from my mailbox, I was out with a cousin, who picked up the book to glance through-- and, when putting it down-- DOGEARED THE PAGE! It made me want to kill.

That's when you implement the teachings of this book. Repeatedly.

Spoiler:

[Caleb666]

What worries me the most about the ePub/Mobi formats that is that their horrible support for math/formulas. Technical books are being relased with math or formulas saved as an image, which scales rather poorly. And real MathML support seems like a far reality.

Unlike PDF, I've also noticed some books including images (for example, maps, or graphs) which are very small, and don't scale that well. That's a ruined book!

ePub/Mobi is only good for non-technical stuff like novels. Anything that has illustrations or formulas should be in PDF. My fear is that publishers jumping on the ebook bandwagon will release their ebooks only in epub/mobi formats which is going to suck badly.

[Vic333]

Well, I have 5 better reasons to not trust e-books:

1) I'm a Luddite. I don't trust tech-mology, and write about how awful it is on my web page.

2) I like to write on things, like a little kid, and paper books are like page after page of activity sheets.

3) I'm scared, and wolves are after me! I can throw a dictionary much more effectively than a Kindle.

4) Waiting for a book to arrive in the mail is like foreplay for reading.

5) I like to display all the books I've read for people to see. I also take picture of my food and make picture books out of them, which I then display on my book shelf for people to see.

[DMB]

Originally Posted by Caleb666

What worries me the most about the ePub/Mobi formats that is that their horrible support for math/formulas. Technical books are being relased with math or formulas saved as an image, which scales rather poorly. And real MathML support seems like a far reality.

Unlike PDF, I've also noticed some books including images (for example, maps, or graphs) which are very small, and don't scale that well. That's a ruined book!

ePub/Mobi is only good for non-technical stuff like novels. Anything that has illustrations or formulas should be in PDF. My fear is that publishers jumping on the ebook bandwagon will release their ebooks only in epub/mobi formats which is going to suck badly.

Reminds me of my days as a technical editor in the early 1960s (before everything went digital). All our stuff was machine set with a monotype machine, but equations had to be hand set in the centuries-old technique. The printers had only one compositor skilled in hand setting equations. Every year when he went on holiday we would get back galley proofs with a real dog's breakfast of symbols that made no sense. Computer setting has obliterated all that.

[Prestidigitweeze]

First of all, props to the OP for doing everyone's work for them. Like others here, perhaps, I haven't checked the synopsis by reading the original article in Wired (really another leisure brochure from Conde Nast, Inc. and not the tech/SF-friendly mag it once was). I'm going to do so before writing further responses just to be fair.

I only wanted to say this:

I, too, am loathe to profane bound pages with scrawls that will only emphasize passages and insights that will seem obvious when next I pick up that same book. Whether it's my second or twentieth, each reading has the potential to reveal something new.

However, other kinds of note-taking are required for college students and editors whether they respect books or not. The copies they use are meant either for maximum strategic retention or hands-on editing.

My criticism of eReaders' (not eBooks') note-taking options is that notes will only be useful when their exact content and position in the original text can be backed up and reproduced. A person who's taking notes for educational or professional reasons can't afford to have their work vanish in an instant. We're talking about people's grades, livelihoods and futures, not personal preferences.