Survey finds that 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer paper books to e-books

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

My mother has pretty much made the switch to ebooks now because the print in paper book is just uncomfortably small for her these days (and she doesn't like to use reading glasses when reading on her side in bed) - she's happy to read on my old iPad, which doesn't bother her nearly as much as it did me, for reading, and she needs the larger screen. I must admit I'm glad she's not nearly as voracious a reader as I am; she reads only before sleep and gets through maybe 2-3 books a month - if she read 10-15 books a month, I don't think I could afford to buy her books!

I am lucky in that my 87 year old mother seems happy to read mostly the same ebooks as I do. Strangely enough she didn't when it was all paper.


Helen

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I am lucky in that my 87 year old mother seems happy to read mostly the same ebooks as I do. Strangely enough she didn't when it was all paper.


Helen

That is definitely lucky! Unfortunately it's quite impossible for us as I read almost exclusively in English these days (can't abide translations any more, especially translations from English, and most of what I currently want to read tends to be stuff originally written in English) and my mother does not.

[speakingtohe]

I wish I spoke/read a second language I think it expands your viewpoint. Luckily I am fine with translations as I read a lot of translations from Asian and European languages, but perhaps I just don't know what I am missing.

Helen

[Yapyap]

I was fine with translations when I was younger, and I'm still okay with translations from languages I'm not fluent in - but since becoming a professional translator myself, I can see all the issues in translations from English far too easily (clumsy phrasing, too literal translation, idioms or cultural references mistranslated etc), so it actively bothers me now.

I think it really is a case of being okay with it as long as you don't know better. When something is translated from a language I only have a vague familiarity with, it's not nearly as much of a problem.

(It could also be that translations from other languages are, objectively, of better quality, as people capable of translating from less common languages are usually genuine, enthusiastic fans of the language and culture and their level of skills and knowledge is generally excellent - with English, there are so many people who are somewhat fluent in it that to save on costs, it's sadly too common these days that people hired are random acquaintances or high school kids with not nearly enough life or language experience to get everything right.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

(It could also be that translations from other languages are, objectively, of better quality, as people capable of translating from less common languages are usually genuine, enthusiastic fans of the language and culture and their level of skills and knowledge is generally excellent - with English, there are so many people who are somewhat fluent in it that to save on costs, it's sadly too common these days that people hired are random acquaintances or high school kids with not nearly enough life or language experience to get everything right.)

Very true. English is an easy language to learn enough of to make yourself understood in, (eg because of its almost complete lack of case endings), but it's a very, very difficult language indeed to gain "native" fluency in (which you have, judging by your writing, Yapyap!).

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I was fine with translations when I was younger, and I'm still okay with translations from languages I'm not fluent in - but since becoming a professional translator myself, I can see all the issues in translations from English far too easily (clumsy phrasing, too literal translation, idioms or cultural references mistranslated etc), so it actively bothers me now.

I think it really is a case of being okay with it as long as you don't know better. When something is translated from a language I only have a vague familiarity with, it's not nearly as much of a problem.

(It could also be that translations from other languages are, objectively, of better quality, as people capable of translating from less common languages are usually genuine, enthusiastic fans of the language and culture and their level of skills and knowledge is generally excellent - with English, there are so many people who are somewhat fluent in it that to save on costs, it's sadly too common these days that people hired are random acquaintances or high school kids with not nearly enough life or language experience to get everything right.)

I don't suppose many get everything right. But thinking about it I am amazed at how good the Asian translations I have read are considering the bad translations of one page user manuals

Still I am of the opinion that translations to English for fiction are overall pretty good. Perhaps it is a more competitive market.

Helen

[Yapyap]

It's a more competitive market, possibly, but most countries where English is spoken natively also have a lot of people - including any number of native speakers of other languages. This means that the pool of people to draw from is much greater to begin with, and in many cases, even if the translator isn't a native speaker of the language they are translating from, it's easier (or at least possible) to find people to consult; it's easier to do research, etc.

When you're a native speaker of a language that has ~1 million speakers worldwide, the pool of qualified, skilled, suitable people for any and every job is much smaller to begin with.

The various user manuals I've seen translated into English from various Asian languages can indeed be quite, um, interesting - I'm quite sure that's the case when the Asian companies have hired their own people without checking their language skills first (could also be a case of hiring a friend or relative or relative of a friend) instead of giving the job to a native speaker or at least someone actually qualified.

(And thanks, Harry! I've been a translator for ~20 years now, so I'd hope I'm fairly fluent, yes, although I'm also often enough painfully aware how much there is I still have to learn or internalise.)

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

It's a more competitive market, possibly, but most countries where English is spoken natively also have a lot of people - including any number of native speakers of other languages. This means that the pool of people to draw from is much greater to begin with, and in many cases, even if the translator isn't a native speaker of the language they are translating from, it's easier (or at least possible) to find people to consult; it's easier to do research, etc.

When you're a native speaker of a language that has ~1 million speakers worldwide, the pool of qualified, skilled, suitable people for any and every job is much smaller to begin with.

That is what I meant by competitive. Probably I stated it badly

Helen

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

The various user manuals I've seen translated into English from various Asian languages can indeed be quite, um, interesting - I'm quite sure that's the case when the Asian companies have hired their own people without checking their language skills first (could also be a case of hiring a friend or relative or relative of a friend) instead of giving the job to a native speaker or at least someone actually qualified.

I'm sticking with my opinion that all user manuals used to be translated from the original into English by a Korean rice farmer with no knowledge of the product or either of the 2 languages. Nowadays I think they have skipped the farmer and gone straight to google translate.

[klmmc13]

Originally Posted by auspex

But the fact that it's legal to buy used books in the US (and particularly in the US) is key—and not legal to buy a used e-book. Those kids who preferred paper actually seemed to understand the legal issues.

Most of those "kids" in this age bracket are buying, selling & RE-selling their textbooks &/or books from their reading lists from classes they're no longer taking. So of course, they're already familiar with the side benefits of paper vs electronic.

Growing up blue-collar in a big city, all MY reading was from the library, not a bookstore. My dad regularly read 12 - 20 westerns a week, so I got the bug early. It became a pattern -- read a book from the library, re-read it a few months later, if I liked it Very Much - save up the money to go buy the paperback. Read that paperback at least once a year until it fell apart, then start looking for another copy in used book stores.

Now I live WAY OUT in the country, the local library has less books (<4500) than my own personal library (over 5000), and most of those are either kids books, romance, true crime, or NYT Best Sellers, and sold off every 6 months to make room for newer books. None of the local libraries have ebook systems so I have to either depend on free books, hope there's a large enough sample to give a good sense of the book, or wait until WallyWorld's book supplier happens to stock the paperback this week.

I love ebooks, not just for the space-saving aspect (my paperbooks are mostly packed away due to space limits), but the ease of completing sets, reading more by the same author, etc. [now if I can just find a library where I can get digital access without spending $60.00+ /year for a non-resident library card.]
Kathy

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Full article here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...printed-ebooks

Sounds to me like it's all about money. Ebooks overpriced, I can resell it.... plus I don't have to worry about what device it works with....

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

"Half of the respondents were sourced through student moneysaving website Studentbeans.com, and half through a broader youth research panel."

Not a random sample then which would likely show half hadn't read a book except set books in the last six months.

The missing questions relate to how many books/ebooks were (a) bought and (b) read
(c) borrowed from library.

Same for music and movies.

Yes....I think the survey may have been biased...

[TechniSol]

I'd be curious to know: What percentage of the overall Pbook & Ebook markets 16-24 year olds represent?(I can't imagine they have huge buying power and lots of free cash -I know I didn't. I was on scholarship, working too, and still didn't have a lot of disposable income.) How likely they are to not want to carry a relatively fragile as yet device around with their phone -which most seem to be madly texting away on rather than reading ebooks? Younger people as a group tend to be a bit less protective of their devices or just less organized or distracted more easily, in my experience, so I wonder that a relatively fragile e-ink screen might not be a good fit for many.(though concede that multi-purpose devices with Gorilla glass are available.) Further, young people in that age range tend to be more social, going out more, etc. and less likely to be as in control of their immediate environment, other people doing stupid crap, etc., so maybe a fragile device is not a great fit except where they can better control the environment like at home, the dorm, etc.

But, I can understand the desire to possibly resell pbooks, and I can certainly understand the stance that ebooks are overpriced.(When was the last time you met people just scraping by in the publishing industry unless they were a cottage, fringe, or specialty publisher?) Materials costs, shipping, handling, etc. must be much less than eticket sales costs, which books bought online would share. I'm hoping that ebooks will shake things up and maybe open up space for an editor/publisher class of business with less overhead, but how that fits with deep enough pockets to provide advances I can't quite see. Let's be fair, many publishers are built on old money and a scion who liked books looking for something respectable to do once upon a time. Making money and providing a public service of sorts was once looked upon as a very respectable way of multiplying the old family greenbacks and taking on one's societal responsibilities. The other end of it is like most businesses in a tighter economy the smaller guys are getting rooted out and distribution is more and more at a premium. I'd rather buy directly from e-publishers that edit content and maintain a store or through e-retailers like Amazon, pay less and cut out the Middlemen as much as possible -hopefully with the author seeing more income.

Let's face it folks, publishers are in business to leverage the money they have in order to pay for advances, editing, distribution, publicity, and in turn make a rather hefty profit. Change would be nice, but who knows yet?