Books vs E-Readers

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Blockbuster used to be a pain about that too

They were also a pain if you forgot to rewind DVDs.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

Awesome, another advantage of physical books is getting the chance to have the author autograph the book. With an ereader what can you do? Get a sharpie and ask the author to sign the ereader screen?

Have 'em use the sharpie on a nice piece of paper, digitize the image and insert it in the ebook later! Mind you, living in a rural area, haven't actually had a chance to ask an author if they'd be OK with this...






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[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

They were also a pain if you forgot to rewind DVDs.

Dude, I swear, the first time I watched a DVD, I had that moron moment where I was like "how do I rewind it" I knew better, but old habits were ingrained pretty deep.

[JSWolf]

If you don't rewind, you lose your Netflix membership.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Because a scroll is a "serial access" medium - in order to read a page near the end of the scroll, you have to scroll through the whole thing to get there. The "random access" nature of the codex (book) format was the main reason it replaced scrolls.

Once you've finished reading it, you also have to rewind it before someone else can read it. Several Roman authors lamented the rudeness of readers who neglected to rewind their scrolls for the next reader.

That problem has been fixed with Moon+. When I use it I scroll instead of page but I can still go anyplace in the book and I don't have to worry about rewinding. So Moon+ is really a further development in scrolling technology.

By the way, I read a lot with Moon+, scrolling and I read a lot with my Kindle, paging and I find scrolling to be far more relaxed. When paging, as I get near the end of the page I have to make sure my finger doesn't get ahead of me. That might just be my personal problem but my finger wants to jump the gun. I remember that was a problem when reading paper books too. Premature pagination. It's embarrassing.

I think the conclusion is not that real men scroll but that there are more real men when scrolling is done.

Barry

[Ricky D'Angelo]

One advantage books have over ereaders was to appear more intellectual to others by carrying around some obscure, preferably thick book filled with arcane knowledge. Well, ereaders fans can now begin to impress others with their reading habits with the new amazon flare.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

Awesome, another advantage of physical books is getting the chance to have the author autograph the book. With an ereader what can you do? Get a sharpie and ask the author to sign the ereader screen?

See http://stephenslighthouse.com/2013/0...-books-how-to/

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

Awesome, another advantage of physical books is getting the chance to have the author autograph the book. With an ereader what can you do? Get a sharpie and ask the author to sign the ereader screen?

Hey, We know what temperature books burn at.
What temperature does a flameing NiMh powered e-reader burn at

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

Hey, We know what temperature books burn at.
What temperature does a flameing NiMh powered e-reader burn at

Ask Samsung.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Scrolls didn't require all that pesky page turning. Why did we move on from scrolls?

You ever tried reading a scroll one-handed?

[maddz]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You ever tried reading a scroll one-handed?

Ah, but a scroll made it less obvious exactly what it was you gentlemen were reading... Us ladies didn't have that problem.

[KevinBurke]

1.) Ebooks are eternal (DRM free ones, anyway) and don't warp or fall apart e.g. pages becoming unglued at the binding from too much handling during reading etc... You can backup your ebooks and so they are always in pristine shape. I have some physical books that are warped, dirty, and falling apart from too much handling (I read alot what can I say ?)

2.) When taking notes in an ebook, on a ereader, you can type a longer note, associated with a certain page, compared to writing in the margins on a page in a physical book.

3.) You can carry a ton of books in one ereader about the size of a paper back.

4.) Less potential clutter in your domicile ( might be more of an issue for some than others).

5.) Can read in the dark while travelling, camping or when you lose power or whatnot without a lamp.

5.) Kobo Aura H20 is waterproof/dust proof and physical books are not waterproof. You can read in a bath tub, beach or at the pool.

Sorry, if some of this is redundant I don't have time to go through the entire thread.

[Cinisajoy]

On your number 5, that only applies to lighted ereaders. Some of us have basic ereaders.

On your number 4, one just needs Narnia or a Tardis or magical extending shelves.

On your number one, you forgot food splatters. Though that may only apply to cookbooks.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

The right books can be a great investment and increase in value, in contrast, once you by an ebook you can't sell it so it's basically worthless as an investment. Here are the prices of a few books I wish were sitting on my bookshelf.

• $1.5 million Don Quixote
• $1.4 million Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• $1.3 million The Federalist Papers
• $30.8 million Codex Leicester

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...xpensive_books

[barryem]

Originally Posted by KevinBurke

1.) Ebooks are eternal

My earliest ebooks, from around 1982 or so, are plain text files stored on 8" floppy disks. Hardly eternal. Yes I could locate and obtain the equipment somehow to retrieve them but I think that illustrates why they aren't eternal.

Actually I think I really do have them in other formats somewhere because I think I recall copying them over as media changed but I'm not sure of that and if I didn't they'd be very difficult to get to today and in 15 years would be impossible.

About 4 or 5 years ago I threw away about 25 or 30 Zip disks. Remember those? I don't think I cared about their contents or even knew what was on them but my guess is there were a lot of early ebooks. I did a bit of looking to see if I could find an easy way to access those. I found some fairly expensive possibilities from unreliable sellers on ebay but that was it.

Nothing in digital format is eternal. Offhand I'd say paper has a good chance of lasting longer unless the digital stuff is meticulously cared for.

I think "eternal" realistically might typially mean a few hundred years in terms of objects and a decade or two in terms of digital stuff.

Barry