Books vs E-Readers

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JustinThought

...I have that (and the rest of Heinlein--and my other favorite authors) on my vintage tablet instead. I can read them comfortably any time, any where.

The thought that there are now vintage tablets is really something.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by ekbell

I own and cherish a few vintage textbooks myself.

On the other hand due to ebooks (and the work of countless volunteers) I can read and enjoy old books that I would have never been able to find or afford otherwise. And I do find a certain mystique in the survival and transformation of words that were originally handwritten, then typeset and finally exist as ebooks. The very fact that every time I download such a book I'm helping to increase the number of copies that exist is thought-provoking (particularly with books which survived the great pruning of the the so-called dark ages).

This! Recently I was reading a memoir, where several books and authors were referenced that I'd not heard of, and thanks to Gutenberg, I was able to discover them for myself.

Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

[crich70]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The thought that there are now vintage tablets is really something.

I hear ya ZodWallop. I remember going into the electronics section at my local Wal-Mart and seeing "retro-video games" for sale. I can remember when those 'Retro' games were brand new.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by crich70

I hear ya ZodWallop. I remember going into the electronics section at my local Wal-Mart and seeing "retro-video games" for sale. I can remember when those 'Retro' games were brand new.

You're talking to a guy that used to play Pong on his TV as a kid.

We're blessed to have a place nearby called The Game Preserve. A couple of video game collectors got together and basically opened an arcade. You pay fifteen bucks to get in and all the games are free.

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You're talking to a guy that used to play Pong on his TV as a kid.

We're blessed to have a place nearby called The Game Preserve. A couple of video game collectors got together and basically opened an arcade. You pay fifteen bucks to get in and all the games are free.

Then you'll probably recognize this: "You are standing in a large room. You see something shining on the floor next to you..."

or...

Leisure Suit Larry anyone?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JustinThought

Then you'll probably recognize this: "You are standing in a large room. You see something shining on the floor next to you..."

I remember playing through Transylvania with a friend, being chased by a werewolf.

Leisure Suit Larry anyone?

I used to think Leisure Suit Larry was so scandalous!

[E.M.DuBois]

I like e-readers for the search feature to see if I spelled a word right. XD Unfortunately, if a fly lands on it I can’t just snap it shut on the damn thing. On a long summer night, when reading by the open window as I enjoy the breeze, the lit screen attracts bugs right to it, instead of a lamp a few feet away. Also, if I swipe the bug away, I end up six chapters in the direction I swiped. ARGH!

[Apache]

Originally Posted by E.M.DuBois

I like e-readers for the search feature to see if I spelled a word right. XD Unfortunately, if a fly lands on it I can’t just snap it shut on the damn thing. On a long summer night, when reading by the open window as I enjoy the breeze, the lit screen attracts bugs right to it, instead of a lamp a few feet away. Also, if I swipe the bug away, I end up six chapters in the direction I swiped. ARGH!

Another stronger light away from your book? Canned air?
Apache

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

Another stronger light away from your book? Canned air?
Apache

Buy a fan?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Buy a fan?

Put a screen in the window?

Shari

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The thought that there are now vintage tablets is really something.

[barryem]

I've been thinking about this thread a bit and it occurs to me that one of the things that's come from the move from paper books to ereaders is finicky readers. I read paper books for about 55 or 60 years before I got my first ereader. I never once, or almost never, cared about the font, the font size, the page margins, the line spacing, etc. Except when one of these features presented some issue, and that was very rare, I wasn't even aware of them.

Of course I knew there were differences from book to book but I never thought much about the nature of those differences.

Now, with ereaders, I can control all of those things and so can everyone else. And suddenly readers hate one reader because they don't like it's fonts and they hate another reader because they can't control the font weight and there's more talk about such things than about the books we read.

Personally I think ereaders are a huge improvement over paper in a lot of ways, mostly involving convenience and very much because of front lights. But maybe the biggest change they've brought us is a huge increase of the nit-picking population.

Barry

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by E.M.DuBois

I like e-readers for the search feature to see if I spelled a word right. XD Unfortunately, if a fly lands on it I can’t just snap it shut on the damn thing. On a long summer night, when reading by the open window as I enjoy the breeze, the lit screen attracts bugs right to it, instead of a lamp a few feet away. Also, if I swipe the bug away, I end up six chapters in the direction I swiped. ARGH!

Or the bug turns the page for you.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by barryem

I've been thinking about this thread a bit and it occurs to me that one of the things that's come from the move from paper books to ereaders is finicky readers. I read paper books for about 55 or 60 years before I got my first ereader. I never once, or almost never, cared about the font, the font size, the page margins, the line spacing, etc. Except when one of these features presented some issue, and that was very rare, I wasn't even aware of them.

I cared, but there wasn't much point complaining about it, because I didn't have a choice. I've abandoned paper books when these things were enough of an issue.

Originally Posted by barryem

Now, with ereaders, I can control all of those things and so can everyone else. And suddenly readers hate one reader because they don't like it's fonts and they hate another reader because they can't control the font weight and there's more talk about such things than about the books we read.

Here there is, because this is primarily an e-reader tech forum. In other social networks, where the primary focus is books (such as Goodreads), the primary focus is books.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by barryem

... I never once, or almost never, cared about the font, the font size, the page margins, the line spacing, etc. Except when one of these features presented some issue, and that was very rare, I wasn't even aware of them.

This is because the vast majority of the books in the past were typeset by skilled trained professionals. By hand, using very complicated machines or using software. There was always a [trained] human eye to judge the final layout of the page. And they had hundreds of years worth of accumulated know-how of how to typeset the page properly.

Originally Posted by barryem

Personally I think ereaders are a huge improvement over paper in a lot of ways, mostly involving convenience and very much because of front lights. But maybe the biggest change they've brought us is a huge increase of the nit-picking population.

Up until very recently e-ink readers had atrocious [from the typographical point-of-view] screen resolution forcing manufacturers to use aggressive hinting, slab-serif or sans-serif fonts ...
The vast majority of readers have 6" screen and if you combine the width of screen with large margins and relatively large fonts mean there is way too few characters per line. With short line-with you get lots of typographical ... issues.
On the top of that, in most of the readers a typography is an afterthought, so you have to tinker with the fonts, margins, justification to get the least atrocious layout.