Why E-Books?

[JMikeD]

I read ebooks because I have no space left for physical books. I'm trying to get ride of 3500+ printed books to recover some space for living in.

I read on a Palm Tungsten back in the old days also, but I first started getting ebooks on a Newton MessagePad around 1995. Then went to Palm Tungsten, then I think to an iPod Touch, then to Kindle.

I almost forgot, but I actually started out reading digital books on this Sony Bookman in the early 1990s. Not sure if that was the actual name, but it was a cool clamshell device for its time. Unfortunately Sony never really supported it. It was difficult to find books for it, and they were in mini CD disc format. A great idea which Sony let die due to lack of available books.

I think the model I owned looked different from this one, but that was 25+ years ago.

[Alohamora]

Geeky curiosity, when I first head of Project Gutenburg. Then I found that reading on a flat screen was a joy compared to trying to re-focus across a curving print page. Ebooks were cheaper than hardbacks, and I really couldn't tolerate the poor print quality of paperbacks. Space saving is just a bonus.

[Wolfrott]

Two reasons for me, I.) to save on space and money, 2.) I'm physically disabled and bed-ridden, I've only got the use of one arm so it's the main issue for me. Tablets & Kindle devices were the perfect solution for me!

[BeeTee-Ess]

Like many others here, I also started off on a Palm Pilot. Being able always to have a book (or books) with me was a luxury.

Since then, I am never without a device which lets me read a book.

I have progressed (in no particular order) from the HP Touchpad, the Kobo Mini (if ever they produce one with a front-light, I shall buy it in a heartbeat), iPad Mini, iPhone3G, iPhone4, iPhone4S, iPhone5C, iPhone6 (always by my side; so good, I cannot justify an iPhone7), Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4NT, Kindle PaperWhite, Kindle Voyage (also always with me).

I only keep about 50 e-books on my Kindle at one time, in two collections, one for kids and one for me. The rest of my e-books are in a Calibre library. I select and sort my books there, and when the batch I am currently reading is finished, I am ready to load the next set onto my Kindle.

I am typing this in my study, which is lined with books which have been gathering dust for years. The same is true of the ones in my lounge. I do have a small bookshelf in the bedroom, which houses books I truly value, but even those are duplicated in my e-book collection, and so are rarely read.

My wife also has a Kindle, and some of the dusty books on the bookshelves belong to her. Whenever we travel, our Kindles are always with us. Reading is an important part of our lives. Only the technology has changed.

Why e-books? Why not?

[marrco]

the main reason for me is font size.

then storage space and books price. But being able to increase font size and control it with FONTS_RAMP allows me to spend more time reading with my tired eyes

[ElspethB]

Yet another one who started reading ebooks on a Palm Pilot (and then a Sony Clie, like Paul). I liked the convenience of always having a book with me in my pocket. Still do, which is why whatever book I'm currently reading on my Kindle is also on my phone.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ElspethB

Yet another one who started reading ebooks on a Palm Pilot (and then a Sony Clie, like Paul). I liked the convenience of always having a book with me in my pocket.

"A book" being the operative term, unless you were wealthy enough to spring for the PalmPilot Professional, with its massive 1MB of storage! (I never was )

[knc1]

Originally Posted by HarryT

"A book" being the operative term, unless you were wealthy enough to spring for the PalmPilot Professional, with its massive 1MB of storage! (I never was )

The later Palm Tungsten accepted SD cards.

I also had (still have, with dead battery) a watch that ran Palm OS.
Although I must admit I never tried reading a book on it.

[Atunah]

I find this all interesting. I don't know anything about these Palm thingies, although I have read that name around this board here and there. Had to look some of them up.
I never even heard of ebooks until I saw the first kindle and I am not sure where I saw it first, probably amazon site. I am talking about the K1. I think I heard about it in 2007, when the first one came out and sold out very quickly and after that I kept my eye on it. I didn't really understand what e-ink meant, or what would it mean to me until I got it.

I assume those Palm thingies had like a tablet type screen? They were before tablets though, right? I am guessing those would have been way out of my price range and the books that go with it. Gadgets like that in general were not in my budget.

Say what you will about Amazon, but they took something and turned it into a user friendly mainstream reading device with affordable content built around it.

[knc1]

I assume those Palm thingies had like a tablet type screen? They were before tablets though, right?

Once there was a product war . . .

The products lined up on the sides of:
PDA (Personal Data Assistant) - sort of a palm-top computer with a purpose.
Dumb cell 'phones - the sort that could hardly do anything other than make a telephone call.

The PDA manufacturers developed models that could make telephone calls ...
The Cell 'phone manufacturers developed models that could also perform typical "PDA tasks".

And the product war was on.

The (smart) cell 'phone crowd won that one.

- - - - -

And nearly unnoticed, a few years ago, one of the developer corner members made an add-in for the touchscreen Kindles that added most PDA features to a Kindle.

She is gone now, left to form her own software company.
But the add-in is still posted and (mostly) still works.

[patrickt]

I have thoroughly enjoyed each improvement in the Kindles but the devices themselves interest me less than the availability of books I want to read.

From the early 1990s onward there were several attempts by companies to come up with what would eventually be called PDAs, Personal Digital Assistants. The first generation basically contained a contacts list, a calendar, and not much else. Sharp was one of the first to bring these to the market, and this was long before most people knew what a cellular phone was. These had no phone capability at all. Mobile phones in those days were a bag with a rather large radio/phone, a cig. lighter plug cable for power, and a magnetic antenna to place on the car. They were expensive to use, and handheld cellular phones were very rare and literally bigger than a brick. So again, the first electronic organizers, as they were called, had no phone and would not have phones for many years to come. Most of the ones I remember had short battery life, a non-lit monochrome LCD screen that was difficult to see, especially in the dark, and the major complaint was that they often reset themselves and wiped all the data off. Finally, Palm came up with the Palm Pilot which was smaller, easier to enter info/data, didn't have the quirks the earlier attemps had, etc. Palm got it right. Still no phone in those days. About this time these devices began to be called PDAs. Many of us have mentioned Palm Pilots, but that was the first model and over the years they had many models. Some original people from Palm started a new company called Handspring and they started building Palm OS devices that had cellular phone capability. Eventually Handspring merged with Palm and the Treo line of Palm PDA and Cellular phone was introduced, some with Palm OS some with Windows Mobile OS. But most PDAs before then were non-phone devices. Sony introduced a line of PDAs that ran Palm OS called Clies. Compaq introduced a line of PDAs named iPaqs that ran Windows Mobile. These competed with each other and other brands for a few years before smartphones eventually became the gadget to own, and then the PDAs faded away.

[Cinisajoy]

My ipaq is around here somewhere.

[Tarana]

Needed modified text that Large Print books couldn't meet. Much easier to curl up with a Kindle or Nook than a large screen desktop. Yes, I use audiobook if available. I actually like the improved text-to-speech too!