Has your ebook reader widened your world

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Surfergirl

(And reading the Odyssey has also given me the kick up the backside I needed to start trying to learn Latin, which I've wanted to do for years!)

Er, the Odyssey is written in Greek .

[Jellby]

I've read some classics (even "modern" classics) I probably wouldn't have bothered to buy... and more important, I've read them in the original language (English, French, Italian), which would have been harder to get in paper.

[DixieGal]

Actually, my reading world has diminished in the past year since getting my EB-1150. One particular genre I used to enjoy is travel books, such as Fodor's, Rick Steves, etc. They do not translate well at all to ebook. And I can't read the pbooks anymore because my eyes can't see their fine print. (Travel guides try to lighten the weight by putting tiny print onto fewer pages.)

So that type of reading has passed entirely out of my life, and I miss it very much.

[carandol]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Er, the Odyssey is written in Greek .

Leave the girl alone. When I read "2001: Space Odyssey", it made me want to learn C++.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by carandol

Leave the girl alone. When I read "2001: Space Odyssey", it made me want to learn C++.

[carandol]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Actually, my reading world has diminished in the past year since getting my EB-1150. One particular genre I used to enjoy is travel books, such as Fodor's, Rick Steves, etc. They do not translate well at all to ebook. And I can't read the pbooks anymore because my eyes can't see their fine print. (Travel guides try to lighten the weight by putting tiny print onto fewer pages.)

So that type of reading has passed entirely out of my life, and I miss it very much.

Are you suggesting the EB-1150 has made your eyesight worse? Or would you have even less you could read without ebooks?

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by carandol

Are you suggesting the EB-1150 has made your eyesight worse? Or would you have even less you could read without ebooks?

No, the reader didn't make my eyesight worse. It's the only way I can read anything at all now, except via desktop PC. I'm saying that my choice of reading material has been reduced because I can only read text on my reader, and that is only after blowing the font up to 3 or 4 words per line. Anything with photos or drawings will not work on my reader at all.

[GeoffC]

It has certainly widened my world in more way than one -
I have bought more "books" in the past 6 months than I did in the previous 10 years ....

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As Ned very rightly says, it works both ways. Although there are many modern books which aren't available as eBooks, it's equally true that there are huge numbers of eBooks which are long out of print as printed books.

I reckon my central library has a vaster range of pbooks (in more genres) than the current ebook catalogue.

Non-fiction materials are a major challenge for ebook devices; and I think they're coming up short in that arena.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Oh, definitely. I am reading authors I never would have thought of..........Richard Kadrey, Sir Henry Rider Haggard, Aldous Huxley, Sapper, Doctorow. And, of course, the infamous E M Forster, he of the "Passage to India".

These books are being read on the recommendations of members here, and I'm finding lots of new worlds to explore.

I would say the same thing. But I think that is the direct result of interacting with a community of readers that you didn't previously belong to. Had you had similar interactions with the same group of people the same thing would have resulted even if you were reading the books in paper back.

Although this is an indirect result of your getting an ebook reader since you sought out this community as a direct result of getting the device.

BOb

[pilotbob]

I would say I am also able to answer more of the literature questions on Jeopardy now. Still not all of them.

BOb

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I reckon my central library has a vaster range of pbooks (in more genres) than the current ebook catalogue.

Non-fiction materials are a major challenge for ebook devices; and I think they're coming up short in that arena.

There seem to be plenty in the nature of biographies, philosophy, spiritual, historical and other non-heavily graphic content available. What kind of non-fiction were you thinking about.

Dale

[delphidb96]

I must admit that being able to read just about anywhere - and have tons of titles at my fingertips without needing a U-Haul trailer to haul them around - has made me branch out into fiction genres I'd never considered before - I've even read westerns for crying out loud!

Derek

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

There seem to be plenty in the nature of biographies, philosophy, spiritual, historical and other non-heavily graphic content available. What kind of non-fiction were you thinking about.

I was thinking of the heavily graphical ones .

[tech_au]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I must admit that being able to read just about anywhere - and have tons of titles at my fingertips without needing a U-Haul trailer to haul them around - has made me branch out into fiction genres I'd never considered before - I've even read westerns for crying out loud!

Derek

This is the beauty of the ebook reader that I have discovered.Having lots of different books to choose from and being able to read them whether you are in the park or at a cafe.
I must admit I have bought a heap of books while the $AU/$US exchange rate was pretty high and combined with the large number of excellent freebies posted here it makes for a very long books-to be-read queue at present.