Has anyone else noticed the growing number of people E-reading?

[AkumaTakeshi]

Originally Posted by witeowl

True, indeed. Students are often surprised when I have no objection to graphic novels. I only ask that they mix in traditional chapter books. (I have a similar request for students who prefer non-narrative nonfiction. I want them to learn what it feels like to become engrossed with a story; I want them to experience the "reading zone".)

I wished more teachers thought like you. Normally all they want is to shove their students with literature from some centuries ago. Most of the teens will find it boring. The language used isn't exactly the same and the theme may not make sense on our contemporaneous time. So they will most likely become frustrated and lose the interest in reading. And the fact of being forced to read a specific book doesn't help much too.

But well this is getting a bit off topic

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

well, yeah, but it's mainly comics, games and Harry Potter...

well, hopefully this introduction will lead some of them to really enjoy reading higher literature such as Calvin&Hobbes, Metal Gear Solid and The Lord of the Rings.

One shouldn't knock reading comics. That's how I developed my love of reading.

They were very inexpensive at that point in time, so I could always wheedle some money from my parents to buy them. I would re-read them over and over again, and used to have stacks of them (and of MAD magazine). My Dad actually started my interest in them when he started buying me Classics Illustrated comics before I was able to read.

[graycyn]

There must be a trillion folks in Oregon e-reading, judging by the wait lists at my library (part of a consortium), but I rarely see an e-reader out in public. In fact, other than a library e-reader playday, I don't think I've seen any besides hubby's in town at all. I guess some folks are seeing mine though, since it comes along with me. I whipped it out today to read in Wal-Mart while waiting on a very slow checker.

Did see several Kindles on the plane when I flew to southern CA recently and one Nook Color. And my roommate at the convention had a Sony, and some other folks had Kindles on 'em. None of us had much time for reading though, we'd just brought our readers along for airport layovers.

I will say that at the library playday, only a couple people were younger than me, one of whom was a librarian. The rest were definitely an older crowd and I'm no spring chicken. Oddly, or perhaps not, since we were in a library, Nooks outnumbered the Kindles. That may well change when Kindle gets library access.

[wyndslash]

i love calvin and hobbes ;3 but the ending is so sad D:

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

One shouldn't knock reading comics. That's how I developed my love of reading.

They were very inexpensive at that point in time, so I could always wheedle some money from my parents to buy them. I would re-read them over and over again, and used to have stacks of them (and of MAD magazine). My Dad actually started my interest in them when he started buying me Classics Illustrated comics before I was able to read.

Everything has gone up in price now days. I remember when I was a kid you could get a comic 3 pack for either 75 cents or $1.25 (or so I recall) and they were thick comics too. Now you can't even get a slim comic for that amount. Course pbooks are more expensive than they used to be too. At one time they were under $1.00 for many older paperbacks (I see some when I go to a local used bookstore). Now it's an average of $6-$7 for the average pbook. That's one of the reasons I like ebooks. Some are free and many others are low cost. There are also some that are more expensive but I imagine many of them will be reduced in price eventually as new books come in. I think the convenience of ereaders (like the Kindle3) will attract more people back to reading. 100's of books at your fingertips and no matter how many pages a given one has they are all a uniform weight and thickness on the Kindle, etc.

[dacattt]

Weirdly, or not, have not seen another reader in the wild, though I'm not hanging out with other geeks much, and don't go into Starbucks, or public transport... but given I'm in the Los Angeles area, mostly the two big valley... I'd expect to see something somewhere.

My local friends are still very... "you'll have to pry real books from my cold dead fingers" and don't get that use a reader for a bit, and that's what you start saying about the reader... On line friends have them, but I never see them

When I'm out, I do get some interesting folks that want to look and play w/ my reader... and more than once someone who's commented, rather surprised that "I'm just reading it like a book", are more surprised when I say "I am. It is."

Then again... the San Gabriel Valley has always felt about a decade behind the real world, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. (Apologies to anyone voluntary living there.)

Maybe someday I won't be alone here.

-Cat-

[Prestidigitweeze]

eReaders are necessary but not fashionable, and people are quite aware they're popular with the elderly. Thus, most people I encounter not only prefer smartphones and iPads but prefer to be seen with them.

Smartphones and iPads = Minimum pop culture requirements. Quirky eReaders -- the main purpose of which is to sequester the user in the private experience of reading rather than to connect them socially and distract them with clips and pics = Fussy anachronisms.

Rejoice in your relative obscurity, friends. It will be short-lived and was hard-won.

[Asawi]

I have spent quite a lot of time in US Airports (most of the time Chicago O'Hare) the last couple of weeks. Walked around quite a lot but did not see many using eReaders at all. Off hand I can think of ony three ladies in their late 50s (one Nook 1G, one Nook Color, one I could not see properly but it was a touch eReader). On the Greyhound bus between Nashville and Atlanta there was a guy in his 40s using a Kindle 2 (I think) and that's about it.
I have visited several B&N stores in and around Atlanta and I've been the only one fiddling with any of the readers on display.

Traveled Marta (Atlanta's public transport) during rush hours several times with lots of white-collar-people and not seen even one eReader. A couple of people that may have been reading on their phones though, but I'd say most did other things on their phones.

I have to say I'm surprised. I expected to see more eReaders in use and more people playing with them in the stores.

(I did notice though how completely obsessed almost everybody is with their phones. Twitter, Facebook, messaging... CONSTANTLY!)

[Richey79]

Not many ereaders in the wild here in England: a combination of less people having them and people caring too much what others think in public.

I was taking the 'beer bus' (11:10 pm) home, however, and the number of young women caressing their smart-phones as if they were a cross between comfort-blankets and Pullmanesque daemons was remarkable.

[JGB]

I haven't seen more people reading on e-readers. I have seen a huge change in awareness though. Now I get "Oh is that a <Kindle/E-reader>, how do you like reading on it?"
instead of "What is that?"

[Beerman]

I know many folks that are recent to e-readers and credit both the lust for new gadgets and the media hype.
I just saw a report yesterday that said all the immediate attnetion to mobile phones, internet, games and gadgets is causing Popcorn Brain.
Mine is caramel corn!

[dacattt]

Originally Posted by JGB

I haven't seen more people reading on e-readers. I have seen a huge change in awareness though. Now I get "Oh is that a <Kindle/E-reader>, how do you like reading on it?"
instead of "What is that?"

Yes, agree totally with that. However, I'm now getting a "How do you like your Kindle?" Which of course leads into, there's more than Kindles out there. But average Joe still doesn't get e-ink, or the wonderful advantage of only charging it once a month.

Instead it's "Don't you need a light?" Which I've found the best answer is "How much do you read in bed? What do you do for light now?" They're having trouble sorting it from their phone... though eyes light up when I show them I can enlarge the fount and still have a lot of text on the screens.

Part of this problem seems to be the marketing. OK, e-ink is a bit tech, but they're not even selling the benefit... so color or web browsing seems to be the driving sell... which is a push away from the e-reader. For reaching folks that read some, not all the time, they need to try and sell why it's good even for the folks that just read books at a lighter pace, or newspapers. (Yes, that list is shortening.)

And I've yet to see an add targeted to "readers". (Put them on Sci-Fi and other weird cable channels where the costs are lower.) Sell the reader that's clutching all their paperbacks, why the e-reader simplifies their life...

But no... we get the girl in the bikini reading at the beach... just trying to sell the coolness factor ('cause no one is really listing to what she's saying, and it's about glare, not convenience anyway.)

-Cat-

[Fallingwater]

I still see few people using e-readers here in Italy, but I've seen a good number while I was recently staying in Madrid, Spain. It seems to me that the Spanish like reading a lot more than us italians. I've seen several using e-ink readers and a few with tablets.

Strange thing is, most e-readers I saw in Madrid were of Spanish make; Inves seems a widespread brand, along with Wolder; there's also Qoob/QB, who (I think) rebrand Kobos. The prices are a bit lower than known international brands, but not really enough to matter.

I actually wanted to buy my reader while I was there, but all models available in large stores were local (except, for some reason, for Sony, whose readers I wasn't going to buy on principle); since I wanted a model that didn't only have one country's userbase and Spanish support, I waited until I got home and bought a Cybook Opus instead.

Anyway, that the country's manufacturers seized the local market so quickly speaks volumes about the interest of its citizens in e-reading.

[mtwd]

I don't know anyone else that uses any form of ereader other than my middle son who will occasionally ready a book on his ipad. I know a few people with ipads and one other person with a Galaxy tab but most of them are used for surfing the net, reading emails and playing games. I don't know anyone with a dedicated ereader.

I'm new to ereading, I've only read 2 books so far using this medium, it hasn't really taken off here yet. I have noticed a few ads recently where it is 'buy a car/computer/whatever and get a free Kobo' I think that a lot must have been picked up cheap when Borders went out of business and are being used for giveaways now.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by dacattt

When I'm out, I do get some interesting folks that want to look and play w/ my reader... and more than once someone who's commented, rather surprised that "I'm just reading it like a book", are more surprised when I say "I am. It is."

I did have the experience once, while catching some free AT&T WiFi at the local McD's of actually having an older guy comment on my reader. It turned out he was the father of a somewhat local author (Sarah Woodbury) and he was wondering why I'd chosen the Nook. Of course, at that time, library access was the main reason, and Kindle wasn't there yet, as library lending for it had not yet been announced. We chatted a bit about independent authors and how ebooks were taking off. I ended up buying one of his daughter's books when I got home, though I haven't actually gotten around to reading it yet.

So, some folks are taking note when they catch a glimpse of a reader! You just never know whose interest you might catch!