Poll: Age of People who Read E-Books

[revmike]

I started reading ebooks on a palm 610c and then moved to a 760c. Since I'm 54 and that screen just got to be too small I started reading them on my computer. I was also running out of shelf space in my home office for the numerous paperbacks and hardcover books that I had purchased over the years. Just about a month ago I saw the kindle on the amazon site and it led me to the sony 505 and I could not be more happier.

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by binzer

I am proud to say I don't own an ipod! That being said, I do own a ps3 (as well as a wii, 360, DS and psp) but I think I will value my Cybook the most.

It actually sort of makes me mad when people complain about the supposedly absurd prices of e-ink readers. It's just the way it usually is with new technology. Do you guys remember how expensive terrible laptops used to be? At any rate, I think books are one of the greatest pleasures and most valuable resources on the planet, so I can't see why you WOULDN'T want to carry around hundreds of them at one time. Personally I think hiring a servant to follow me 24/7 carrying all my books would be too expensive (not to mention socially awkward) so a Cybook seems like a good alternative :P

(Sorry to go on an off-topic rant, but I'm recently annoyed by some Fantasy book forums where people are terribly resistant to ebooks. It makes no sense!)

Totally with you. I mean, didn't the old Palm III cost $400 when it was new. Of course, you have to wonder if it was worth $400. I mean, you can get them for $5 on ebay now.

And I know about people being terribly resistant to e-books.--actually resistant to technology in general. I just got into an argument with a co-worker who refused to try a digital camera and wouldn't believe they are better quality. She's not a photographer or anything,I mean, she has a cheap $25 film camera bought at Wal-mart. But she just refuses to "fall for" the digital camera thing--"it's just a fad."

Of course it is her choice, and I have no right to tell her what is right, but man, that attitude drives me crazy. She also can't figure out how to print from Microsoft Word and is always wanting help--and starts saying that she misses her typewriter. She's only 50!! Oh my....

Ok, sorry for the rant. Back on topic...

[Wilydragon]

I'm looking back at 65, started reading ebooks on an IPAQ in 96, moved to a Palm PDA, then a Treo, a eBookwise 1150 was next, now using a Sony 505.

[JohnnyD]

I'm 43 and have been reading e-books from the time Baen started to make them

My first device was a Palm V, followed by a Palm Tungsten. Last february I was finally able to buy an e-ink reader in a "normal" way (meaning from a webshop based in The Netherlands, my home country): my Cybook Gen3!

Since then it has been gradually going downhill: I hardly have any time to eat, work or sleep, there is so much reading to be done!

[dcalder]

I answered the poll based on when I started reading "ebooks" rather than when I started reading electronic fiction in general. That age would go back another, oh, a good eighteen years or so, to my university days when I discovered the Usenet newsgroups including groups like rec.arts.anime.creative and a number of other fanfiction groups in the alt hierarchy. I remember spending hours in the computer lab downloading and saving files en masse to floppy disk so that I could read them on my computer back in the dorm room.

[JAcheson]

My first serious ebook reading happened after I got my first Palm Pilot in 1997. Robert Louis Stevenson's The Silverado Squatters.

I had read text files before then, online fanfic and the like, but nothing book-length.

I'm not surprised to see this poll trending young, as portable devices suitable for reading ebooks are fairly new. And most people didn't have internet access until sometime in the 90's.

[ottocrat]

I've voted '25-29' as the question asked was "when did you start reading e-books?" but this was, ahem, over a decade ago. I think one has to distinguish between people who read e-books (which I think will include many, MANY younger people who will read e-books on their phones) and those who have bought dedicated e-book readers (who I think will be older, simply because the d*mn things are so expensive).

I don't agree with the poster who says that kids don't read any more. My kids are voracious readers, just as I was at their age; and there seems to be no shortage of discussion on the net about books, involving people of all ages.

[Amalthia]

I started reading ebooks in college when I was 18 and got my first Sony ebook reader at 27. Um i'm 28 so I guess I fall into the 20s crowd. It also annoys me when people say kids don't read because I was reading Stephen King novels when I was 11. (not going to talk about the quality of his writing but the point was The Stand unabridged was a long book for an 11 year old) And well my passion for reading never died out and I don't see why paying 400 for an ipod is much different from spending 300-400 on a ebook reader? It just depresses me that listening to music seems to be more valued than reading.

but apparently there are a lot of avid young readers out and about.

My grandfather loves to read now and never had the time when he was working full time so I guess anyone could learn to love to read regardless of age. As for the Sony PRS-505he looked very interested in getting one himself once I mentioned you can adjust font size.

[AMacD]

I will be 76 in another 6 weeks or so. I am on my second reader, Palm T|X first and now a Kindle.

[spirits]

One thing I have to point out about this poll is the fact that people here are those who:
- goes online regularly (since they found this poll so soon to vote)
- habitually research on what they purchase
- able to use the computer
- can speak English (Although I have to say that non-English speaker wouldn't purchase an English reader in the first place.)
- were exposed to eink reader through specific advertisement (most of the people I know do not know of such thing as an eink reader, and I think Sony did a really bad job at promoting this technology)

[TommyCooper]

I'm 54 and can quite honestly say that ebooks have re-energised my interest in reading. I started reading on my computer a few years back, then got a Rocket reader [which I still have and use], then a CyBook first-generation. I'm now trying out an Asus EEE PC, but will probably also get an e-ink reader shortly. I love the portability of ebooks and the ability to choose your own font and font size - very important when your peepers start to fade. In the beginning was the word, but the word wasn't very widely spread so I was mighty glad when websites like Fictionwise started to show up.

What still excites me is that although I have shelves groaning under the weight of pulped up trees, I could fit all of those texts and many thousands more on a single disk which I could carry around and read whenever I want - blimey

Technology for it's own sake never really interests me, but ebooks and their associated technology -there's something worth having. Knowledge and pleasure in abundance whenever you want and wherever you are - without being hindered by the incumberance of the dead, sacrificial weight of once beautiful living organisms.

Tommy

[Dan de V]

I started reading e-books when I was 23 and my company gave me a palm IIIi. I subscribed to e-reader (then peanut press) and moved on to a Palm Tungsten.

Bought a Symbian phone in 2006 and was disgusted to find e-reader didn't support it so I swapped to mobipocket.

I have always been a voracious reader and now at 32 I still read all the time and love the fact that I have a library of 50+ books on my phone available at any given instant to read.

As an engineer who has travelled the world for the last 10 years I appreciate a new book that I can download when there are no english bookshops or mail from amazon available.

The eye strain when reading from a phone can be a bit of pain so thinking about complementing it with an e-ink reader. However, I still think the e-ink readers have a ways to go before I buy one. I am waiting for more choice, better design and more functionality / flexibility.

[blunty]

Thanks for putting the Poll on, it looks so far that money might have been quite significant factor as most started when they were post college and presumably earning. And, yes quite a few geeks.
As for reading on two line screen, has anybody tried the I-cue on mobiles that can scroll one line like a ticker, or flash a word at a time. Takes some getting used to but I found I could handle the ticker format.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by binzer

Ok wait. You WROTE a novel on a PDA? I'm pretty sure that makes you officially crazy or crazily devoted, but either way there's some crazy involved!

Oh, yeah. Trying to write a chapter or two on the on-screen keyboard of a Casio Zoomer (actually the rebranded Radio Shack version, same thing), is an experience that I'd only recommend to people who like wrist cramps, eye fatigue and a fifty-foot radius between you and any single girl in the area!

(For the record: It's chapters 2 and 3 of The Onuissance Cells. The rest of the original text was written on an Amiga 1000!)

On the other hand, due to its size it was one of the larger on-screen keyboards you've ever seen, and for awhile, I was a demon on it... I could stylus-type almost as fast as I could write longhand!

Over the years, I have continued to do edits of any novels I was working on during a vacation (cause it's fun!), and either I would limit myself to laptop work, or I'd port the work into my PDA and mess with it while hanging on the beach.

[ottocrat]

I believe Guy Gavriel Kay wrote the first novel in his Fionavar Tapestry on a Psion Series 3. Or was it Steven Erikson? A Canadian in London anyway.