10 reasons why "real" books are better than e-books, supposedly

[QuantumIguana]

You really can't read in the sun. The surface temperature of the sun is 5,778 degrees Kelvin. You do have to subtract 273 degrees to convert to Celsius, but that's still pretty hot. And that's just the surface! The core is about 15,700,000 degrees Kelvin, and that's way to hot to read. (don't forget to subtract 273)

[ProfCrash]

No, I assume they will read chapter books and beginner books on e devices but they will start with board books.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

No, I assume they will read chapter books and beginner books on e devices but they will start with board books.

I had a couple of cloth books when I was a child. Good for teething for the 2 year old crowd

Helen

[crich70]

Originally Posted by frahse

I think in the future, children and teachers will consider real reading to begin with some kind of computer screen.

pBooks and the like will be relegated to the level of blocks with letters on them,
useful as a learning tool, but not for "real" reading.

I think this will surely happen in a generation (20 or so years) and possibly even sooner, say 10 years.

I could see you being right about that frahse. I remember a time when computers were only for the adults in business places like offices and banks. Then when I was in middle school (Jr. High) they started to really introduce them into the classroom. Now you even find them in Kindergarden classrooms. When I was in college they had a lcd screen that could be put on top of an overhead projector and the screen's contents could be projected. I could easily see something like that replacing the old blackboard especially if kids have work stations in the classroom that the teacher can activate if he/she wants a student to work a problem or some such on the board.

[forsooth]

My father was miner.
Sometimes we lived in backward places. Few books for school.
Mother taught us but school important also so we attended part of day.
Teacher write on board with chalk, sentences for story.
Choose child to read sentence then next child next sentence, then repeat over and over so all children read all sentences.

We all watch and listen and learned.

Main thing! Repetition, over learning.

[din155]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

You really can't read in the sun. The surface temperature of the sun is 5,778 degrees Kelvin. You do have to subtract 273 degrees to convert to Celsius, but that's still pretty hot. And that's just the surface! The core is about 15,700,000 degrees Kelvin, and that's way to hot to read. (don't forget to subtract 273)

Even if you could get around the high heat after subtracting 273, there is no assurance that you will find anything in the sun to read.

[william z]

Personally I like to read, not collect books, build a library or have books autographed by the author. If I want to read on an airplane, I can buy a paperback. When I take a bath or a shower I do just that, not read a book. I don't care to have a whole lot of clutter with books strewn all over the place--I don't have room for a whole lot of shelves. The reason I like an e-book reader is because I read a lot and like to have a library at my fingertips. Not being able to afford a whole lot of new books at today's prices I used to buy a lot of used books and was not fond of the musty smell, and it was really annoying to borrow a book from the library and maybe find some coffee stains in it or passages underlined.

I am not sure why this is even a matter of debate. Each to their own; if somebody likes "real" books then they don't need an e-reader. If someone prefers an e-reader, so what? I am quite satisfied with reading e-books, thank you.

[frahse]

I could give you 10 advantages of pBooks and then give you 10 advantages for eBooks. Of course it boils down to what is most important.

An example.
Up until a few years ago, I had a very, very large Cabinet Grand Piano in my Living Room. It came from the great American home piano era. This one was built in the 1920s. It had a tremendous and beautiful voice and a fine action. I loved it.

The problems with it were mold and mildew from years of being I don't know where because it did collect dust. It weighed over 500 pounds. Probably over 600. It needed to be tuned at least every 6 months.

It was difficult to let it go, but now I have an electronic digital piano that weighs about 30 or so pounds. It can be picked up off its stand, the stand can be folded, and all can be placed in a "gig" bag and stacked on its end in a closet if needed. No tuning needed. It also has a zillion (yes an obvious exaggeration) little extras being electronic.

To make my point further, when next I am in a hall and there is a 12 foot grand piano sitting there, I will be sorely tempted to slip onto the bench and try the keys.

But I will not be interested in taking it home, at least until I own a 30,000+ square foot and have a few hot and cold running servants.

[Pulpmeister]

The oldest book I currently possess is a family heirloom, a very tiny New Testament (2 inches wide by 3 inches deep) in "diamond 48" type (incredibly tiny) which is dated 1835, and printed on incredibly thin "bible paper".

That makes it about...damn, not enough fingers to calculate with...180 years old or thereabouts. I doubt any given ebook will last that long, (I hear the noughts and ones get tired with age, just like me) and as for an e-reader....

On the other hand, I've never tried to read this particular edition. I would need a VERY powerful magnifying glass. The body type size used in the average phone book would be an ultra-large display face in this book.

It just occurred to me--it was probably hand-set! How on earth did they DO it? Loupe and tweezers?

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

That makes it about...damn, not enough fingers to calculate with...180 years old or thereabouts. I doubt any given ebook will last that long

Why not, though?

It's just data, and when formats like epub/mobi/etc are replaced with a new, more popular format, the ebooks we own will simply be converted. Plain, 7-bit text files have been around for decades and they are all accessible still.

What has changed, and will continue to change, is the type of medium the electronic texts and books are saved on, but new media don't just pop up and suddenly replace all others, so in a handful of years when regular hard drives have been fully replaced by Solid State Drives (SSD), my books just move to the new medium, just like many of my text files started their lives on 3" disks, then moved to 5.25" ones, then to 3.5" and eventually to hard drives and clouds.

I think the real difference between e-books and paper books is that in case of paper books the content is lost with the material (the medium). The material is often even what makes the books valuable. With e-books, the focus is much more (it not solely) on the content, and the content can be preserved (and converted) with ease. I was deeply upset when a water pipe burst in my house and I lost many valued (not valuable) paper books. Some I could have re-bought, many were OOP and only the used market would have offered choices. If my hard drive bites the dust? No problem, there's a couple memory cards with copies of my entire e-library, plus what can be re-downloaded from the vendors.

This gets us dangerously close to the political waters, but in my eyes, the tremendous contribution of e-books to "humankind" is that both knowledge and prose will not as easily get lost again, because neither fires nor the fangs of OOP and the claws of copyright can permanently remove access.

The only downside of e-books is the dependency on electricity, but if that became a problem, we'll presumably have bigger issues than being unable to read our e-books (and we'd burn the paper ones for warmth).

Originally Posted by Mivo

Why not, though?

I agree with most of what you're saying, with the caveat that you're talking about a fair bit of curating of collections. Some people will do this, particularly those with the technical skills to be able to do so. Some people will not do so. For that latter group, the print book is far more likely to outlast the ebook.

It is also worth considering that print books last considerably longer if they are properly maintained too. Even meager environmental controls (e.g. storing books in a dry, cool location) will do a lot to prevent the common forms of damage. Sophisticated enviornmental controls (the costly stuff that requires a fair amount of technical skills) will preserve a physical book a lot longer.

Bluntly put: properly maintained ebooks will be able to last longer than print books, but we won't be discovering long lost ebooks a thousand years from now like we did in the Renaissance.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Bluntly put: properly maintained ebooks will be able to last longer than print books, but we won't be discovering long lost ebooks a thousand years from now like we did in the Renaissance.

But would have as many been lost in the thousand years leading up to the Renaissance if the ancients had used e-books?

edit: You do make an excellent point about the required technical skill, however. A paper book has no such requirements and anyone (who can read) is able to "use" a printed book. It is something I frequently overlook and then, as a result, wrongly assume that computers and e-gadgets are as toaster-like to everyone as they are to me.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Bluntly put: properly maintained ebooks will be able to last longer than print books, but we won't be discovering long lost ebooks a thousand years from now like we did in the Renaissance.

We might be. Information overload could lead to some things being lost as far as common access to.

On the other hand I doubt we are now or will be in the near or far future discovering too many lost paper books that impact society as they probably did in the renaissance. Unpublished manuscripts are still being discovered in closets etc., although many are hoaxes IIRC, but the chances of an authors unpublished works escaping a scrutiny of their hard drive by heirs seem a tad slim. Some still type them out laboriously on the old Underwood, but it is a dying breed I am afraid.

Helen

[Geralt]

People who make these comparisons are usually people who don't own an ereader.
I don't see many ereader owners making internet lists why ebooks are better.

I'll read both, thank you very much. And no list will change that.

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by Geralt

People who make these comparisons are usually people who don't own an ereader.
I don't see many ereader owners making internet lists why ebooks are better.

I'll read both, thank you very much. And no list will change that.

Very perceptive.

I too do not fret comparisons.