Has your ebook reader widened your world

[garrybuck]

It's certainly widened my world. I used to read nonfiction exclusively. Now that I'm retired, I have more time on my hands, and I'm reading about 120 books a year. I can't afford to buy all those books, so most of what I read is from Project Gutenberg. For the first time in my life I'm reading novels, biographies, memoirs and political tomes. All pre-1923 of course, but it's amazing to me to me how many things in the world haven't really changed much.

[jbcohen]

Have you considered borrowing books from your local library. These books come with DRM in the code so that you need to return the book to the library within the borrowing period. However <cough> DRM <cough> can be removed then the book returned and <cough> you can read the book an unlimited period of time.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Have you considered borrowing books from your local library. These books come with DRM in the code so that you need to return the book to the library within the borrowing period. However <cough> DRM <cough> can be removed then the book returned and <cough> you can read the book an unlimited period of time.

That is no longer borrowing but stealing. This is not condoned at MobileRead.

Dale

[Janette55]

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.

And that goes for me also, I have wanted to read a lot of the classics, some are hard to find others I just didn't want to spend the money on yet wanted to read them.

This way, I can read them; Oliver Twist, Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, King Solomon's Mine, Picture of Dorian Grey (reading that now ), Paradise Lost and Regained and the list goes on.
Some of the Tarzan series, A. Norton science fiction books and lots others that my grandson (hopefully) will enjoy reading. I can now read books to them, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland and the others classics they will probably never read I am now going to be able to read to them.

Having mobility problems in getting to the library, which is quite small, isn't worth the hassle. Another reason for an ereader, I buy most of my books online. Two pback and one HB arrived today. But have bought around 10 books at some DRM free bookstores in the past couple of days.

So, the ereader had been a great improvement for my life.

[Ron.]

I read a lot more now that I have my kindle and I am reading things I never would of considered before. I would never of went to the library or bookstore and got wurthering heights. It's free and only a click away with my kindle so now I read it, same goes for H. G. Wells, Ernest Hemingway etc... Before I was very selective in what I read, now I am willing to try just about anything and am finding I enjoy reading more then ever.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by 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 ....

I agree. It has an impact in that I'm buying books from a wider range than I would in dead tree editions. I have particularly tried more sci-fi (due to the popularity and availabilty of this genre in ebook form, no doubt) than I would normally read (more or less stopped reading sci-fi in my 20s - before that it was all I read).

So to answer the original question, yes it has broadened my horizons. Just this year I have read thrillers, spy books, zombies, science fiction, horror, biography, classics and non-fiction. Prior to my kindle, it would have been mostly thrillers.

[rePete]

Yes, it has.

[I prefer brevity but the forum doesn't allow a simple yes or no - must mean I've got to get more comfortable with conversations!]

[Frida Fantastic]

Yep. Before my e-reader, I borrowed books from the library or bought used, and tended to stick with old Science Fiction and Fantasy classics. With my e-reader, I read a wider variety of genres when access to them is free (thanks to Project Gutenberg) and I'm also reading newer material from authors I've never heard of before. I think it has something to do with how books are physically arranged. In a bookstore or library, I would usually just get cozy in the Scifi/Fantasy area and not really wander around elsewhere, but there's no really similar form of organization with ebook retail, for better or for worse.

I think the publishing industry is actually making more money off me now with my e-reader :P

[Fringecup]

I think my Sony reader HAS widened my reading world! I live in a pretty small city and there's really only 2 small bookstores here. I haven't space for large collections of paper books, so I store ebooks on the computer and in my Sony's memory chip. I've always read a pretty wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, but being able to get them online has widened the variety immensely. For example, I went through the entire Gutenberg catalogue and downloaded all the ones that looked interesting (haven't read them all yet, though!) and discovered a lot that were long out of print such as the Fu Manchu series and various French and Austrian detectives of the Sherlock Holmes type. I also discovered a lot of W.W. I spy stories (really interesting!) and many old cookbooks.

Since having the Sony reader, I've joined various forums like this one and through them have discovered several modern science-fiction writers whose work I really like. For example, "Blackout" and "All Clear" by Connie Willis (never heard of her before), which I just bought from Kobo.

And I'm thinking of trying out some French books, which I used to read in University but really haven't bothered with for many years. French books are impossible to find in this part of Canada, so getting them online is wonderful!

[shanghaichica]

I read a lot more than I did before and I also read a wider variety of books. I think because of the capacity of the ebook reader I've purchased a lot more books even though at the time I bought them I knew I wouldn't get round to reading them for a long time. With physical books I'd only ever buy a few to read at anytime because of the space required to store them and wouldn't buy more until I'd read the previous batch. Now I think nothing of having a large tbr pile and so have a wider variety of books to choose from.

[Hellmark]

I do read much more. It is easy to carry around with me, and I have more access to more books than I did previously due to where I lived.

[bhartman36]

I'd have to say that on the whole, I do read more than I used to, pre-ebooks, since I got my Kindle. On the other hand, as others have said, it's somewhat limiting, in that some books don't come out as e-books right away, if at all.

For me, the other factor is text-to-speech. I'm fully-sighted, but I've got a friend who's legally blind. Because of this, I refuse to buy any book from Amazon that has text-to-speech turned off. That has turned me away from authors whose works I might have otherwise bought.