What was your ultimate reason for getting an E-Reader?

[BigWaffles]

Military deployments. It's nice to be able to bring my library along on a 6-12 month trip to nowhere.


C.P.T.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Nathanael

I played around with this briefly, too, after getting my first ereader. The problem I ran into is you're still pretty much stuck with a fixed text size. Sure, you can tweak your page size so it displays at a fair size under normal conditions. However, because some days my eyes are better than others (I'm getting too old to pretend my eyes are still young), and I don't always reading in ideal lighting conditions, I've become very dependent on being able to change text size. Two things my current reader (Sibrary G5) does pretty well are text sizes (fourteen steps, from near-microscopic to ginormous -- a dozen words or less per screen), and reflow.

Plus it means I don't have to (re-)create a new PDF for every device I want to read on. The same epub will (depending on the software, of course) look just fine practically anywhere.

--Nathanael

Off topic? My post was a rebuttle to the comment "some call me tim" made saying PDFs look like poop and the fact so many on MobileRead have made the same assumption about PDFs he did.

I would appreciate it if you wouldn't twist my words around the way you did. The way your quote edited out parts of my post takes two parts of what I was saying out of their original and very different contexes and combined them into a single one. I said I had made two custom sized PDFs so the text size would be an easily read one on my JBL, the only place I plan on ever using them, btw. One of the points I was making was if a PDF page was near the size of the e-book reader's screen, then the font size could be easily set to be easily read (the other being not all PDFs are letter or A4 as many people seem to assume here). Using a larger size PDF page size displayed to fit the screen of a reader can do the same thing if the font is big enough to begin with.

The second part of the quote referred to the p-books I have scanned into PDFs without going through OCR, not the custom ones I first mentioned. The text of most paper back books is around 3 1/4". The screen of my 5" JBL is 3" x 4". The width of the text of a PDF page made from a paper back will easily fit on the screen of the JBL with only a slight reduction in size when in portrait and up to a slight increase in size when in landscape (if I choose to, usually I don't to cut down on scrolling).

I agree almost any e-book format is better than PDF because of the ability to reflow when changing font size. However, in the case of the custom made PDFs of mine, the information in one was in columns so reflow would have been undesireable so I put them in PDEF to lock in the page layout. The second was a phone/address book. Reflow there would also be undesireable. I created both using MS Word so converting either to, say, e-pub would have been easy but that would have defeated my purposes.

In the the case of the books scanned without OCR to PDF... If I had employed OCR, then edited the results, sure, I could have had the ability to change font sizes and have the text reflow accordingly but I just have too many books and not enough time for that. Image type PDFs are the compromise that make the project possible. Again, the point was that not all PDFs are the same large page size.

Btw, I doubt your eyes are much worse, if not better, than my 61 year old peepers. There is a reason I wear trifocals. Life as a Senior is often one of compromise. When away from the house, I will read books that are easy to read on my JBL. The relative few that have too fine a print to comfortably read on the JBL I can comfortably read at home on my 32" TV screen from across the room.

[Piper_]

I found out a year ago that I have a bit of a timebomb upstairs threatening to blind me, and my first thought was that I can handle most anything, except losing my ability to read.

So, while I'm one of those silly people who have a sentimental attachment to pbooks, I came home and started looking at TTS options. (I don't like audiobooks - the narrator is too... there.)

I was told the Kindle has a TTS feature, and when I looked, I saw that 90% of the titles I've been buying all these years are PD - free. Doh. lol

I actually enjoy reading on my laptop, so started downloading everything I thought I might ever want to read. When the K3 came out, I ordered it.

I won't stop buying pbooks of my favorite titles, but having an ereader and a library at my fingertips is divine.

[Merbear]

I bought the PRS600 last spring for my husband - he was planning a trip to Thailand and I thought he'd like it instead of bringing a stack of books with him. I tried it out myself and absolutely loved it! He didn't like the touch screen so I got him a KOBO. Last week I gave the KOBO to my son cause my husband wasn't using it - he prefers his real books. I've now decided to go to Thailand as well, we leave in 3 weeks, and I have about 1,100 books ready to go with me!! Plus another PRS600 for my daughter there since she can't find english books to read. I think she's more excited about getting an e-reader than she is to have us visit.

[Pookeysgirl]

I bought my Kobo because I live in a small 2 bedroom apartment with 4 people (2 of them kids) and I already have 1 bin full of books with no room for more. My Kobo allows me to read as much as I want without having to find extra space in an already cluttered apartment.

[sakura-panda]

Ultimately, it was being able to buy my Sony Reader for half price, but what got me to seriously consider them was storage space.

I store my books in the basement, and my husband looks at the bookcases as part of the wall and often stacks boxes and heavy things in front of them. I was tired of having to ask him for help when I wanted to get to the books or to leave books laying around the house because I couldn't get to the shelves to put them away.

[lele]

I found out while I was in the Military that it was very hard to pack enough paperback books for deployments. I am a very fast reader and can go through 2 to 3 books a week. I also got sick from my last deployment and it has been a GOD send to not have to lift the the hardback books anymore. So when e readers came out it has helped me a great deal because of their weight and large font. Now I get my books from here or the library or purchase them from Amazon. I always have enough reading materiel and it can be a variety of everything and anything without all the extra weight.

Le

[dmacmart]

The "real" reason is the cool technology.

But the justification is being able to pack as many books as I want, and still limit myself to a carry on and a backpack for a 1-week trip.

Benefits I've discovered since I bought it:
* increasing font size when my glasses aren't handy
* getting library books without even leaving the house. However I've learned that if the book is available in ePub with no waiting list, it's probably not worth reading. (interestingly Mobi's are rarely checked out, even with best sellers)
* Kobo comes out with coupons regularly so I can add to my HUGE TBR read list at least at a discount.
* I can also read free books from Kobo and Sony, so finding new authors that way
* if it's not a library book, I can have the same book on my iPhone so literally can read wherever I am, even if I don't have my Kobo with me!

Features I thought I'd have that didn't pan out:
* being able to search backwards in the book for a character's name (who the heck were they anyway?)
* built-in dictionary (Kobo doesn't have one; but I always have my iPhone with me so I always have a dictionary)
* save money on books. I'm buying way more books than I used to! But, I'm reading way more than I have in a very long time.

[KenFisher]

My reason for getting an ebook reader was quite simple. I was running out of room for more physical books. Most of my books are still in boxes from the last 2 moves that I have done.

I will be scanning the books that I have and creating copies for use on my reader. It will take awhile to do that.

I have purchased very few pbooks in the last 2 and a half years with 99% of my purchases being ebooks. I currently have 850 ebooks.

Ken

[CarolineNH]

My main reason for having an ebook reader is the ability to re-size the type. I love that feature! I had not realized how much reading I *wasn't* doing until my husband bought me a Sony PRS-600. I have found all kinds of books for it, and come across some wonderful authors.

Other reasons include the ability to carry hundreds of books with me at any given time, long battery life, and the ability to buy books without leaving the house. Patience is not my strong suit!

I'm also a gadget hound. Now that I have the 600 (currently on loan to my oldest son, and I do believe both he and his wife may now be addicted - I'm expecting to see him here on MR any day now), I have added reader software to all of my devices. I do most of my reading right now on my iPad, but I'm planning to pick up a Kindle 3 once they are available locally at Target or Staples.

[Jack Tingle]

I didn't really. I bought a PDA in 2001 and started reading ebooks on it. Eventually, I bought an eReader because I switched to a smartphone that wasn't as good at reading as my old PDAs. (It did everything else better, though. Except note-taking; I went back to a bound-book for that.)

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[cvkemp]

I love to read to relax. And I will be reading from a number of books at the same time. So I love the way an ebook reader remembers where I was at in the books. And I love not having to care around so many books all the time. With a ebook reader it can go with me all most any where.

[hgwlackey]

Because, I'm a geek, but also:

- I'm lazy. Regular books end up lying around the house instead of making their way back to the bookshelves.

- I'm lazy. I have to get up and go get a book off the bookshelf if I'm stuck reading pbooks.

- I'm lazy and I hate to dust. Pbooks collect dust. Ebook readers never get the chance.

- I'm lazy and all settled in in my comfy clothes. If a given book's available electronically, I can have it in under a minute, and I don't have to get out of my comfy clothes to go get it.

Basically, my ultimate reason for getting an ereader was 'cause I'm a slug.

A geeky slug.

Oh and also because I like to go to concerts, and standing in line (and in the venue, waiting for the bands to come on) is boring without a book, but I'm a small person with small pockets, so what am I supposed to do with the book I carried in once the show starts? That's where the iPhone really shines for me.

[Solitaire1]

I have several reasons for getting an ereader. When I got my first Palm OS PDA I didn't think I'd have much use for it, until I discovered it could be used for ebooks. Soon, it was one of my main uses for my PDA.

Among my reasons for getting an ebook reader: (1) I can carry a large number of ebooks with me in a small package, (2) I can format my ebooks in a way that are suited to me regardless of how it affects the page count, and (3) I don't have to print stories I've written for review just to read them away from my computer.

[sheep]

I had wanted a reader for quite some time and finally succumbed to it for two reasons. One was the huge amount of free classics available through Google books, and the second was the price cut on the Sony readers ahead of the 350 and 650. That finally brought the price down to something I could manage. It's only been a few days but I am absolutely loving the ebook experience.