Fun Stuff > CLIKC
e-readers are amazing!
celticgeek:
Yes, there have always been Problems.
Inlander:
I should admit straight up that I've only ever read reviews of e-readers, I've never held one myself, but based on that: I can't help feeling that the fact that all the e-readers I've read about seem to go out of their way to replicate the feeling of reading an actual book (giving the images the superficial appearance of paper, providing papery swooshy sounds as you turn the pages) is a big giveaway. Sure, e-readers may be convenient, but I think books have such a long-standing cultural legacy that they'll continue to hold our emotional investment for some time to come.
In more practical terms, books for me win out for several important reasons: A book will never crash. A book will never run out of battery life. A book doesn't have a start-up time and it doesn't need to be loaded. You'll never come across compatability issues with a book. You can drop a book or cram a book in your bag or spill food on your book and it's still going to be okay. When you're sick of a book you can sell it or give it away, and when you see a book you like you can borrow it from a friend without having to pay any money or sign any terms of use agreements. Basically the book is a brilliant and robust piece of technology and even if you can only carry one or two around at a time, I think its advantages are going to give it the edge for a while. The best thing about e-readers that I can think of is they present the opportunity for long out-of-print books to become readily available to anyone who wants to read them, without the prohibitive cost of printing them or storing them.
ummmkay:
i've sort of skimmed through this whole thread and i think this may have been said before, but i just want to reiterate - most of the people (including me) who own and use e-readers aren't saying "down with all print media! digitalize everything ever!" personally i just see e-readers as something super convenient and easy to carry around when it is less practical to carry a stack of books. i am a very fast reader and as a kid my standard practice for family trips would be to go to the library and check out a stack of books for the car ride/plane ride/train ride/what have you. i have literally taken a stack of 16 books with me on vacation before. e-readers don't have to be a replacement for real actual physical books! they are just a cool thing that take up less space and provide perhaps a wider/quicker range of access.
jhocking:
--- Quote from: Inlander on 30 Jan 2011, 15:25 ---You'll never come across compatability issues with a book.
--- End quote ---
I can't always fit tall books in my bookcase. Does that count?
--- Quote from: ummmkay on 30 Jan 2011, 16:35 ---i have literally taken a stack of 16 books with me on vacation before.
--- End quote ---
nerd
Papersatan:
I would argue that format changes in books are just slower, and they don't require the mediation of a piece of technology, but have you ever tried to read a book printed in the 1700's? The long "s", the funny 'c' that looks like a capital "E" the repetition of the last word on a page on the top of the next one. These take a lot of practice to ignore and be able to just read like you would a modern edition.
If you are not familiar here is an example.
What I mean is they can still have compatibility issues, just with the reader's education.
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