Kindle books versus oldfashioned ones ??

[Catswold]

I was an avid book collector and have a library of over 3000 books (about 2/3 paperback). Unfortunately they are in storage and it was a big hassle to retrieve any of them . . . so I began having to buy second copies of some I wished to reread.

Enter the Kindle . . . I got mine Christmas 2010 and I never looked back. Oh yeah, some of my favorite rereads still aren't available--Clifford Simak's pastoral SF books for example--but I now have more books on my Kindle than I expect to be able to read in the next decade.

Anytime I expect to be waiting (say the doctor's office for example) I cart my Kindle with me and I read from it every night. I am a convert.

The only thing I truly miss about physical books is being able to thumb back to something I want to check, or to maps for the stories I'm reading . . . with a Kindle, it's a real PITA. So, while not perfect, I still love my Kindle.

[starfyre7]

I read almost every piece of fiction that I read on my kindle. Nonfiction, I still buy. I agree with Catswold in that it is very annoying to try and thumb back and find something in a book, but for reading the book through, it is pretty good. The battery life is great and multiple books (like the next book(s) in the series being read) can be brought along with ease.

[Shomofo]

The one thing I am really liking about the Kindle is all the free or really cheap independant Fantasy Authors.
I have read books by so many different new authors in the last 2 years since I got the Kindle.
Some of them are good, some are average but I read them all anyway. Most of the first books in any new series by a new Author are generally either free of £0.79 (don't know why) it's a good way to find a new Author

[Galacticdefender]

There is something about having a physical book on my shelf that a kindle cannot give me. Though the stack of Warhammer 40,000 novels is starting to grow quite large. :P

[Timba]

Bought a Sony reader years ago and really enjoyed it, still have it but passed it on to my wife as I now read on an android tablet. My tablet has a screen that makes reading in bright sunlight easy to do and of course inside is backlit for ease of reading in a dim corner or in bed so as not to disturb my better half. Recently picked up a Nook tablet for her and while she is still floating back and forth between the Sony and the Nook I have to say the Nook tablet really impresses me. When I went on an extended vacation I use to have to pack a separate bag with books which was both heavy and a pain, having the ability to load up as many as I want on a small, easily transported device has been a wonderful experience.

I will say the publishers are missing the boat on this, e-books have the capability to be much more interactive with easily recalled maps, brief bios on characters, maps that show the characters journey detailing where they are based on how far you are along in the book. Sadly nobody seems to be doing this. If they are going to charge hardcopy prices they should be enhancing the product.

[nightdreamer]

I'm have sort of an internal conflict here. I've loved books for 50 years, even the smell of new paper. But I'm finding that for anything new I look first to see if there's a Kindle version. I hardly go anywhere without it. Technical books I won't get on Kindle because it can be hard to navigate or see drawings in sufficient detail. At least not at the same time. Also, when I pay $150 for a book, I sort of want to have something physical in my hand. Overall, I love it, but there is a sad nostalgia about not having a physical volume to add to my shelves.

They're supposed to be able to read PDF, but I've had mine lock up often enough on them that I've given up on that angle. And for any public-domain ebook, there are a number of free format converters to turn them into .mobi files which Kindle reads.

[Warren_Paul]

I always preferred having a book on my shelf, but now that I have a Sony Reader, I'm probably going to get ebooks from now one because A: they are cheaper, and B: digital download. So many times I was caught waiting for printed books to be sent over from the UK - takes two weeks - without anything to read. Local stores are far too expensive so I get my printed books from the bookdepository.

Books worth having on your shelf I'll still get printed, like Anne Lyle's book, and the last Wheel of Time when it comes out.

I have to admit that I like my Sony Reader, even though for years I was anti ebook-readers. I also use it for text-books in a class, and for beta-reading my own work - for some reason it works like printing out the pages, rather than reading them on a screen. I notice things I'd otherwise miss. And it's just so much more convenient for going places with, and lighter than a paperback - especially a hardback.

[pyan]

I swore I'd stick with paper - but having the Kindle has made me aware of so many advantages:

• It's lighter than most big p/bs, and certainly more wieldy than a h/b
• The books are cheaper.
• You can download a sample if you're not certain whether you're going to like the book.
• And this also applies if you've never read the author, as well.
• If you finish a book late at night, you can get the next in the series without even getting out of bed!
• You can subscribe to a newspaper and have it delivered every morning.
• And best of all - in my own case - the bookshelves don't pull the damn plaster off the wall...

I'll still buy my top authors in h/b, just to keep my sets complete - but as that's now down to about three or four, financially and space-wise, I'm much better off...

[Gary Compton]

Originally Posted by pyan

I swore I'd stick with paper - but having the Kindle has made me aware of so many advantages:

• It's lighter than most big p/bs, and certainly more wieldy than a h/b
• The books are cheaper.
• You can download a sample if you're not certain whether you're going to like the book.
• And this also applies if you've never read the author, as well.
• If you finish a book late at night, you can get the next in the series without even getting out of bed!
• You can subscribe to a newspaper and have it delivered every morning.
• And best of all - in my own case - the bookshelves don't pull the damn plaster off the wall...

I'll still buy my top authors in h/b, just to keep my sets complete - but as that's now down to about three or four, financially and space-wise, I'm much better off...

Hey Pyan, this time next year you'll be boiling water with a kettle, rather than an open fire in your garden. Welcome yo the 21st century

[pyan]

LOL - and if anyone had prophesied how I just read that post when I thought that the Sinclair ZX81 was the ultimate in computers, I'd have laughed in their face...

[Gary Compton]

Joking apart, it's funny how us old timers like to hang onto the past but in reality progress will win.

So sadly paper books will end up in museums and sell at Sotherby's for 100's of thousands.

Hang on to your collection, for that reason!

[Bugg]

Originally Posted by pyan

I swore I'd stick with paper - but having the Kindle has made me aware of so many advantages:

• It's lighter than most big p/bs, and certainly more wieldy than a h/b
• The books are cheaper.
• You can download a sample if you're not certain whether you're going to like the book.
• And this also applies if you've never read the author, as well.
• If you finish a book late at night, you can get the next in the series without even getting out of bed!
• You can subscribe to a newspaper and have it delivered every morning.
• And best of all - in my own case - the bookshelves don't pull the damn plaster off the wall...

I'll still buy my top authors in h/b, just to keep my sets complete - but as that's now down to about three or four, financially and space-wise, I'm much better off...

This is pretty much how I feel about it, too, especially the shelf space. I'll keep collecting the authors I like in paperback, but just about everything else will be on the Kindle.

Another couple of plus points: if your eyes are tired you can adjust the text size till it's comfortable, and you can put the Kindle down and keep reading if you need to do something else (like, in my case at the moment, blow your nose!) without having to scramble around for your bookmark, and it saves on trips to the charity shop to donate books when my shelves get full (which means reclaimed shelf space!).

Negatives - it's pretty much useless for maps, and it saves on trips to the charity shop to donate books when my shelves get full (which means less money for the charity!).

[Gumboot]

I refused to even consider an ebook reader for a long time. Within a couple of days of getting one I pretty much decided I'd never buy another book again. I can't think of a single downside.

(Actually, that's not strictly true, I can think of one or two, but they're very minor).

[Spade]

I just upgraded from a Sony PRS-300 to a Nook Simple Touch. I love it and have only bought one paper book in three years.

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Okay, okay. People seem to say that they love their eReader, prefer it over paper books, etc,.


But let me ask you this: How much are you out if you ruin your eReader? How much if your Kindle gets old and no longer takes a charge, or if it gets stolen past warranty? If you ruin or lose a paper book, one is normally out no more than $10-$25, and the high end for being a new hardcover-and normally no more than $5 from a secondhand shop. Also, I would think that a paper book should be taking a high drop a bit better than a Kindle would. Say, from a second floor of stairs, perhaps by grabby kids?