Still undecided on electronic books
It’s about six months ago that I first wrote about electronic books when I rabbited on about the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader that really only caught my attention properly because its name is so similar to my surname, Kendle. And while I, in theory, “get” all the advantages of an e-book device, I still have absolutely no desire to throw away my “real” books.
So I was fairly pleased to see that one of my favourite writers, Nick Hornby, agrees with me. Strictly speaking I agree with him, but I did write my Kindle piece long before this article quoting him appeared (last week) at PC Pro. It was a bit of a beat-up (how exciting can a magazine like PC Pro be, really) but they quoted Hornby as saying, “they are so expensive that even multi-millionaire stars don’t want them”. I suspect that multi-millionaire stars don’t actually read that many books, electronic or paper or otherwise, but that’s beside the point.
As Hornby rightly points out, the readers themselves are relatively expensive. Yes, the books you then buy for them are quite cheap, but not that many people read enough books in a year to actually justify the expense. And then the people who do read a lot of books are people like me, real book-lovers, who want the full experience of admiring the cover, turning the pages, smelling a new book, and all those other odd things we love about real, physical books.
About a month ago I saw somebody reading a book using an electronic reader. He was sitting on the train and seemed quite happy, but to be honest, he did have the appearance of a computer geek kind of guy. I would dearly have liked to interrupt him and ask him all the questions I have: does it hurt your eyes? Is it easy to read? Does it really make the experience easier than physically turning the pages? Does the sun really never reflect badly off that screen? And so on. I didn’t, because he seemed rather engrossed. So I’m still severely suspicious of the whole idea and despite the fact that storing books electronically would reduce the storage space needed in my house by a vast proportion, I love, LOVE my physical books, and dearly hope that by the time I have my own books published, most consumers are still also in love with physical books.
Any e-book readers out there? Anyone who agrees with me on the physical book love thing? Do share!
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Comments
True, Aaron, I’ve never used one, and I know you’re a big fan - so your info’s useful. They’re still really rare here Down Under but I should make the effort to check one out.
And you’re right, it’s all about the story - I certainly won’t have any objection to my (hopefully) future books being sold as e-books. It’s just hard to separate the physicality of loving “books” in the form I’ve always known them and imagine them being different. It all takes time … and I’m not notorious for being a particularly early adopter.
I’ll ammend everything I said Amanda with apologies.
I didn’t know you were NOT in the US. As far as I know, you can’t walk into your local Best Buy and see a Sony Reader.
The Sony Reader isn’t available (to the best of my knowledge) anywhere except Japan and the US. (And I don’t think Best Buy has stores Down Under.)
But don’t be so quick to dismiss them before trying them. People CAN, and DO, like both e and paper books.
The next time you see one “in the wild,” ask.
Most people are very kind and e-book readers will usually be more than happy to show you their device of choice.
I’m with you Amanda, I’m still undecided, but as the other commenter says, I guess we shouldn’t judge without having tried one out. I’ve never actually seen one “in the wild” so it’s hard to know exactly what they’re like, but I have a lot of same questions as you. I can’t see myself lying in bed (or in the bath - that might be a hazard!) with a good ebook, but then I can see how great they would be for travel.
This is really getting old.
People knock a device when they don’t even have one or have ever used one?
All the “questions” you have are not actual issues if you spent any time with an actual e-reading device.
I am an aspiring author just like yourself.
I like reading e-books AND I like reading paper books. This need not be an “either-or” argument.
In addition, Amazon isn’t the only game in town for reading e-reading devices. They run the gamut from the uber inexpensive eBookWise to the uber expensive iRex iLiad. If you have a fairly decent phone (e.g. running the Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm or Apple OS) you can read e-books on it and not even shell out any additional money except for the cost of books.
But, if you want to see the eInk display in action, go to your local Best Buy, they usually have a Sony Reader on display. You can play with it to your hearts content.
Then you can judge for yourself how it DOES NOT hurt your eyes, how easy it is to read, it has a fairly large screen, how it DOES NOT reflect any light, how light and portable they are, how you can carry many DOZENS of books with you at all times.
eInk and newer technologies are emerging and improving all the time, color eInk displays are on the very near horizon.
Ultimately, it really isn’t about the physicality of the book, whether it’s eInk, electrons on a screen or ink printed onto paper. It is, and should always be, about telling a great story that someone wants to read, regardless of the method it is displayed.