Slashdot Mirror
The eBook Backlash
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that people who read ebooks on tablets like the iPad are beginning to realize that while a book in print is straightforward and immersive, a tablet is more like a 21st-century cacophony than a traditional solitary activity offering a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks. 'The tablet is like a temptress,' says James McQuivey. 'It's constantly saying, "You could be on YouTube now." Or it's sending constant alerts that pop up, saying you just got an e-mail. Reading itself is trying to compete.' There are also signs that publishers are cooling on tablets for e-reading. A recent survey by Forrester Research showed that 31 percent of publishers believed iPads and similar tablets were the ideal e-reading platform; one year ago, 46 percent thought so. Then there's Jonathan Franzen, regarded as one of America's greatest living novelists, who says consumers have been conned into thinking they need the latest technology and that e-books can never have the magic of the printed page. 'I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn't change.'"
Seriously, this guy sounds like hundreds of other e-book complainers. Meanwhile, every person I have given a Kindle to try out who said they would never give up paper books are converts within a week. eBooks are great because you can have tons of books always with you, they are light, and if you finish one you boook you instantly can get another one.
The advantages are less when comparing to paperbacks, but there are still size advantages
One big size advantage is the size of the text. For many of us, the fixed size of test in printed books is not a problem. But for people who's eyesight has diminished, it can be the difference between being able to read for any significant amount of time and not. My mom is a lifelong, voracious reader. But about 8 years ago, her reading dropped significantly because she had eyesight problems. When the original Kindle came out, I got her one and showed her how to make the text larger. It has (forgive the pun) rekindled her interest in reading. She's now got 3 Kindles, is back to the 1+ book/week pace and loving it again.
Completely agree.
I'm reading way more now on my Kindle Touch than I was before. While the cost of books is about the same regardless the format, physical vs e-book, I only like to keep really good hardcovers in our library. With the Kindle I can find a quiet seat almost anywhere and immerse myself because I can carry it anywhere and when one book is finished, I just select the next book and carry on.
Tablets are not e-book readers, they're little computer screens. I don't like reading anything for very long on the computer, even code I want to go over, I'll print out to review. If it's not interactive,
- tensions in our lives that are attacking our minds, unite themselves together to make our consciousness blind - op'ivy
While it's nice to pine for the days of old when reading was a solitary escape, it's also important to acknowledge that things have fundamentally changed, and there is no going back. How many people really go as far as to hide their smartphones while reading a printed book? The fact of the matter is that we are immersed in a world that is inherently more connected and more distracting than ages past. There are downsides to this, but apparently they aren't considered sufficiently compelling for most people to forsake cell phones, email, blogs, social networking, streaming video, etc. Whether these things are accessible from the iPad a person uses to read a book or from the smartphone in their pocket or the laptop in front of them, makes very little difference.
I have a condition where my eyes cannot easily follow straight lines. This makes reading books very hard for me. While I am reading a screen I tend to highlight the line that I am reading otherwise my eyes will drift to words in the next line and adding confusion, causing me to reread the line over again.
I prefer to read off of a screen for it makes it easier for me to follow the line... First I don't have the curve from the bend in the paper throwing me off, allowing me to use a pen/ruler to keep my line pointed, most readers allow me to highlight the text line that I am reading. Also most screens you still can see the Pixels outlines on your screen that makes following straight lines easier.
Before I was diagnoses with that condition I was figured to have problems with actually learning to reading comprehension,they figured that I was just being lazy while I tried to read a book. But I got tired of reading the same line over and over again, and being disciplined for following the text with my finger. So reading became a major chore and I really never gained the joy of reading. But my reading comprehension was much better when I had books with a big fonts and a lot of white spaces, but the smaller fonts and more dense the page the harder I had reading.
I am willing to expect that people who are use to reading paper books and can do so, may find the extra technology distracting but if you are use to it, you know to ignore the feeling to click on something else. Sure the extra features on tables can distract us, but that is probably more due to the reading material being more boring then the other options. If the story is really engaging then you want to read the story and not watch a You Tube video.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This is definitely worth considering. Although self-control and discipline are practiced skills, research has indicated that we each have limits on our self-control. The people who are very good at it are actually good at avoiding situations where they are being frequently tempted.
Durability: You may be able to drop a paper book, but you can't back it up. Destroy both a paper book and an ebook reader, and you still have the ebook. So no clear winner here.
Portability: Are you serious? I have close to 1,500 books on my ebook reader. Despite your valid points, as soon as you find a way to shove 1,500 paper books in your backpack, then you can come back and talk about portability.
Loanability: Since I never buy ebooks with DRM, I can "loan" all my books to whomever I want, and keep them at the same time! I will admit, however, that I am different from the vast majority of people who buy and read ebooks. So I'll concede you this one.
Intangibles: I'll concede you this one too. I have no "pride" in my ebook collection except for the sheer number of books, while a lot of people have pride in their physical library.
Funnily enough, I have just the opposite opinion as you on the Reference vs. recreational books. Current ebook technology is unsuitable for reference books. Support for pseudo-textual constructs like mathematical equations is limited at best, and you can't write in the margins of ebooks. Plain text books like novels, however, don't suffer from these limitations.
And as far as OWNING a book goes, again, I simply say, don't buy ebooks with DRM. Or if you do, make sure you can crack it. And don't buy any piece of computer technology that allows someone else to revoke your ability to do what you want with it. That's just common sense for any digital data.
So I agree there is a place for physical books, and there is a place for ebooks. Each person needs to weigh the pros and cons and decide which route to go.
See, on the face of it, that seems like a good question, but it's actually very misleading. My iPad will have been replaced with an iPad3, coming out next week. And that, likely with an iPad X, when they tempt me again. And of course we still have the books in the cloud, and they're on the Mac Kindle reader, on my SO's two kindles, and my iPod (yeah, I actually read on an iPod... large fonts FTW.)
So the longevity of the reader (beyond a reasonable lifespan, which I have confidence they will generally reach, my current iPad is a v1 from day one and it's doing fine, as are all my other Apple products) isn't the issue, because the books aren't tied to the hardware.
If in fact something happens, I can have a new reader for $79+$4 overnight (Amazon prime!) Who knows how low that will go in the next few years, or how much more powerful they'll be. Or both. Perhaps I'll be grateful if someone spills spaghetti sauce on it. Maybe I'll even do it on purpose. :)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Or simply get a tablet that is waterproof (and presumably spaghetti sauce proof too) - Pantech Element
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me