Real Books VS E-Readers
Sgriffin2382
Posts: 360 Member
So I am curious as to what everyone's opinions are. To me, I want to have the satisfaction of having the real thing in my hand. I guess I just feel that everything in my life is all about technology, that I would like at least one facet that is not. There is something about the feel and smell of a book that you just can't get from a piece of plastic. Maybe it is just me, but that is why I will never own any kind of E-reader.
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I agree with you about books. I love everything about them from the feel of them, the smell of them etc. However, (although I do feel the need to say that nothing will ever replace the humble book in my heart) I have noticed of late how excellent value a Kindle is and if I had any money at all would consider buying one. When you consider that you are now paying £89 for the basic Kindle in which you have access to around 100,000 free books, compare that to the price you would pay to buy all those books in hard format. Granted it's mostly the public domain classics that are available for free but if you like them then you are on to a winner. However, I would stick to the original book for newer titles. As I say, I love books but in days when it's a struggle to pay the lecky bill, you get what you can for as cheap as you can.0
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I do agree that holding a real book is a great feeling however I absolutely LOVE my Nook Color!!!! It's so nice for those 1000+ page books to just hold on to a skinny e-reader and not the whole huge book! And it's so much more convinient to carry around in my purse
And the loads of free books is a great bonus plus the new books that you do pay for are cheaper in e-book format that in hardcover 0 -
Must have the real thing! There are so many reasons paper is better than the electronic stuff.
1) E-readers don't have that new-book smell.
2) E-readers never have the old book smell.
3) If you drop a book in water, it gets more personality. If you drop an e-reader in water you get electrocuted.
4) You can read a book on the beach and not worry about getting sand in it.
5) You don't get the satisfaction of seeing, at a glance, how much of a book you've read at a given point of your reading.
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Must have the real thing! There are so many reasons paper is better than the electronic stuff.
1) E-readers don't have that new-book smell.
2) E-readers never have the old book smell.
3) If you drop a book in water, it gets more personality. If you drop an e-reader in water you get electrocuted.
4) You can read a book on the beach and not worry about getting sand in it.
5) You don't get the satisfaction of seeing, at a glance, how much of a book you've read at a given point of your reading.
etc.
Completely agree with you! And LOL at the electrocution ;-) I just like looking at my bookshelves and seeing how many I have. They are like my children. I don't want to look at files on a computer screen :-)0 -
I agree, I love the feeling of holding a real book and cuddling up with it in bed before bed. I love shopping for books in stores or browsing the library. I love the smell of books. However, I do see the appeal of ebooks, especially for those who travel a lot. It is a lot easier to bring a nook or kindle with a plethora of books than bring books with on a vacation. Also, just to have it with you anywhere you go like if you take the train to work. I don't have an ereader right now but I wouldn't mind getting one in the future. But I would still buy real books of course lol0
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There is nothing like the feel and smell of a new book. However, I absolutely love my Nook Color. It's so much easier to travel with, check email, listen to music, surf the web, etc. I love the cheaper books and the "Free Fridays" where B&N offers a book for free. I love that I can go into the Barnes and Noble store and read any book for free for 1 hr per day, or download free samples before buying a book. I still love seeing books on my bookshelves, so if there is one that I particularly love after reading it on my Nook, I purchase a print copy to keep. Did I say how much I love my Nook Color? 0
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I have a kindle.
I prefer physical books as well especially mangas. I find that they're easier to hold in my hands (with small books anyway, thicker ones... ereaders FTW, and I get less eye strain. Textbooks are better physically for me as well especially for flipping back and forth between examples and solutions. It's actually harder to do on a kindle. The text is also more crisp on a physical book. I have the Kindle Keyboard 3rd generation, so maybe they've improved the contrast on the new ones.
I can do without the smell. :laugh:
Ereaders are just more portable for me especially with a lighted cover that makes reading at night a whole lot more convenient. I can store 1000+ books on it. I wish they were around, when I was a kid. I used to read at night a lot and had to tilt my book where the street lights were, because my parents told me to go to sleep, and turning the light on to read would be obvious. :laugh: Ebooks are also a lot cheaper. I got The Hunger Game trilogy for less than 5 bucks, borrowing from the library and not worrying about returning my books on time(it expires on its own), etc....0 -
I have a kindle.
I prefer physical books as well especially mangas. I find that they're easier to hold in my hands (with small books anyway, thicker ones... ereaders FTW, and I get less eye strain. Textbooks are better physically for me as well especially for flipping back and forth between examples and solutions. It's actually harder to do on a kindle. The text is also more crisp on a physical book. I have the Kindle Keyboard 3rd generation, so maybe they've improved the contrast on the new ones.
I can do without the smell. :laugh:
Ereaders are just more portable for me especially with a lighted cover that makes reading at night a whole lot more convenient. I can store 1000+ books on it. I wish they were around, when I was a kid. I used to read at night a lot and had to tilt my book where the street lights were, because my parents told me to go to sleep, and turning the light on to read would be obvious. :laugh: Ebooks are also a lot cheaper. I got The Hunger Game trilogy for less than 5 bucks, borrowing from the library and not worrying about returning my books on time(it expires on its own), etc....
I bought the Hunger Games Trilogy on my Nook Color. I LOVED that series! Loved the price too.0 -
For those of you with e readers, do you ever check out e books from libraries?? (I'm a librarian so just curious to know)0
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For those of you with e readers, do you ever check out e books from libraries?? (I'm a librarian so just curious to know)
From the physical library, no. There is a separate ebook library loaning website for each state and/or county I think. I live in MD and can check out ebooks from DC's & MD's ebook collections. DC has more of course, and they allow for more holds (40 I think) and my county only allows for 5 holds at a time. Some states offer theirs with subscription fee for those out of state.
I hear Amazon is creating some sort of ebook collection loaning as well for Amazon prime members.0 -
I bought the Hunger Games Trilogy on my Nook Color. I LOVED that series! Loved the price too.
Yeah! It's awesome. I recommend the Insider series. Not too shabby. I actually like the heroine more than Katniss. Well, I might have lost some favor for the book because of the movie casting. :frown: Divergent looks like it's going to be a phenomenal dystopian series as well.0 -
For those of you with e readers, do you ever check out e books from libraries?? (I'm a librarian so just curious to know)
From the physical library, no. There is a separate ebook library loaning website for each state and/or county I think. I live in MD and can check out ebooks from DC's & MD's ebook collections. DC has more of course, and they allow for more holds (40 I think) and my county only allows for 5 holds at a time. Some states offer theirs with subscription fee for those out of state.
I hear Amazon is creating some sort of ebook collection loaning as well for Amazon prime members.
I heard about that...kind of ridiculous. Paying to rent books....hmmm I wonder where I can do that for free?
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I love having the real books, especially the classics, which are my personal favorites. However, I like to get hardback issues of all my favorite classics... and that can be very pricey! So for that reason, I love that I can download and read many of my favs on my iphone, until I actually have the money to buy them. Plan to have a huge library of real books tho... I alrwady have quite a collection!0
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I bought the Hunger Games Trilogy on my Nook Color. I LOVED that series! Loved the price too.
Yeah! It's awesome. I recommend the Insider series. Not too shabby. I actually like the heroine more than Katniss. Well, I might have lost some favor for the book because of the movie casting. :frown: Divergent looks like it's going to be a phenomenal dystopian series as well.
Thanks, I'm going to check them out.0 -
I've never actually used an E-Reader. My mom has a Sony one, from when they first came out, and she never uses it, either, so she can't tell me if it's any good or not, haha.
I admit, I do want an E-Reader, though! It'd be awesome for traveling, especially.
I do love my "real" books, and I have a huge bookhself completely full (aka: overflowing) with books that I'll never part with. But for any newer stuff, I would love a nice new E-Reader.
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When they first came out, I felt the same way. So much in fact, I showed my husband and told him: You see this? I do NOT WANT ONE. EVER. This technology hates books, and it is BAD. NO KINDLE! NO NOOK!
And for the most part, I still feel that way.
Buuuuuuut, when I consider how quickly husband and I go through paperbacks, and how much paper is needed to satisfy that, I can "kind-of" see the appeal.
I'll still want to buy books that I plan to keep in hard cover. But I can see the appeal of *not* having dozens of paperbacks just sitting in boxes in my garage, waiting to be donated and sit on a dusty shelf somewhere, moldering away. That seems like a tremendous waste of paper.0 -
I recently got an eReader and while I love actual books I am loving the eReader too. It is so very handy for traveling and even taking to work to read on breaks. I can go through a book a day while on vacation so it is nice to not have to back a bunch of books.0
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I used to feel this way, bought all my books mostly in Hardcover, but would buy or be given paperbacks as well. I have an addiction to cookbooks. I am now a convert.
I travel a lot for work, so thought I would buy myself a kindle so I didn't have the weight and size of books to carry on flights along with my laptop.
I love my Kindle! It is so easy, so much cheaper to buy books and takes 20 seconds to get a book that you want. Gives you samplers for free to read the first couple of chapters to see if you like the book before buying. I can now read in bed without bothering my husband, as I have the cover that includes a light.
I have boxes and boxes of books down in my basement and 2 very large bookshelves of books in my living room. I still buy cookbooks, and I am still drawn to the bookstores and spend lots of time in them, but now I write down the books I see that I want and order them.0 -
I bought the Hunger Games Trilogy on my Nook Color. I LOVED that series! Loved the price too.
Yeah! It's awesome. I recommend the Insider series. Not too shabby. I actually like the heroine more than Katniss. Well, I might have lost some favor for the book because of the movie casting. :frown: Divergent looks like it's going to be a phenomenal dystopian series as well.
Who writes the Insider series? I just did a quick Amazon search (always on the lookout for something to put on my wishlist!), and a few different things came up by different authors, so I wasn't sure.
I used to think I'd never be an e-reader person. I loved holding books and flipping the pages. My cousin bought a Kindle and whenever I would see her, I would play with it, and kind of liked it. Finally after months of this, I just bought my own. And I love the thing. I was traveling a lot for work, and it was great to just have the Kindle, as opposed to several books with me. I love the discounted prices on the Kindle editions (although, to be fair, I buy FAR more books now than I did before, so I'm actually spending more money on books, haha), and how quickly and easily you can get them delivered. I had LASIK a few months ago, and a couple days afterwards when I started reading again, my eyes were tiring quickly - all I had to do was up the font size by a couple steps and it solved the problem right away. The library lending and owners lending library are great features, and Amazon also offers a Daily Deal, where they discount a certain book down to around $1.99 for the day - they have some really awful ones sometimes, but I've found a few pretty good ones that way. And you can find certain books for free too (outside of the classics), they offer a lot of them on a limited basis. I'll usually download a ton of them, and if they're terrible, no big deal, I'm out zero dollars. :happy:
Wow, I sound like a walking Kindle ad, haha. But that's just how much I love it! One thing I'll always buy the hard copy for is books with a lot of footnotes that are necessary for reading, like in The Book of Basketball - it's too difficult in the Kindle and it's just a better experience with the physical copy, flipping back and forth. But for the most part, I'm a complete convert! I understand why some people wouldn't like it and prefer to stick with physical books - for me, it's just right up my alley though.
Oh! And it's great for working out on some of the cardio machines! I could never read books while I was on the treadmill or elliptical, it was too hard to get them to stay open without using a hand to hold it in place. But the Kindle, I can just set it right on there, and I don't have to worry about it at all, just have to reach up every once in awhile to go to the next page. Love it!
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Who writes the Insider series? I just did a quick Amazon search (always on the lookout for something to put on my wishlist!), and a few different things came up by different authors, so I wasn't sure.
Maria V. Snyder
I'm definitely keeping my Kindle. I just need to find a device I can read mangas on. Spending $200+ on a Kindle DX would just be too overkill for just reading mangas on. :laugh: But it's really tempting. I love mangas so much and haven't read them for years, because the paperback is so expensive - $10 a volume. :blushing:0 -
I never liked the idea of an E-reader, in fact it was kind of funny when I moved from Michigan to New Mexico a year and a half ago. My friends were all going to chip in and buy me one, but my two besties were like "she would hate that!" So they used the money to buy me a boat load of Barnes and Nobles gift cards (awesome present). But now I'm starting to see the appeal. I mean I love actual books and always will, but my suitcase would me so much lighter when I went home to visit if I didn't have 20 books crammed into it lol. We actually have an awesome library here in Albuquerque so it's not so much the money that bothers me, but I do know that they have e-books to borrow from the library system as well.0
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I love my nook color. I can keep the books I purchase and not feel like I am cluttering the house. The nook color is easy to carry around too. I can even loan books out to other people. However, I have certain books that I still read regularly that are hard bound.0
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When e-readers first came out, I vowed I would never get one because I love the feel of a real book. I love the feel of turning the pages. I love the smell of an old book. I love pretty bookmarks. I said I never wanted an e-reader, no way, no how.
But we moved to the boonies, and the local library is crap and there aren't any bookstores within a 30-mile radius. So my husband surprised me with a Nook for my birthday. At first I was so irritated because he KNEW my feelings on the subject, and I felt like he'd wasted the money. But within a week, I was hooked. I've read so many more books on my Nook than I used to, just because it's so convenient. I can buy a new book at midnight if I can't sleep. I can carry my entire library in my purse when we go cross-country to visit family. And since the Nook offers a free book every Friday, I've been able to get a lot more books than I would normally. So while I still do prefer books in the moment, overall I'm thrilled to have my Nook. Plus, I set the touch screen so that I swipe it to turn the page, so it *almost* feels like the real thing.
I will say that I have no interest in the Nook Color or the Kindle one that does color. I can't read on a backlit screen. The appeal of the regular Nook and Kindle is that it doesn't hurt your eyes and you can read it in sunlight. I like to be able to read at the park or whatever, so the backlit screens just don't appeal to me.0 -
Have book will travel. That's why I love my Kindle and my Kindle apps (iPhone, Chrome browser). That's why I never need be without a book again, except maybe in the shower.0
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i spend eight and a half hours in front of a computer for work the ;ast think i ant to do is read on a screen. You cant get better than a real book !0
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I too am a recent Nook convert. I will NEVER give up my "real" books. I absolutely love them. However -- here is why I caved and got a Nook in addition:
1. I can borrow books from the library. I am a TERRIBLE library user and always rack up fines. (Good thing I work for one and can't right now. Haha.) I'm loving checking out eBooks and then they just go away when my time is up!
2. Both my parents have Nooks, so we can loan books between us. They are in Michigan, and I'm in Colorado - so it is awesome that my mom can lend me a book, and 2 minutes later, it's on my Nook. Brilliant!
3. I literally have no more room for books at my house. All my shelves are full right now, and since I share my house, I don't think my housemates would appreciate me buying more bookshelves.
4. I don't travel a lot, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. But, I read quickly and would have to bring several books on a plane to keep me busy. A Nook takes up far less space.
Now, here is a funny story. The first book I bought for my Nook was Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. I finished the book in one day, and then thought... "Well, shoot. I need to buy an actual hardback of this book." HAHAHA. Other books though - that I don't mind not having a physical copy of - well, the Nook is perfect for that. 0 -
i spend eight and a half hours in front of a computer for work the ;ast think i ant to do is read on a screen. You cant get better than a real book !
That's what I thought at first too but then I got my nook color and even though the screen is backlit it doesn't bother my eyes at all, and you can change the font size, background color, and brightness all to make it easy to read for you 0 -
I love real books. I love the smell. I love the feeling the paper. I can sit in the library for hours With that being said I also read books around 1000 pages and they are heavy! I have an iPad2 and Nook. I take the subway to work and it's nice to not have to lug a super heavy book and worry about damaging the binding or cover. I love the e-ink on my Nook. I'm not crazy about the e-reader on the iPad, but it is super convienent for me to grab the iPad and have everything accessible to me. Also, I can sneak in some reading at work by using the Nook for PC app which is neat. 0
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i spend eight and a half hours in front of a computer for work the ;ast think i ant to do is read on a screen. You cant get better than a real book !
That's what I thought at first too but then I got my nook color and even though the screen is backlit it doesn't bother my eyes at all, and you can change the font size, background color, and brightness all to make it easy to read for you
This post just sold me. We only have a ceiling light in our bedroom, and sometimes I like to stay up reeeaaallllyyy late into the night/next morning reading, but I can't, since I refuse to make my boyfriend sleep uncomfortably just because I don't wanna lay on the couch to read. I think an E-Reader would be great for that! 0 -
i spend eight and a half hours in front of a computer for work the ;ast think i ant to do is read on a screen. You cant get better than a real book !
That's what I thought at first too but then I got my nook color and even though the screen is backlit it doesn't bother my eyes at all, and you can change the font size, background color, and brightness all to make it easy to read for you
This post just sold me. We only have a ceiling light in our bedroom, and sometimes I like to stay up reeeaaallllyyy late into the night/next morning reading, but I can't, since I refuse to make my boyfriend sleep uncomfortably just because I don't wanna lay on the couch to read. I think an E-Reader would be great for that!
I love the Kindle's E-ink. It is not backlit, but this review settled my mind if I ever decided to upgrade. Thanks!0
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