Ebooks vs. Real Books

I looooove my Kindle. Absolutely love it. I read All. The. Time. My books were taking up sooooo much space in our house (and I HATE to give away books, even onces that I don't like!) that I finally bought the Kindle. I was skeptical at first, but love it. When I really love a book, I'll go out and buy a copy of it. My husband just recently bought a Kindle for the same reason. He hasn't said one way or the other if he likes his yet. I still don't think e-readers will ever take the place completely of books, though. Sure, e-readers are easy, but there will always be people who like the book in their hands. And schools that rely on books. And libraries that won't replace all of their books with e-books. I'd hate to imagine a world with ONLY e-books...

I love real books. Especially when I would go to a yard sale and get the for $.10. But for Christmas I got a Nook Color and I am in LOVE! I read a lot. I love to read. And if we go away some where I have all of my books in my hands. And I can also use it like a laptop for the internet and games and such

for tech books that i use for reference, ebooks win. for novels, i greatly prefer dead trees.

I agree with those who say that an e-reader doesn't work well for reference material or magazines but for everything else - I just LOVE my Kindle.

I love my Nook tablet! Since college I've been a library girl rather than a book-buying girl, but I'm pretty bad about returning them on time (I consider it to be my charitable contribution to the library...heh). I love that I can dl books from the library and after 2 weeks they simply disappear! I wish there were a little more selection, but there are still tons of things I haven't read that ARE available so it's not a big deal. Sooner or later the libraries and publishers will come up with a workable model.

I also love it for using on the treadmill. Bump up the font size a bit, connect to Pandora, and I'm good for an hour+

I am a tech geek but I still like real books for 2 reasons:

1. Cost: I mostly buy used books but even the new books I buy tend to be less than the typical 9.99 that e-books cost.

2. Ownership: When I buy a book and read it, I can then decide to keep it, donate it, or sell it. When you buy an e-book, you can keep it as long as the vendor lets you. You don't own the book. You just bought the ability to read the book for a time period of someone else's choosing. There have already been well publicized incidents of Amazon or other vendors taking books off of users' e-reader that they paid for. You have no hope of donating or selling the book at any time.

I'm going to chime in for the middle ground, like many others.

My Kindle is wonderful. I actually got it as a gift for high school graduation because I have chronic pain that was very severe up until a year ago (when I was 19 and medication number 25 brought some relief, which is why I'm even on MFP), so my book-loving tendencies would literally cause me pain. Holding big books hurt, carrying books hurt... Ugh. It is the Kindle DX (textbook-size) because my mom realized that the lighter weight would be a blessing for college.

I still use the Kindle for plenty, particularly fiction and classics, since the classics are free. I avoid everything that is priced similar to a physical copy. But the collections! They might be unwieldy to read sometimes, but I have a collection of Greek mythology with loads of translations of each, 117k locations (about a tenth the length of the New Oxford American Dictionary), and it cost me something like three dollars. I will very literally never lack something to read when I have this with me.

But right now I'm finishing up "Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman" in hardcover. The book is physically beautiful (the font is gorgeous, the paper feels lovely, and I do recommend it for the content for anyone interested) and something I will enjoy having on my shelves forever. I'm not going to buy many new paperbacks henceforth, but I'll probably keep buying used ones and new or used hardcovers. I just think the printing industry will have to work on the aesthetic quality of everything they produce now, because that's going to be a major factor in their continued success. No more shoddily-bound books for me! I never buy something unless I can take pleasure in owning it.

Real Books read in the last year-0
Ebooks read in the last year- 50+

I find the Ebooks so much easier for some reason. I don't have a 3 year old screaming for an overpriced barnes and noble stuffed and animal everytime we go to the book store. I still buy my son real books and will continue to do so. He has his own fire that he likes to play around on.

My boyfriend got me a kindle fire for valentines day. I use it to play games and get on the web but thats about it. I collect books so when it comes to reading I like old fashion books. I tried reading one on the kindle and it just wasen't the same.

I LOVE my Kindle.

Firstly, while this may sound obvious, an ebook reader fixes the few design flaws a book has - its light, portable, and you can hold it in one hand easily *and* turn the page.

Don't underestimate the value of that for someone that spends a considerable time on the London Underground, pushed up against other commuters.

Also, you can download samples. You can be anywhere, at any time, and read the first chapter of any book to see if you fancy buying it. Whoever thought up this marketing strategy is a genius. I have bought about twice the amount of books since having this bad boy.

The only drawback is a)

...The only problem I have with e-readers is using them for reference materials. There is nothing faster than flipping through a book scanning for the information you need.

and b) remembering to charge it. Books don't run out of battery power...