eBooks - yes or no?

[mrsmiggins]

I've never read an e book as I've had plenty of real-life books to read, but I'm wondering whether you like them or not? On one hand, no physical book left over to deal with, less physical resources used, but then on the other hand, less physical books to give to friends and charity shops!

[indy]

I'm not keen, they seem to have no soul and actually find them hard to read. I find my library of books quite comforting

[Milims]

I joined the Daily lit site - I find it very useful as I can access many books and can read books that I may not otherwise have heard of or have access to. It's also good because it breaks the books down into parts that can be read in just a few minutes and if you want more you can ask for it. It's also proved useful english homework for the kids as there are books there that we don't happen to have in the house. The other advantage for me - being a HUGE book fan is that I can have access to more books without crowding my house with any more of them (she says looking around at the 4 book cases in the hall..... )

[spitfire]

i have a few e-books and they are o.k. i only got them as they were not offered in print. i much prefer a book you can hold i love the smell of old books, there is something comforting in that faint musty smell

[MKG]

Yes, I prefer the feel and portability of a real book - I can't read an ebook in the bath, and reader technology is miles away from being acceptable. On the other hand, I've downloaded over a thousand ebooks in the past couple of years - not randomly and all wanted. A lot of those are out-of-print things which I couldn't get anywhere else (try getting a copy of the Cartularium Saxonicum and you'll see what I mean).

So yes - I think the idea of ebooks is wonderful.

Mike

[moonglow]

I agree with Indy I think that e books have no soul ,but the people who I know who use a reader thingy swear by them, especially as you can carry around about twenty books at once and increase the type size so that you do not need to wear glasses to read ,A definite case of old and new technologies,both with advantages, e books for when I am out and about with a minute to spare on a train and a real book when sat at home .

[StripyPixieSocks]

E books are the work of the devil... I absolutely hate them with a passion.

I also find them hard to read and... well... soulless!

I am a huge book collector and there's nothing better than the smell of a new book and the crisp, fresh pages there's just something magical about an actual physical book that e-books could never, ever even begin to capture!

*shudders and goes back to stroking her books lovingly*

[Silver Ether]

books, books, boooks and more books. Books forever... I like books and would never give them up. The idea of readinf more than a paragraph at a time on the puter fills me with horror. We have shelves and shelves of them and just put up a load more in a tiny room and called it a library

No I don't like e-books

[grahoom]

I'm not keen on Ebooks
- can't easily flick through them,
- rely on electrickery to read them,
- can't read them in the bath (well you could, but not advisable),
- I like the smell and feel of real books,
- books are great!!!

I have so many books, and so little space! I guess one thing about e-books is they are good for storage, but I'd prefer to have a library full of real books than a HD full of ebooks.

[Millymollymandy]

I've never seen one but as I have a pc in a cold room it would be impossible to read in bed or snuggled up in front of the fire.

I don't like reading text on computer screens anyway, other than shorts bursts of info like you mostly find on forums and websites.

[Gert]

not for me i'm afraid. I like to read in the bath, and that sounds far too dangerous

[Millymollymandy]

I love your avatar Gert! Oh I'd love to have ducklings, only they'd grow up into irritating noisy shitty 'little' beggars like my huge ones!

[Green Aura]

I find the idea of e-books brilliant. No problems with storage, full libraries in a hard drive the size of a book.

The problem is, I find them nigh on impossible to read. I don't know if it's glare, size or what but I find long pieces of text really difficult to concentrate on.

So I'll be sticking with books for the time-being. And you're right about the bath (and the loo)

[Rosendula]

I'm not a fan. I've only ever bought a couple of non-fiction ebooks. I'm not a big fan of sitting on my backside at the computer. In fact, I find it hard to sit down anywhere for more than a few minutes, so I prefer a physical book that I can pick up, flick through and put down again.

OH likes his audio books for when he's at work. He's a postman and got fed up of listening to music all the time, so he listens to books instead. He's never 'read' so much in his life!

[Russian Doll]

no books all the way for me..i get such a pleasure by opening a brand new book for the first time

just as i love the smell of charity shop books
they smell like history