Given what it was meant to mean, I had to go for indifferent, at least currently.
I like tree-books for all the nostalgia-type reasons.
I like ebooks for their portability and such. I'm also strongly of the opinion that there are segments of the book publishing industry that are just plain destined to go "e" eventually, when the tech is there and the public demands it. In particular, I think that the secondary and post-secondary education system will go "e" when the tech is right. Ebooks have so much potential to revolutionize education at those levels, not to mention the possiblities for helping reduce some of the funding crunch that is facing the public ed. system. The hardware part of the system would cost not much more than one or two of those textbooks have to cost anyway, and when the tech reaches maturity, it would not require constant upgrade. Which means that cost can effectively be depreciated over a number of years. Which would make reduce the greatest part of the expense of providing textbooks to a matter of just paying licensing fees on the texts in use. Which alone could offer dramatic potential. With a good license agreement, a school system could have at its disposal a much greater library of texts than they can now. If they are only having to pay for the texts that are being used, more choice in textbooks could become available. Instead of having to teach from the one selected text on a subject, an educator might have a choice of multiple texts to select from, giving more opportunity to pick the text that is right for them.
Not to mention all the potential for greater interactivity. Science texts with animated videos demonstrating concepts. Socialology texts with video footage from the last hundred years, or recreations from further back, or such. Foreign language texts that speak the words and phrases at you in the right accent. Or better yet, foreign language texts that can listen to you speak and help you perfect your accent.
And while I know the tech for much of this is still a few years off, I'm sure the greater resistance will come from the education and publishing establishments. For a while at least...
Ultimately, though, I'm a book person no matter what the form. :-)
I like paper books, but ebooks are great. I only discovered them a few weeks ago but they suit my style of having a few books on the go at once, and I love being able to pull out my PDA when I have a few minutes to kill and pick a book. I downloaded some French and German books with the MS free dictionary and that is incredibly convenient for a non-native speaker, plus the 1000+ classics form Handango for almost nothing. It is an amazing facility.
I love ebooks - to the extent that I don't really liking 'physical' books anymore. It really annoys me when a publisher doesn't publish a book I want to read as an ebook - when this happens I look on the net for a scanned version. I would prefer to pay for a copy so that the author is more likely to write more books. I find it very short sighted that publishers won't publish ebooks. They miss out on my money if nothing else.
non of the above....
In a perfect world i would read all my fiction on paper, sat in my favourite chair, in peace and quiet, with a cold drink and maybe radio 4 playing in the background.
Howver I do seem to spend a lot of time travelling from place to place.. or with some time to kill. It's then I can whip out my axim and pick from any of the books I happen to have with me. Reading on a train isn't as great as being in my favourite armchair, but I still love being able to read an ebook.
Non fiction is a bit different. Having it in electronic format makes it searchable and is a big plus. It is harder to just flick though and see what catches my eye.
So I'll have to vote for Love them both for different reasons
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I love e-books and I love hard back books. Both have their place.
On my recent trip to Germany I carried over 100 e-books with me and one hard back. Airlines are still insistant about turing off electronic devices at certain times. The downside to e-books to me are:
Hard to read outside.
Have to make sure your devise has a battery charger on long trips (Not a big deal but it does require some forethought. I took a converter to Germany and between my laptop, cell phone, Blue tooth headset, and Axim I hade to take a power strip with me to make sure everything could be pluged in and recharged for the next day)
And its a bitch to get an autograph on an Axim X5 ( harder to get it off the screen lol).
I have several autographed books and treasure them.
So Hardbacks will never go away but the e-book is here to stay and I am sure it will be improved on as time goes by.
I started with a franklin and would still use it if the capacitor didn`t die on me.
and since they don`t make franklins anymore.
I went and bought an axim
I love ink and paper but for travel or going to work
e-books are much more suited for it.
and it`s real nice to actually have a library of books on hand
I have hundreds on one SD card
unlike a franklin 3 formats to read
mobi,ms reader & word
can`t read franklin books,but it`s not much of a loss.
does anyone know any other formats I can load?
for more books to access?
I love e-books! I haven't read a paper book in a couple of years. Ereader has a good selection. I miss some of the authors that don't provide e-books, but hopefully they miss my $. I can't say I love the DRM, but ereader is the least of the evils. I really like the way it links to my credit card.
It's great to have a few books with me when I finish one. I would rather have the personal convenience than be able to loan them out.
I'm mainly indifferent, mainly because of the cost <yes I know about the free ones>. Paying almost the same price as for a paper book is just taking the urine.
I also find reading on the LCD screen very tiring.
Would be nice if public libraries could started lending ebooks..would be a good use of DRM for once.
Check your local library to see if does ebooks. Mine does, and yes, it is a good use of DRM. I have read some nice titles for free, usually the DRM'd book gives you 3-weeks until it expires.
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