Who reads Ebooks?

[Mercury]

I have started to read books using Adobe Digital Editions, and I like it a lot!  I don't have to store a used book after I'm done.  Right now I am starting Andy Mcdermotts "the pyramid of doom" after finishing "the tomb of hercules" which is also his.  I don't have the cash for a kindle, so this has to do for now, but I really think it is a neat thing!

[Andreas]

I read on my iPhone, works like a charm

[WilkBury]

I like to read manuals in pdf's on screen but as it goes to books I prefer real books. IMHO e-books are fine as a source of information but they lack the smell, shape, thickness everything what real book has. All these features are important to me. I prefer printed book from e-bok like I prefer real MT from its picture 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I have been reading ebooks since my first Palm Pilot back in the days before they had fancy color screens.  I have read them through several generations of Palm, then several generations of Windows Mobile, and will continue to read them on either an iPhone or a Droid next.  I literally have gigabytes of books, which as you can imagine is quite a lot given the very small file sizes.

Between the switch to ebooks, and my wife's discovery of a used bookstore that buys old books, I've managed to reclaim a large amount of bookshelf space.

I have noticed though that they have gotten amazingly expensive lately, now that they are getting popular.  It used to be $2-3/book vs $10 to buy the paper version, but now it's creeping up close to the paper version for no real reason.  Paper and ink are expensive and so is distribution, while server space and bandwidth are cheap as hell- why are we paying so much for ebooks beyond greed?
 
Def

[Andreas]

I first started reading ebooks when I had a Nokia N800. It didn't have an ebook reader with DRM support so I had to get the books illegally to even be able to use them. Heck, when there was a new book that came out I wanted to read I had to buy the books online and illegally remove the DRM to be able to use them. At least nowadays you dont have to become a criminal to read the books you legally paid for because you have smarthphones

[Mercury]

I have been reading ebooks since my first Palm Pilot back in the days before they had fancy color screens.  I have read them through several generations of Palm, then several generations of Windows Mobile, and will continue to read them on either an iPhone or a Droid next.  I literally have gigabytes of books, which as you can imagine is quite a lot given the very small file sizes.

Between the switch to ebooks, and my wife's discovery of a used bookstore that buys old books, I've managed to reclaim a large amount of bookshelf space.

I have noticed though that they have gotten amazingly expensive lately, now that they are getting popular.  It used to be $2-3/book vs $10 to buy the paper version, but now it's creeping up close to the paper version for no real reason.  Paper and ink are expensive and so is distribution, while server space and bandwidth are cheap as hell- why are we paying so much for ebooks beyond greed?
 
Def

I noticed this as well.  The book I bought last night was $8!!!  I pulled the trigger because I tend to read ebooks slow, due to the fact they are on my computer and a paperback fits better in the john.  Raises less questions from the wife... 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I never did get the hang of reading them on my PC.  I tried once or twice, but gave up on it as it wasn't nearly as convenient.  With a phone or PDA I can read in the washroom, on the plane, in a waiting room, at work... where ever I want.  It's great too, because I am not carrying a paperback in addition to everything else I carry.  Plus, I really like that I put several books on it, so if I finish one somewhere I can just start another one, and I'm still not carrying anything extra.

My wife still prefers the look and feel of paper, and I suppose from a certain perspective I do too, but let's face it, you read a book for the information contained within, not for the dead tree it's printed on.  And, for those who are just resistant to change, remember, it wasn't that easy for folks when books first came out either....



Def

[e17]

I do. I began with my palm, then when I've switched to ipaq, and now on my nokia cell phone.

The hardest part is to find books in French, but I managed.

This said, definitely having a real books in hands cannot, imho, be replaced.

[sardauker]

As some of you, I began with my Palm (a IIIx) and cspotrun
After that I switched to a Tungsten.
Now my wife lent me an iPod Touch... and I read .pdf
I understand english way better than I write it, and Italy has got big ebooks projects, so I had no problem with finding books that I could use.

A bit sadly, my house is still stuffed with real books, comics, and so on... the paper addiction is stronger than the ebooks availability, and I don't usually pay for e-books, only for paper... only public domain. I've bought only king's "the plant". wrong choice, I know.

I hope a day avery book -in italy it is not so, yet- has its e-version, less expensive than the paper one... so also the paper version drops its price (does a king or koontz novel cost 30$, in USA?)

[ITtechguy]

Read them on my IPad awsome hours of fun

[papa_bob]

I never did get the hang of reading them on my PC.  I tried once or twice, but gave up on it as it wasn't nearly as convenient.  With a phone or PDA I can read in the washroom, on the plane, in a waiting room, at work... where ever I want.  It's great too, because I am not carrying a paperback in addition to everything else I carry.  Plus, I really like that I put several books on it, so if I finish one somewhere I can just start another one, and I'm still not carrying anything extra.

My wife still prefers the look and feel of paper, and I suppose from a certain perspective I do too, but let's face it, you read a book for the information contained within, not for the dead tree it's printed on.  And, for those who are just resistant to change, remember, it wasn't that easy for folks when books first came out either....



Def

epic

[Medic82]

And if you didn't know it it's a Norwegian sketch with Danish subtitles at the bottom.

The problem with me and e-books is that most of the books that I read you can only get in paper format.

[Neil]

I used to subscribe to a couple of US magazines that were tricky and expensive to get in the UK that I read on a Palm Vx.  I used to read them in bed, no need to have the light on and the green text black background was easy on the eye.

Colour screens were not as comfortable for me, don't know why and I got out of the habit.

I understand the need to protect intellectual property but the DRM on ebooks annoys me.  I want to read stuff on whatever device whenever.  I could live with this limitation especially as Kindle has apps for most everything these days but... the price of the books puts me off.  When its cheaper to buy a paperback than an ebook I'm not going to play.

[Pacu]

ive got no problem "capturing" stuff online for my Kindle..i usually h'aft to run it thru some software to make it Kindle compatible. Nothing beats a real book though. In 20 years i'll still have my book i paid 20 bucks for....where will my hard earned 20 bucks be in digital form then?

mmmm limited edition Lord of the Rings leather bound picture editions

[e17]

With a phone or PDA I can read in the washroom, on the plane, in a waiting room, at work... where ever I want. 

Def

Read in the washroom!!! THE place why, indeed, I began to dig for ebooks

[Pacu]

just installed the Nook color display in our stores.



very nice. They should all be made like this. The screen is as nice as any ipad and the price is 249.99. I don't see Kindle coming out with a color screen any time soon as it has a big marketshare on the Kindle app for android, ipad, i-touch and other devices. It's cheaper to deal in software for devices than the device itself. Let someone else worry about the device i guess.

[lovenhim]

Here is the visually impaired person POV, I enjoy reading and I prefer the feel of a printed book, however they are hard for me to read, thus the PC and the e-book work better for me.  My school book for college is a .pdf and it works great for me.  I also use audio books.  I prefer a real, printed book, but reading from the PC works better for me. 

[jzmtl]

Mine:



Paid $100 for it, quite happy with it so far.

[Pacu]

looks like a lot of places will have the nook for 99 bucks day after thanksgiving. My work (nameless of course) Wal-mart and Target too. Not a bad deal.

I tend to read more with my kindle than paper books here recently.

[Grant Lamontagne]

looks like a lot of places will have the nook for 99 bucks day after thanksgiving. My work (nameless of course) Wal-mart and Target too. Not a bad deal.

I tend to read more with my kindle than paper books here recently.

Any idea which of those places will have the best buy? 

Def

[Medic82]

looks like a lot of places will have the nook for 99 bucks day after thanksgiving. My work (nameless of course) Wal-mart and Target too. Not a bad deal.

I tend to read more with my kindle than paper books here recently.

Any idea which of those places will have the best buy? 

Def

Wonder that my self

[Pacu]

The nameless store i work in has a ton of them in waiting

[Chako]

I wonder if those e-book readers are any good. I must confess I have only read a few e-books on my computer. I do read a lot of paperbacks when I have the time however.

Here is a good source for fantasy/science fiction...


http://www.baen.com/library/

[Reinier]

I don't have a dedicated Ebook reader, but I do read books on my HTC Desire. Works great, but the phone's OLED display consumes a lot of power, so the battery is usually empty after a couple of chapters

[Grant Lamontagne]

I wouldn't get a dedicated ebook reader- for a while I had a separate PDA and phone, but now I just carry a SmartPhone, which has several ebook readers installed on it.  I won't buy another phone that doesn't support ebooks, so for the foreseeable future I shouldn't have any need for a dedicated reader.

Def

[ryan1835]

a books a book, something to hold have etc

and an ebook is nothing

i like books.

[WilkBury]

a books a book, something to hold have etc

and an ebook is nothing

i like books.

   

[Grant Lamontagne]

a books a book, something to hold have etc

and an ebook is nothing

i like books.

Is a book the pages or the information contained within?  I'll take the information, thank you...

Def

[ryan1835]

a book doesn't run out of battery though

[jzmtl]

Mine goes 2 weeks before charging, so that's not really a problem.