129 replies to this topic

[Racker]

dni, on 08 August 2012 - 08:01 PM, said:

Don't think anyone has mentioned it yet but if you read more than ~50 books on an e-reader during it's lifetime you've reduced your environmental impact, and any additional books beyond this point reduce it further.

Well, that's assuming that those were 50 books you would have read traditionally if you did not have an e-reader.  The ease of finding and purchasing new books on a Kindle means I've been reading substantially more than I would have been without it.

Anyway, I'm 100 percent for e-book readers.  I'm sure there were some people who were upset when we switched from stone slabs to papyrus too, but that's the way of the world.

[cseresz.reborn]

Why Do We Still Need Libraries?

http://thoughtcatalo...need-libraries/

[cseresz.reborn]

http://www.pwc.de/de...e-zukunft.jhtml

Quote

Die Branche profitiert von einem Anwachsen der Bevölkerungsgruppe der über 40-Jährigen, die als besonders lesefreudig gilt.

Interesting... Then I found this:

http://kindle-demogr...mographics.html

Quote

Kindle Owner Demographics: 37% Aged 55 and Older, 75% 35 and up!   40% of all Kindle users are 40-59 years of age

[RedEyedGhost]

Boooooo!  Just as I'm starting to make use of baenebooks.com, they decide to sign a deal with amazon and is negotiating with barnes&noble:

Quote

Prices for backlist e-books will be going up, too; instead of $6, e-books of books whose print edition is currently hardcover will be $9.99, trade paperback $8.99, and mass market paperback $6.99.

but I guess it's good for the authors...

Quote

You should also know we are increasing across the board by 25% the ebook royalty rates to the authors, so not only should they get the benefit of what we will really hope will be a significantly larger market, but a larger cut, too.

[SkynJay]

Damn it, I too was just starting to use them. Good for authors and all that, but if they are the same price, why am I using them instead of the much easier Amazon?

[Darth Richard]

DOWN WITH E BOOKS FOR SOME REASON

[Antonius Pius]

cseresz.reborn, on 07 September 2012 - 06:29 AM, said:

"According to the latest study, one-in-six children admitted they were too embarrassed to read in front of their friends for fear of being labelled a geek."

This makes me a sad panda. :'(

[Sci-2]

Darth Richard, on 11 December 2012 - 11:27 PM, said:

DOWN WITH E BOOKS FOR SOME REASON

Actually, I love ebooks but libraries getting rid of books is bad. Part of the beauty of a library is discovery, wandering the shelves and finding new books to love.

[cseresz.reborn]

http://www.isuppli.c...-Dinosaurs.aspx

"After spectacular growth in the last few years, the ebook reader market is on an alarmingly precipitous decline, sent reeling by more nimble tablet devices that have gained the ardent patronage of consumers, according to an IHS iSuppli Consumer Electronics special report from information and analytics provider IHS.

Shipments of ebook readers by year-end will fall to 14.9 million units, down a steep 36 percent from the 23.2 million units in 2011 that now appears to have been the peak of the ebook reader market. Another drastic 27 percent contraction will occur next year when ebook reader shipments decline to 10.9 million units. By 2016, the ebook reader space will amount to just 7.1 million units—equivalent to a loss of more than two-thirds of its peak volume in 2011."

[Memory Lane]

I wonder if it might be possible to re-invent the typical library browsing for e-books. Maybe at some point, you could have a stand with screens displaying the "covers" for various e-books. If you touch your tablet/phone/augmented reality glasses tether to one of the screens, it downloads the book almost instantaneously to your reader, and lets you look through it. If you keep it on for more than a certain period of time, it then counts as being "checked out".

Edited by Snow Bass, 14 December 2012 - 01:44 AM.

[Datepalm]

Thats pretty much what I do on Goodreads...wander around, poke at books, read the reviews, follow links, etc...it's not quite wandering through a library or a good second hand bookstore...but I haven't stopped going to the library or to second hand book stores either. Gosh, it's like I can read both on paper and on a ereader. An amazing capacity, truly. It's like a superpower.

I've never tried reading on a tablet, admittedly, but it theoretically has a few things going against it as an ereader (backlit- eye tiring, expensive - wouldn't want to be hauling it around everywhere, multifunctional - distractions, shorter battery) and I wouldn't want to see actual eink ereaders disappear just as they're getting better and better.

[cseresz.reborn]

http://www.mysananto...-in-4184940.php

[cseresz.reborn]

http://www.telegraph...rage-users.html

[Datepalm]

That is the best thing i've seen today.

[Shryke]

Datepalm, on 14 December 2012 - 04:38 AM, said:

Thats pretty much what I do on Goodreads...wander around, poke at books, read the reviews, follow links, etc...it's not quite wandering through a library or a good second hand bookstore...but I haven't stopped going to the library or to second hand book stores either. Gosh, it's like I can read both on paper and on a ereader. An amazing capacity, truly. It's like a superpower.

I've never found wandering around shelves a particularly good way to find books personally. Starting at covers of books you don't know is pretty useless.

Quote

I've never tried reading on a tablet, admittedly, but it theoretically has a few things going against it as an ereader (backlit- eye tiring, expensive - wouldn't want to be hauling it around everywhere, multifunctional - distractions, shorter battery) and I wouldn't want to see actual eink ereaders disappear just as they're getting better and better.

Agreed. I don't get people who read on tablets personally.

[Datepalm]

Shryke, on 19 January 2013 - 06:09 PM, said:

I've never found wandering around shelves a particularly good way to find books personally. Starting at covers of books you don't know is pretty useless.

What else are you supposed to do with that time? Do you like talk to people or something?

Anyway, it's called browsing...look at the cover, read the back, read the first page, read the last page, flip through a little, see if it smells nice, whatever. To each their own.

[Sci-2]

Imagine you were at a used bookstore and found a copy of an old book that seemed awesome but it smelled awful. Would you get the book?

[Galleymac]

NO, Sci.  NO. In fact I would never find out if the book seemed awesome in the first place because ew.

One reads in one's BED, after all.


ETA -- that said, I do find most things I read via browsing.  Net and Locus reviews have been a reletively recent factor.  But I use bookstores as an antidepressant. (I've developed a terrible habit of going to a store, browsing the physical stuff, and then getting the Nook book.  *shame*)

Edited by Galleymac, 19 January 2013 - 06:40 PM.

[Hodor Frey]

Is the hypothetical awesome book printed on poorly cured human flesh?

[thistlepong]

cseresz.reborn, on 19 January 2013 - 01:49 PM, said:

http://www.telegraph...rage-users.html

This

But Laura Swaffield, chairman of The Library Campaign, said that while pole-dancing was a novel approach to whipping up interest in local services, using books as table tennis bats was "just a step too far".

Sci-Sci, on 19 January 2013 - 06:21 PM, said:

Imagine you were at a used bookstore and found a copy of an old book that seemed awesome but it smelled awful. Would you get the book?

No.  I've actually had pretty good luck with one cent books online, but I was horrified by one recently.

Hodor Frey, on 19 January 2013 - 07:21 PM, said:

Is the hypothetical awesome book printed on poorly cured human flesh?

Like in Suicide Club?  'Cause it was decently preserved in The Pillow Book, right?