Ebooks are better. They just are. Stop crying. They are.

[Lord of Oop North]

Scot, you are being ridiculous. By any logical metric, eBooks are far, far more portable than paperbooks. You can easily carry thousands upon thousands of pounds of eBooks. You cannot easily carry thousands upon thousands of pounds of paperbooks.

[peterbound]

I think Stego may have mentioned this.. but i find it funny that a bunch of folks that read shit about the future, space travel, FTL communications, instant downloadable information, and other hard SF shit have a hard time buying off on the notion of an 'E-Book'. Face it, the shit we have been reading about since SF's golden age is here, and here to stay.

Also, i don't know who mentioned it, but i have all my big authors sign my nook covers. Get a perm marker, whatever color you like, the shit never fades.

[Snuffaluffalee]

I've been using ebooks for years. As a person who moves around a fair amount and likes to live minimally, having too many paper books are a hinderance. Ebooks takes care of that. I've also been catching myself trying to turn the pages on my device by flicking the corner as if it were a physical book. The only thing I miss is annotating them.

[dobegrrrl]

I have a Kindle 1 and have been preaching this for years. I gave away all my asoif hard copies when I bought it. It is cool when an previously obscure character pops up and you do a search to find all previous references and piece stuff together. In fact one of the ways it shines is looking up old stuff, even across different books. I'm into historical fiction and sometimes I will want to look up a figure who is mentioned in more than one book, or a geographic location, I do a search and I'll get ALL the books on my kindle that match up.

I can read it anywhere. I can easily turn pages on the stairmaster. A couple of times when I've had to spend the night in the emergency room I can just pull it out of my bag. I always have it with me, and if I don't, I can read on my phone. If what I'm reading currently is too heavy for a distracted environment I can easily change to something else. I had it sitting on my desk when ADWD came out and read a page or two occasionally. The only thing that sucks about them being popular now is that I feel like I have to turn it off during takeoff/landing on planes. When no one else had them I could just make sure wireless was off and keep reading.

I assume there will probably be some kind of deluxe signature box set of the asoif books when the series is finished. I will probably end up buying that as something to keep and replace the mismatched books I gave away.

I have hung on to my out of print doberman references books, a few picture heavy books, but I have a small house and was happy to get rid of quite a few books that were collecting dust because I knew I would want to re-read eventually. I read A LOT more than I used to, and I'd rather read than just about any other form of entertainment so that makes me a happier dobegrrrl.

[litechick]

I have the trust issues. An ebook does not have the equivalent sense of ownership. I suspect that you don't actually own the book at all--that in the fine print you actually own a limited license to read the book on your device or some other jargony pseudo-equivalency.

It amazes me that people have such faith that a technology that didn't even exist 10 years ago will live on in perpetuity. What are the laws of inheritance with regards to ebooks? Can you pass your library on to your children?

What happens when the servers crash and you lose all your books and you go out to protest but the cops pepper spray you and the pundits make fun of you because hey, it says right there in the contract that the seller isn't responsible for the Act of God or Terrorism which brought the servers down and you're shit out of luck and should have known better?

What happens when the technology changes? Don't you think there are saps out there who thought that buying the re-release of Star Wars on VHS in '92 meant that they would have the definitive, end-all-be-all Star Wars til the end of time?

I have no doubt that I will give in to the ebook eventually but I'm going down hard.

[Shryke]

I'll probably get an eReader eventually.

The big issue for me is eReaders are just fucking small. The larger size ones are ridiculously more expensive.

The average eReader is like the size of a mass market paperback. I hate paperbacks. I want something the size of like a hardcover or a trade paperback.

Also, faster flipping pages.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

LooN,

The book I am reading at a given moment is as portable as any given ereader. As I said if you are into instant gratification the ereader is for you. I do not need my entire library with me at all times. Just the few books I'm reading.

[Jaxom 1974]

Do you like the aesthetic experience of moving your book collection, when you move? How about the smell of your books burning if there was a fire?

My question isn't "Do some people irrationally prefer paper books and make excuses for that irrationality?" Of course they do. The question is "Which is better?" By any metric ebooks are better. Period.

Neither one is better or worse. They're simply different. Insisting that one must choose a side seems a little counter productive...

Not if you have multiple devices, since it downloads the e-books to those devices. I've got a Kindle, Kindle for PC at home, and another Kindle for PC on my work computer - each of which has all my e-books (58 of them). I'd have to lose all three devices plus a complete foul-up on Amazon's end to lose my e-books, whereas my physical books can be destroyed by fire and other forms of damage.

Frankly, it seems as expensive and just as much as a hassle to have to load up so many different devices. I may get an e-reader someday, but right now I really don't need yet another type of technology to clutter things up...laptops, cell phones, pads, blah blah blah blah...

[Nukelavee]

Peterbound - yeah, but we also read stories with illuminated manuscripts....

Ken- Funny thing. I lack all those nifty devices. No cel, no laptop, blackberry, ipod, nada. Actually, I don't have Tv or radio either.

I also really like books, AND wasn't foolish enough to breed, so....

Plus, I just don't give a shit if people think it's irrational.

:)

[Verboten]

I love to read. I get frequent migraines. The Ebook induces these migraines. Death to the Ebook.

[delete this account pls]

LooN,

The book I am reading at a given moment is as portable as any given ereader. As I said if you are into instant gratification the ereader is for you. I do not need my entire library with me at all times. Just the few books I'm reading.

Except, as people have explained at length IT ISN'T AS PORTABLE. A Dance With Dragons is a huge massive heavy book, Scot. It was not convenient or easy in the slightest to lug that thing around.

[Jaxom 1974]

I don't know that I had any issues carrying about my copy of ADWD...

And let's not forget that one of the greatest gifts Kirk got from Spock on his 50th birthday was a hardback copy of A Tale of Two Cities...and when he wanted to curl up with a good book, Picard didn't go for his e-reader, he used an actual book... :P

[delete this account pls]

Yeah but Picard lives in some sort of retarded future where they havent figured out how to cure baldness.

[Jaxom 1974]

Bald is sexy, baby. Sexy.

[AverageGuy]

I can buy a new book for $8. A used book for $1-2. Dead tree>>>>ebook.

That said, I know I'll make the plunge eventually. Ebooks are so much more convenient when it comes to buying and storing and transporting.

I'd much rather talk with someone than read in solitude. Also, I'm nosy as fuck and like to know what others are reading.

I'm the opposite way. A woman on the subway today tried to start a conversation about what I was reading. It just made me feel self-conscious. But I'm weird that way.

[Nas!]

Yeah but Picard lives in some sort of retarded future where they havent figured out how to cure baldness.

Uh, people are obviously just more enlightened in Picard's future. Speaking of which, I don't remember any of the characters having Australian accents...

[Lightning Lord]

I don't get this "instant gratification" you're going on about. I have about a hundred books on my Kindle. If I go somewhere, be it for an hour or a month, they can all come with me. So, when I need to study, I open the textbooks. When I want to relax, something lighter. Let's assume just those two options: they both fit comfortably in my pocket. I don't have to carry in my hand, in a bag, in a backpack or briefcase. I carry all of aSoIaF with me whenever I want and it weighs about as much as a small paperback.

That's more portable. I don't think it's instant gratification, or maybe I just have different understanding of that term than you.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Brady,

As with Jaxom I didn't have any trouble transporting ADWD. It went with me to Baton Rouge and then to Reno. I read it while walking on the treadmill and curled up at home. I'm re-reading it right now.

LL,

I do think the ereader format is useful for textbooks and other types of written information that is frequently updates and changed.

[delete this account pls]

Uh, people are obviously just more enlightened in Picard's future. Speaking of which, I don't remember any of the characters having Australian accents...

Oh god. Aussies in space ..... now I'm having visions of fat retarded idiots with horrible accents being casually racist towards Klingons and getting drunk and trashing space hotels.

[delete this account pls]

Brady,

As with Jaxom I didn't have any trouble transporting ADWD. It went with me to Baton Rouge and then to Reno. I read it while walking on the treadmill and curled up at home. I'm re-reading it right now.

But many other people did have trouble with it, and talked about those troubles. I too tried reading ADWD on the treadmill and on the exercise bike and it was a chore because it was heavy and required two hands to hold the entire time. A kindle is much lighter and requires one hand to hold. It is easier to carry than the hardcover edition of a 700 page book. That isn't an opinion, it's the objective truth. Something small and light is easier to carry than something large and heavy. I'm not entirely sure why I've had to explain this.