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Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#21

Post by megaman22 »

ashark wrote: post #15
RodericDay wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is completely different. It's like looking at an Etch-A-Sketch, which in the end, is not much different than looking at paper with ink or graphite particles in it. E-Readers are one of those technologies that I'm completely unconflicted and wholly supportive of. E-books should be priced better though, to account for the inability to lend them out to people.

Between the limitations and the lack of a used market, ebooks do seem really expensive compared to dead-tree.

There is a huge selection of public domain ebooks (although admittedly less than there ought to be, with the ridiculous copyright extensions). Project Gutenberg has a lot of fairly decent quality .mobi and .epub versions out these days.

You can also get a decent amount of stuff from various Amazon programs, like Kindle Unlimited. The selection isn't always perfect, but it's not terrible either.

And of course, there are always slightly less legitimate venues for obtaining free ebooks. Your morality may vary, but I'm not sure I see a problem with torrenting an ebook if I already own the paper copy. (Thankfully, some publishers are starting to be reasonable about this, like Manning, and providing a free download if you've got the purchase code from the paper book. Others are not so great - I've tried to buy the ebook versions of some of my Apress books, and the questions that they ask to verify that you own the book, i.e. what page is figure 7-3 on?, cannot be answered correctly using the page numbers from the print edition...). There's also not the same level of organization by book publishers as the MPAA and RIAA.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#22

Post by johnchristopher »

bmelton wrote: post #12

While I used to be the guy that would carry a book on my mass-transit commute, I found that the (admittedly minor) headaches of doing so were contributing to my reading less and less. Having to carry a book around is fine if it's a small paperback, but for books I just couldn't wait for, I found that my laptop bag was cramped enough without trying to carry the hardback Game of Thrones, so I ended up prioritizing taki…

I have a Kobo but that doesn't matter (correct me if I'm wrong). I really miss the ability to flip pages to re-read relevant passages before getting back to where I left off my reading. I also like the weight of the books and visually and mentally mapping where I am in the book by comparing read pages and unread pages.

I don't know how it is on the Kindle but I have a small notebook where I jot down thoughts and notes. The Kobo software sucks for that (and 2 Kobo crashes deleting my notes and everything else taught me not to use the note taking feature, bookmarking and getpocket integration).

I think e-reader are convenient but paper is still a better experience. Except for lying in bed on one side :). And page turning makes no sound.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#23

Post by [deleted] »

toyg wrote: post #19

I love ebooks and I'm way too prone to impulse-buying them on my Kindle, but recent price movements are trying hard to kill the market. I'm not going to pay £15 for a text file, sorry. I honestly don't care how good your editing is, chances are it's awful anyway: one I got recently, by a mainstream author from a mainstream publisher, has "renaissance" spelled "re nais san ce" (with spaces) throughout the entire book,…

[deleted]

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#24

Post by 6d0debc071 »

verisimilidude wrote: post #13

For adult fiction, I doubt any of us care how or where people read. It's an uncomplicated example. Instead, consider something like scientific research. The possibilities seem endless when it comes to putting research online: richer multimedia , raw data sets, crowdsourcing, timely publication, etc. But paper (and parchment) is still a more reliable archival format, which could be crucial on some unfortunate day in t…

Scientific journals haven't done diddly with the internet but use it as a glorified magazine printing device in the time they've been on it so far. It's possible that's just because they're stupid, but I wonder how much of it is creating scarcity. e.g: You don't make money by sharing your raw data with the world and having it networked with other data to make it easily searchable, you make money by keeping a stranglehold on the data and charging £20 a pop to read a summary with the analysis you want people to have of it stapled to the front.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#25

Post by bmelton »

johnchristopher wrote: post #22
bmelton wrote: post #12

While I used to be the guy that would carry a book on my mass-transit commute, I found that the (admittedly minor) headaches of doing so were contributing to my reading less and less. Having to carry a book around is fine if it's a small paperback, but for books I just couldn't wait for, I found that my laptop bag was cramped enough without trying to carry the hardback Game of Thrones, so I ended up prioritizing taki…

I have a Kobo but that doesn't matter (correct me if I'm wrong). I really miss the ability to flip pages to re-read relevant passages before getting back to where I left off my reading. I also like the weight of the books and visually and mentally mapping where I am in the book by comparing read pages and unread pages. I don't know how it is on the Kindle but I have a small notebook where I jot down thoughts and note…

The Kindle has highlighting and note-taking ability built-in.

The responsiveness on the e-ink keyboard isn't fantastic, but it's decent enough for short note-taking, and highlighting is dead simple.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#26

Post by tenfingers »

For me the only "ebook" that truly exists is a PDF/file that I can handle the way I want. I never considered the kindle-amazon combo to be an option. From amazon I only buy physical books, and will continue to do so until the stuff I buy can be used the way I want, on linux, with the reader I want.

There's no point in buying inferior media, especially when the price difference is so small.

An mind, I regularly use PDFs for searching/references, but I still read books just fine. I would need 4-5 e-ink readers to be able to do what I currently do with regular books, they would need to be A4 size at least, and will never settle for anything which is not a dumb PDF visualizer with no strings attached.

Until then, books will continue to live strong on my bookshelf.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#27

Post by colomon »

sxcurry wrote: post #11

What about audio books? I've read more in the last few years than the decade before, since I switched almost entirely to audio books. In many cases they are much better than the printed version. Case in point, Ulysses by James Joyce. The audible.com spoken version is a masterpiece, and this is definitely a book that's meant to be listened to.

Twenty years ago I listened to an audiobook version of a poetic translation of the Iliad. It was just eye-opening, vastly better than reading the book -- went from frequently being tricky to focus on to just right. Not surprising, seeing that's how it was originally meant to be heard.

I've been meaning to follow-up with Beowulf, but haven't gotten around to it yet...

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#28

Post by sadkingbilly »

sxcurry wrote: post #11

What about audio books? I've read more in the last few years than the decade before, since I switched almost entirely to audio books. In many cases they are much better than the printed version. Case in point, Ulysses by James Joyce. The audible.com spoken version is a masterpiece, and this is definitely a book that's meant to be listened to.

Audio books has made "reading" a hobby for me. I never thought I was the type that really enjoyed reading a good book. After switching from radio to audio books while driving, traffic has almost become enjoyable (not quite, but you get the idea). I've read so many books the past few years, it's amazing. It feels like it increases your brain's learning rate, or at the very least, it gives you some very interesting topics to talk about.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#29

Post by mitchty »

Both for me.

For good or ill there are books that only exist in dead tree form. I still buy them. I don't entirely miss them to be honest, but for casual reading or it seems super technical things from ages ago, dead tree is where its at.

For recent things though relating to programming, I honestly can't be arsed to use dead tree form. Being able to have updates to books, sync notes/highlights/blah electronic books beat regular books entirely.

In my mind technology just expanded the definition of what a book is.

Re: Did technology kill the book or give it new life?

#30

Post by georgefrick »

I have multiple readers, including a Kindle DX and a Sony PRS-505 (still works like new!).

Print books are still awesome though, and I just pulled a few off the shelf for re-reading. But now there is freedom of balance. We have a whole carload of books on its way to the Good Will. There isn't an inherent reason to simply hold on to them anymore. So now we can keep what we want to keep; and let the rest be digital (which is easier to archive anyway).

I can't see being extreme either way. My Kindle DX works great for technical books; and I can keep another copy ready for viewing on the computer while I'm coding. My little Sony will show whatever fiction/non-fiction I throw at it (after conversion) and the battery is somehow still healthy. I'm looking to get a used Nook Glow though; as I'm tired of providing my own light.

But I'll still stop in the book store and browse the fiction. It's not only easier that digital browsing, but more fun.

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