I like my books made out of paper, card, string, glue and pictures. It's nice to sit in a comfortable corner of the train with a book in one hand, England going past in the window and whatever the day's special is next to an espresso and a fizzy water. Or it was. recently I counted twelve books, four magazines, a stack of 'paper' work and a hurting back. So it's hurty-back and dihydrocodeine or...
... an iPad, a keyboard and over 400 books, all of my work and a download of my four favourite magazine. A bloke and blokess nearby had a kindle and a sony ereader so we did the swap and try out thing.
I'm no longer old fashioned. I need to scrape some book-smell out of the corner of expired library books to spread on the table to get the authentic smell but otherwise all is OK. This missive is part of my plan to bombard all of my favourite publishers (listen up Penguin...) to get the catalogue on to ePubs where the books are cheaper, quicker and never out of stock. As a writer too, I was amazed how quick it was from idea to on the shelf at a price. I wanted The Russian Job out as an eReader and A*m*z*n only took 40 hours including the back catalog check and rights issue. Seems like a winwinwin thing. Shame about the 'real' books but there are libraries and I'll always have the home shelves. It's the portable on a train on the beach in a hotel on an aeroplane thing that books are so good - but so heavy at. So a big vote YES from the onevoltperoctave camp. I know they're not perfect but they float my canoe. However, that's only my opinion, I'd love to hear the other side (but please Penguin... get all my favourites on to Kindle (if you haven't already)
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eBooks - yes or no (3 posts)
3 posts in this topic
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Posted 1 month ago #
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I agree with you entirely. As a lifelong lover of the emotive senses one receives from reading a paper book, I was predictably cynical over the whole e-ink and electronic book on a screen thing. However, life changed when my wheelchair arrived and the inability to carry laptop, magazines, books and newspapers hit due to restrictions. I was determined this would not stop me reading. If I'm honest I was starting to get concerned about the size of my personal library anyway and the impact on local woodlands. I switched and haven't looked back. I get the odd real book at christmas and birthday as some of the family have taken a while to understand the reasons why, it means I still get the smells and feel of a new book at least twice a year. The plus points? Well now instead of just a couple of the books I'm reading at the moment I can carry my entire electronic library in one place! Result. I will be even happier when book publishers and authors automatically produce an eBook at the same time of publishing and the price shows the reduction in overheads! Long live eBooks I say!
Posted 1 month ago # -
Ebooks are a no for me. I like a physical book. A book that can tell you its history with its dog-eared pages, water-damaged edges, lost bookmark found within its pages and its cracked spine. You cannot get any of this joy from a computer file!
Posted 2 weeks ago #
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