Maybe they do. This article (which I found on a Bookslut link) brings up a lot of good points, like the one about being able to read in bed without a light. One-handed reading is appealing, too. The problem for me, though, isn’t that I feel funny reading something from a computer screen rather than from paper. My problem is that I like collecting the books as objects and being surrounded by them. It might be nice for the books you’d only borrow from the library and then buy if you really loved . . .
Something that really interests me is the possibility of using the device to access magazines. I love the idea of canceling my paper magazine subscriptions and still being able to access them without the burden of needing to sit at a desk.
It feels odd to be writing this—as if I’m in some sort of time warp—but maybe there will be a second wave of e-publishing that will actually take off?
3 comments:
My eyes are shot enough as it is. Can it be good for them not to have an external light source? I don't really know. But I can already read in bed or the bath (can you read in the bath with an e-book?) using one hand (mostly) and feed myself, risking only chocolate-smudged pages with my print books. I am a Luddite in this regard. I want my print books, my lovely, loving print books, surrounding me, piling up in my house, where I can touch them and leaf thru them and lend them out and write in them if I so wish. I spend enough time in front of any sort of computer screen at work; when I am reading for pleasure, I want paper. And down with the power loom while we're at it!
Yeah, what you said.
Seriously, one of the immeasurable joys is the book itself. I couldn't have put it more eloquently.
Haven't been to your blog in a while; thought I'd mosey over after being reminded of it at David's blog; I'm glad I did. Thanks for the great writing, everyone.
Of course you're right about wanting to own stacks and stacks of books--I'd never give them up. But I really like the idea of taking my magazines this way. I don't have the same connection to those that I do books, and THINK of all the paper that would be saved. (Not to mention the fact that there wouldn't be anymore of those awful little blown-in cards to fall all over the place.
I think I would be able to use an e-book reader in the bath just as deftly as I do books, and I think it would make magazines easier to handle.
I don't know why I even care about this, because the chances that I will ever pay hundreds of dollars for one of these things are very slim, but it's fun to think about.
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