I love the smell of a really old book. Though they'll probably have a solution for that in the future e-readers.

I used to live in a house 80% of which was occupied by my library on nearly 2 dozen bookshelves. Now I carry around many of my favorite fiction & non-fiction and current technical books on my phone and tablet, and read them whenever I want or need to, wherever I'm at. I do miss some of the advantages of good ol' paper books, but I can't get over how useful convenient ebooks are!

Hubs and I both love to read, and we have well over 1,000 hardbound books in this house. Haven't begun to count the paperbacks and "softcover" books. We both have Kindles, and we also each have a Kindle Fire. So, nearly all of the book reading that I'm doing these days is on a Kindle.

I used to have my den and my exercise room piled up with books, and they'd begun to spill over into the living room. I saved them because there was always a book I wanted to read for a second time. But when I wanted one I usually couldn't find it, anyway.

Then I got a Kindle and fell in love! The first thing I did was download some of the freebie books, just to have something on it to carry with me wherever I went. I discovered that about one out every ten of them were really good books. Then I gave myself a monthly book budget -- if I hadn't budgeted carefully for my books I'd have had to give up eating!

And for the last several months I've been having garage sales one Saturday each month, and I'm making real inroads into the piles of books, and earning money to add to my book budget on Amazon!

CowboyDann wrote:I love the smell of a really old book. Though they'll probably have a solution for that in the future e-readers.

Problem solved!

With the exception of pictures and maps, I really don't know why I'd prefer a hardcover book as a medium. Kindles are unaffected by wind and don't require the reader to hold them open to the proper page, and, my personal favorite, don't require bookmarks, because I've never been able to use them with any consistency.

I don't HATE paper books, but I prefer eBooks for the most part.

I bought an e-reader from Woot (the PE, still love it) and got a Kindle Fire from a relative for Xmas, but I'm currently only using them to play games and check facebook. The book I am now reading is not available in electronic form. This is the only thing that bothers me. While I'm reading a paper book, my e-reader is just a paper weight. Many of the books I want to read are not available in electronic form. What do other people do about this?

Despite, or in spite of all the other tech I own, I just can't get into using an e-reader. I still prefer printed books for many reasons.

Does the questioner include audio books in their list of electronic formats?

Where is the "What is a book?" response?

As for myself, I almost exclusively read eBooks. I prefer the portability cloud storage (with Amazon eBooks), so I don't have to worry about losing them, storing them, or moving them.

For the downside, it is annoying that some of the eBooks are priced nearly as much (or sometimes as much or more) than the physical form. That is wrong. The eBook isn't even a book: it's a license for one person to read it. The books is a physical item, and the owner retains the Right of First Sale. They can give it away, loan it, sell it, or do whatever they want with it. Not so the eBook. I am very much of a free marketer, but I dislike Apple so much I was overwhelmed with schadenfreude when I heard the Justice Department is investigating Apple and many of the major book publishers for collusion to raise ebook prices.

Things you can't safely do with an e-book:

Settle down in the tub for a good soak while you read.

Fall asleep while reading and let the book drop to the floor, or likewise fall asleep in the hammock while reading only to wake up during a deluge.

Swat a pesky mosquito or giant spider.

Spend the day reading at the beach and expect the thing to work later.

Fan yourself on a hot day.

Do a card trick or any mentalist gag that involves inserting or finding something between the pages of a book.

Lend it to a friend without fear of civil prosecution.

RWoodward wrote:Things you can't safely do with an e-book:

Settle down in the tub for a good soak while you read.

Spend the day reading at the beach and expect the thing to work later.

Ever heard of this wonderful little invention called a plastic bag?

Things that I can do with my Kindle that I can't with the hundreds of books I own:

Carry my entire library wherever I go

Buy and read a couple of books a day without leaving my Bark-O-Lounger

Finish a book without trying to figure out where to put the carcass

Finding out the definition of a word i run across in my reading without having to look it up or even owning a dictionary

Ebooks are cheaper, although not by much.

I can (and do) read 3 books at one time without carrying them around

And the list goes on.

One more thought:

Mamet once said: people who DON'T read hold no advantage over people who CAN'T read.

The point is: READ!! The medium is irrelevant

I do a lot of my reading through the kindle apps, but I still really like to read from a good paperback. And even if most of my reading is done on e-readers, I still want to have a really big library of my own full of wonderful books!

Our household has a LARGE library of paper books accumulated over the years. Always kept favorites, and collected series and/or favorite authors (Ian Fleming, Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, etc).

I'm not making much time to read these days, but the wife has embraced the e-reader 'revolution'. Started with short stories downloaded to her Palm (before smart phones!) and fan fiction & other stories available online (via home computer). She now has a well-loved Kobo, but would probably have a Kindle if Harlequin e-books were available on Amazon. I'm sure we'd have an iPad if money were no object.

While we'll never get rid of our favorite paper books, especially (and obviously) those that aren't available electronically, we love almost everything about digital books - except that they cost far more than they should. Making out-of-print and back-catalog books available as e-books should be a high priority for publishers looking for additional revenue.

She and the kids are BIG fans of audio books as well!

RWoodward wrote:Things you can't safely do with an e-book:

Settle down in the tub for a good soak while you read.

Fall asleep while reading and let the book drop to the floor, or likewise fall asleep in the hammock while reading only to wake up during a deluge.

Swat a pesky mosquito or giant spider.

Spend the day reading at the beach and expect the thing to work later.

Fan yourself on a hot day.

Do a card trick or any mentalist gag that involves inserting or finding something between the pages of a book.

Lend it to a friend without fear of civil prosecution.

You want to read a book in the tub, it's going to get wet to some degree. Even if it doesn't get drops, the humidity will wear on the book. Eventually, you'll have a book with wavy pages bursting out of the bindings. beyond that, if you want to take your Kindle in the bath, just put it in a ziploc bag. It's not touch sensitive, and as long as you don't submerge it, it's not a big deal.

I've never fallen asleep with a book in my hands as I read it. I get tired, I'm done, I put the book down and doze off.

Kindles work great at the beach. The same water issues that applied above can be applied again here.

Not only are you free to loan your Kindle to whomever you want, many books also support borrowing now. The best part is that once the borrowing period is done, YOU GET YOUR BOOK BACK, instead of meeting that person time and time again and they won't give you your book back, or they loaned it someone else, etc.

The two big problems are images (such as maps) and the fact that it could ultimately break. The downward cost trend si mitigating this nicely, however, and I would expect it won't be long before Kindles and their ilk become $50, at which cost you could buy one every year for half of what many people pay for the latest cell phone (per year).

The thing that I love best about my eReader (I have a Nook) is that I've always been able to check out books using Overdrive through my public library. I've actually maintained 3 different library cards to get access to different catalogs to do this. Though the selection is not as extensive as traditional library shelves or bookstores, they are absolutely free and I can check them out from the comforts of my own home (or anywhere I have internet access).

I was recently reading a larger series of books and the books were not something I would reread. I ended up having to go check out the paper versions to save money and was reminded of how clunky reading hardback can be. I'm very used to reading as I brush my teeth and cook meals because I read so much on my eReader. Try doing THAT with paper!

Also, I hate the amount of space paper books take up. I'm happy to continue to buy certain books in paper form (textbooks, academic books, art books, etc.) but for fiction and non-fiction works in text form, I'm all about the eReader. Even cookbooks are things I now purchase solely on my iPad, rather than in paper form.

Two other positives about eBooks that I really like:
1) Instant gratification. I need/want a new book, I can get it. With my 3G Kindles I don't even need a WiFi connection, so I can get new books where ever.
2) Amazon at least frequently heavily discounts some ebooks from time to time. The Kindle Daily Deal is always worth a look: a good variety of material (mystery, romance, young adult, biography, history), usually for 99 cents, sometimes $1.99 and very rarely $2.99 Yesterday I picked up a strange paranormal/action/mystery/erotica thing which is turing out to be pretty good.

I am trying to post these every day on Deals, sometimes they make it to the third or fourth page.

We have 20 bookshelves in this house. But we plan to downsize, and that means most of the books have to go because the next house will not have the room. It is a painful experience, but it would be worse if we didn't have a growing e-book collection. As long as the libraries keep their paper books, I'll still read them in that format, but my home paper collection will not continue to grow.

How does an author sign their digital edition?

budrose wrote:How does an author sign their digital edition?

They haven't quite got that technology down, from what I can tell. However... I have had great success in asking very nicely if they'll sign my e-reader.

I agree with so many here that the convenience and ease of use (no worries about bookmarks, wind, too little light, etc...) of ebook readers. I have a Nook and love it. I read a lot of books on it. All that being said though, nothing replaces the feel and smell of a paper book. I doubt our children will have the same nostalgia though unless we help them appreciate paper bound books. I have paper (and hardcover) books everywhere in the house and even if I never really touch them again (which I will) I will never get rid of them because I want my kids to see the value of a BOOK and not just see a book as another app on their device.

The only e-books I read or use are manuals of some type, or datasheets. For "books" I still like the actual book.

The glare on my Xoom is too much to enjoy books outside. So I buy the hard copy to take to the beach, poolside, or whenever I will be in an outside setting.

So I say about 25% of the books I read are done on my Xoom, the rest are paperbacks.

I really like having a real book, with real pages.. I know that the e-readers are the trend. I guess that I am old school..

e-Ink Kindle FTW.

Books are great, but when I'm sitting on a deck chair in the middle of the Caribbean, or on the throne in my morning 'Thinking Room', nothing beats my Kindle.

I like paper books because I often reread books three and four times and it's easier to browse my bookshelves than it is to try to remember titles on my Kindle. I also trade books a lot. I like the Kindle because of being able to find new authors cheap. Also easier to use while eating. BUT what happens if it crashes/breaks down/whatever it's called? Do you lose all those books or are they on a Kindle account somewhere?

iPad three all the way, screw your kindles.... iPAD!

allhighruler wrote:iPad three all the way, screw your kindles.... iPAD!

Ummm...the 'new iPad' (it's not called "iPad 3" or "iPad three") isn't available yet...I should know, as my order is confirmed, but it won't arrive until next Friday.

And my original iPad is what I use as an eBook reader, but I have to say that I had hoped to switch all my reading to eBooks by this time, but I'm having trouble paying hardcover prices for eBooks, when I can buy a paperbook for less than 1/2, and then sell it to the used bookstore for a few dollars once I've read it.

I'm still hopeful about eBooks, but prices are still unreasonable.

And I've owned a Sony Reader and a B&N Nook, and the iPad is better.

allhighruler wrote:iPad three all the way, screw your kindles.... iPAD!

We've got room for ALL the ereaders in this thread, no worries.

RWoodward wrote:Things you can't safely do with an e-book:

Settle down in the tub for a good soak while you read.

Fall asleep while reading and let the book drop to the floor, or likewise fall asleep in the hammock while reading only to wake up during a deluge.

Swat a pesky mosquito or giant spider.

Spend the day reading at the beach and expect the thing to work later.

Fan yourself on a hot day.

Do a card trick or any mentalist gag that involves inserting or finding something between the pages of a book.

Lend it to a friend without fear of civil prosecution.

So basically nothing that has anything to do with anything but the medium? That's dumb.

What can't a paper back do? Weight the same no matter what, reliably fit in a jacket pocket, hold thousands of books, search the text, sync content to multiple devices. Plus half of those things (like the bath) are just as dangerous for a paper book as a kindle.

We have, literally, thousands of books. So I had to just sort of pick a number because measuring from this year, easily 75% of our book reading is on our Kindles, whereas if you include our lifetime of compulsive bookishness, our electronic reading is just a tiny blip on the screen.

I would probably read more on my Kindle if the prices weren't ridiculous. Most of the time, it's cheaper to buy the paperback at B&N with my member discount.

Yes, e-book prices are absurd, but it turns people have been writing books for a long time, so long a time that there are enough in the public domain to last you a lifetime.

I would love to switch to electronic books, but they usually only cost like $1 less than the printed book. eBooks should cost like $3 each. There are several books I have recently purchased that are huge and would like to also have in electronic format for traveling. I've already paid for all the paper, printing and royalties, so why can't I get the eBook for like a buck or two? What exactly are you paying all that money for with an eBook when there are no printing costs? When I buy a DVD, I get the blu-ray version, the standard DVD version and a digital copy for one small price. Until common sense factors in, I guess I'm stuck killing trees and lugging hard copies!! I LOVE technology, but somethin' just ain't right here!

and she steps off her soap box and walks away stumbling with her over-heavy book-laden messenger bag.....

Physical books all the way for me, though I do have ebook versions of some books, mostly free ones. I just haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet. I did just pick up a Kindle Fire in that Wal-Mart $50 GC deal, but I haven't even gotten around to opening the box yet. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to keep it, but I'll probably use it more for apps than reading. If I wanted it just for reading, I'd have gone for the e-ink screen.

I have so many hardcover and paperbacks that I am going to devote one of the bedrooms in my new home to a home library. I have a lot more coming too, as I've been buying a lot of signed, limited editions from a small publisher that does great work. Like another poster asked, how do the authors sign the ebook versions?

That room already has some nice cherry hardwood flooring and a beautiful stained glass door, so when I get the time and money to build some custom floor to ceiling bookshelves, it should look great. For now I'll make do with a bunch of cheap 5 shelf Sauder bookshelves. The finish on them is close to the color of the floors, so they shouldn't look too bad once they are all assembled as a temporary solution and the price couldn't be beat.

disneyfreak - I agree totally and with some books the price disparity is even worse. I got the Game of Thrones paperback box set for $17, the ebook version is $30. If the hard copies including an ebook version for no extra charge or minimal extra, that would be pretty nice. I've never cared about digital copies of movies as I can make my own DRM free ones easy enough, but books would be more work to convert.

If I drop a book in the tub I'm out $1 to $8 and I've got 1 maybe-ruined book. If I drop an e-reader in the tub I'm out $$ and I've lost all the books.

You could drop the words "are electronic" from this question and my answer is still the same.