Ebook readers vs paper books

T

TennVet

Member
When they were first introduced my daughter sent me my first Kindle for Father's Day. She knows I read a lot and love gadgets. Since then I have migrated to a Kindle Paperwhite which is a nice enhancement over the original. My wife on the other hand, prefers the hard bound paper books and our local newspaper in print form. I even by her a book occasionally when I see a new one by a writer she follows. So is one better than the other? When ever we travel or know we will be in some sort of holding pattern, I take my Kindle and get lost in the cyber print. My wife will read what is handy or go to the airport store and buy something.
 

I have had a Kindle Paper-white for many yeas. It's actually the best kindle over all others....however it will never replace hardback books for me.. I love books, the smell, the feel, and the one thing that really bugs me with the kindle is that you're changing page every few seconds.. so you're on alert the whole time.. whereas with a book you can get lost in the storyline more because the pages are much longer

I take my kindle on holiday with me.. simply because it's lighter on the plane.. and sometimes I take it to appointments with me.. but otherwise reading at home as I do every night..it's always going to be HB book for me..
 
hollydolly said:
I have had a Kindle Paper-white for many yeas. It's actually the best kindle over all others....however it will never replace hardback books for me.. I love books, the smell, the feel, and the one thing that really bugs me with the kindle is that you're changing page every few seconds.. so you're on alert the whole time.. whereas with a book you can get lost in the storyline more because the pages are much longer

I take my kindle on holiday with me.. simply because it's lighter on the plane.. and sometimes I take it to appointments with me.. but otherwise reading at home as I do every night..it's always going to be HB book for me..
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I seldom read a bound book anymore at all. I rarely pay for any ebooks. We use Amazon Prime to purchase tons of stuff, I find that I can loads of books free online. Call me crazy, I pass up a lot of ebooks if they don't have real page numbers. That is either a holdover from bound books or further evidence of my OCD. I have suggested to Amazon a bunch of times that the Kindle should calculate page numbers or at least allow an option to lock the page number setting. The PaperWhite, I agree is a much superior Kindle.
 

hollydolly said:
I have had a Kindle Paper-white for many yeas. It's actually the best kindle over all others....however it will never replace hardback books for me.. I love books, the smell, the feel, and the one thing that really bugs me with the kindle is that you're changing page every few seconds.. so you're on alert the whole time.. whereas with a book you can get lost in the storyline more because the pages are much longer

I take my kindle on holiday with me.. simply because it's lighter on the plane.. and sometimes I take it to appointments with me.. but otherwise reading at home as I do every night..it's always going to be HB book for me..
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Okay, so your British. Does your Kindle automatically display everything in italics to provide an accent? Just curious.
 
hollydolly said:
what kind of accent ?:unsure:
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There is a lovely lady who lives down the street from us who hails from Britain. She frequently came to the street to pet my black lab when we were walking twice daily. I loved to hear her accent. When my wife finally met her she agreed that she simply loved to hear her speak as well. glad we could share a laugh.
 
TennVet said:
There is a lovely lady who lives down the street from us who hails from Britain. She frequently came to the street to pet my black lab when we were walking twice daily. I loved to hear her accent. When my wife finally met her she agreed that she simply loved to hear her speak as well. glad we could share a laugh.
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Where in the UK is she from ?
 
I've only read one book on a Kindle. I lost the paper-white in the house somewhere.

But I have books all over the house and I like the look of it. I haven't finished most of them. But here's the thing...I can pick up any book that suddenly draws my curiosity and read something out of it.

So the books just keep on giving.

Meanwhile, I find reading off a Kindle physically unpleasant. I read only a couple pages and grow tired of it.

With a book, you can appreciate where you are in the book. On the Kindle, it's like reading a digital clock. You have to mentally picture what the numbers represent in real terms.
 
I used to love reading on my ereader or iPad because I can adjust the letters to the size I want but now I prefer real books. I just have to make sure the letters are large enough for me to read.
 
Books over my paper-white Kindle. I like the Kindle if I need something to keep me occupied if I'm going somewhere & will be waiting.

I love books because I can open them up any time & they don't need to be recharged. I can also go back & re-reference things when I'm reading so easy, especially something that I'm studying or a cookbook.

Besides, when the cats see me with a book, they know they can nap on me for several hours without being disturbed.
 
I collected art books for many decades, and still love/own them. But for fiction, I prefer the Kindle. I can read faster, and it's easy to download a book to reread it if I want to.

I signed up for BookBub when I upgraded to the Paperwhite, and it's been great. Have tried a lot of new authors at a discount, most of which are a "read once and delete", but OTOH I have found authors I would never have found otherwise. This is especially true as bookstores disappear and the genres I and my spouse enjoy reading are limited to less than 100 titles per section. Phooey on that!

I don't find it a hassle to charge up my Kindle. We have chargers all over the house, and if I'm sitting down at my PC (like now) I can top off the charge on my Kindle to 100% before I've finished whatever was on my 'to do' list for today.

I agree the e-readers are really not suitable for reference or instruction books. Too difficult for detail work; but perfect for fiction or say, biographies.
 
I won a first generation Kindle Fire tablet in a drawing. I downloaded a few books and thought "this is neat, but it's kind of heavy." So, I bought a basic Kindle with page turn buttons and liked reading on it. Then I was lured by the paperwhite because of the lit screen, so I bought one of them. Actually if you are reading in good light, either one is fine. So I read both depending on which one I happen to grab.

The six inch Kindles are good for regular e-books, but kind of small for pdf documents. And there is some neat stuff available in pdf format. So, I bought a 10.5 inch tablet just for that purpose. It's heavy, like the Fire, but great for things that have illustrations.

I still have a small collection of real books, but most of mine have gone to the friends of the library for their used book sales. Most books I read only once. If I kept them all as physical books they would just be clutter. And, there are many e-books, especially classics, that are available free. I would never pay for a hard copy of Gulliver's Travels or Treasure Island, but I read them free on my Kindle. And, I didn't have to drive to the library to get them or go back to return them.
 
I've been an avid reader since I was in grade school. I've always had at least one going, and magazines as well. I read enough on computer and now cell phone screens, and decided early on a book machine was not for me.

This may sound weird, but I think books are kind of sacred. To my recall, I've never destroyed a book or thrown one away. When I'm done, and choose not to keep them, I mail them to friends or donate them go the library or Goodwill or even second hand book stores (now mostly gone).
 
hollydolly said:
Where in the UK is she from ?
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I believe she said she was from Manchester. Very smart lady, and a joy to visit with. Her husband provides high security guard services. I found him hard to get acquainted with at first, but as he explained his work I found him to be very interesting as well.
 
TennVet said:
I believe she said she was from Manchester. Very smart lady, and a joy to visit with. Her husband provides high security guard services. I found him hard to get acquainted with at first, but as he explained his work I found him to be very interesting as well.
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Manchester is in the North of England.. the Capital , London.. is here in the south.

Many people move abroad from Manchester, wherever I've gone in the world, there's been Mancunians...
 
I've been using an E-Reader since COVID. When all the libraries shut down I got into the routine of using LIbby or just "borrowing" one from the library and continued when they all opened up again. The only physical book I have read since COVID is The Lonesome Dove. It's my favorite book and I read it once a year.

I also enjoy audiobooks (gasp) but I mainly stick to non fiction books for audiobooks. Listening to a fiction on audiobooks can be jarring with certain narrators.
 
I dont think either is 'better' - just personal preference.

I am converted to e reading now and I just use my tablet to do so.

I read a paper book very occasionally now
 
When they first came out, I was drawn to e-readers as a novelty, and have since become committed to them. I still retain paper books, especially if it is one that Iā€™m likely to revisit or use more than once. The paper book, especially if attractively bound, can retain a tactile delight that is unmatched by any electronic medium; they become old friends, artifacts of your life. I still have some of my college textbooksā€¦

Not to be ignored also are those ā€œAudibleā€ or narrated electronic books that can add a performance dimension to your enjoyment of literatureā€¦ šŸ“–
 

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