E-Books are they any good?

[coretext]

Not long ago many bookstores began to shudder in their boots. Paper textbooks are out-of-date we will all be reading E-Books on our computers, laptops, PDA's and mobile phones. A few years on and nothing. Books are still as popular as ever, Paper textbooks are still preferred by students and there is arguably no portable device that can display e-books in a way that we want to read them i.e. light, easy to read in any light level, be able to write notes onto it or is cheap. Am I correct are E-books unpopular? What do you think? I guess if we want E-content we go to a website and view it for free (Wikipedia anyone?) and if we want a reliable static source of information or enjoyment we buy a book? Does anyone read E-books here? If not why? Any comments appreciated about E-books helpful.

[Birth-Peace]

E-books would be a disgrace to literature.

 

Reaching out for a book and engrossing yourself in its secret world is such a deeply personal and intimate thing, you wouldn't be able to get that from a computer screen.

 

You need to hold the book, grip onto it when your characters are in danger, hold it gently when something deeply poignant is happening and if nothing else a child needs to hit their little brother/sister on the head with it when s/he is trying to distract them from their book.

[Rich]

They're OK within reason.. But Why do people charge so much for them on sites such as audible.co.uk?! Especially given that all they basically are is Word documents of a story or whatever, which anyone with a copy of Word and the ability to type can create and upload to any web site completely free, gratis, and for nowt.

[purdyamos]

Really, a book that needs to be read in full is far too much to read off screen. Internet reading longer than article length can be very uncomfortable. If anyone sells a book to download, they're saving so much in the way of ink and printing and paper I'm fairly astounded at the price some of them charge. (And of course if you print out your download to read in comfort, you take on those overheads yourself.)

 

I've only had one e-book, but it was a 'money back if it doesn't work in a month' deal, so of course I cancelled the credit payment and kept the book. I'm usually quite honourable, but I treated myself to a thrifty lie. Ironically enough, it is working. But even that was printed out on unbound A4 sheets and is a bit unwieldy. Physical books rule, and will always have a place.

[seriessix]

They're OK within reason.. But Why do people charge so much for them on sites such as audible.co.uk?! Especially given that all they basically are is Word documents of a story or whatever, which anyone with a copy of Word and the ability to type can create and upload to any web site completely free, gratis, and for nowt.

 

 

And a music CD is basically a compressed .wav file burnt onto a disc that costs 10 pence....

 

You are paying for the time and effort of the artist.....as well as publishing fee's etc.

[basshedz2]

E-books are a pain to read due to the refresh rates on your computer monitor or PDA. Looking at a PC screen for substantial periods of time puts a lot of strain on your eyes - which if you've ever had to sit and type at a computer all night trying to finish homework/whatever you'll know about.

 

Sony are releasing a reader for E-Books which will mitigate most of these problems by using e-ink technology that basically allows the display to remain static like a page in a book (ie. not refreshing at 60 cycles a second). The screen will also not be backlit - which will place much less strain on your eyes. Sony also reckon that they'll go for 7500 page turns before needing to be recharged. The main downside to this is that they'll retail for about 200-300 quid when they go on sale.

 

I want one - although not to read E-Books, but for academic papers. I find it very difficult to read off a computer screen and am therefore forced to print out any paper i want to read. Trees dont like me! Also, with one of these i wouldn't need to carry around stacks of work to read.

 

ps. Rich - i think you've got the wrong idea. The OP asked about E-books, not audiobooks.

[helxx]

I have the computer next to the sofa - which helps.

 

Set the font size to something like 48, make the background colour grey then switch to fullscreen edit. You can now easily read the book whilst laying on the sofa

 

for full out of copyright books try http://www.gutenberg.org/

 

something that also works really well are unabridged audio books - they are lovely to listen to at night.

[coretext]

I'm honestly not trying to sell my website (as in an advert) but I'm trying to put on some good free downloadable e-books on my website (see link below then freebooks). I am asking your opinion about e-books because I feel that there is a lot of potential with them as an invaluable addition to tradational books. I also feel that E-books are perhaps best suited to a learning environment e.g. E-textbooks, of course their price needs to be reduced (as high quality e-textbooks are quite expensive). The high price maybe due to piracy, as well as greed (low distribution costs). I think it would be great if every textbook that comes with a CD e.g. Molecular Biology of the Cell came with a free E-book version of the book (i.e. same as textbook but electronic in format) This would make it easy to print out pages (for revision, I doubt anyone would try and sell print out books print costs would be high). Those that don't come with CD's could have a link to a website where you could download at no additional charge?? Linking back to my origonal point if anyone knows any good free e-book sites (E-textbooks in particular) then it will help a lot. Thanks for any interest in this topic.