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Switch to Ebooks

Kevin M.Kevin M.
edited October 2007 in General
What do you guys think of ebooks? I always thought they'd be just as popular as MP3s, but for some reason the transition hasn't really happened how I envisioned it. I think that ebook readers like an ipod of some sort would be pretty handy and would save a lot of paper. Not to mention that books (including textbooks) would be a lot cheaper to buy since it would cost next to nothing for publishing. Is there something I'm missing, why isn't the ebook format more popular?

Comments

  • da_prodigy
    edited October 2007
    The obvious comparison is to the success of the IPOD, but there are crucial differences.
    1. People listen to the IPOD while doing other things, while an E-book reader will require all of a person's attention.
    2. People like to switch from song to song to song, mixing and matching artists, and so conceivably like to have a huge music library to choose from, but when reading, people don't want or need 75 books to choose from - they probably just want to read one, which they can comfortable carry.
    3. The IPOD is so much lighter than any E-book reader out there - even the Sony one, which I tried out at the UCLA book fair six months ago - which makes for much easier carrying.
    4. While I prefer not to have a huge stack of CDs occupying floor and/or wall space in my apartment, I actually enjoy having the physical presence of books - I think the boxy symmetry of a bookcase decorates beautifully, and it's ever so nice to be able to scan a row of books.
  • Kevin M.Kevin M.
    edited October 2007
    I think the utility of an e-book reader depends on how you want to use it. If you are a grad student gathering different insights on a physical/mathematical concept you are almost bound to scan between different books to see what each author has to say. It is not possible to learn anything in science from a single book as no book will be nearly good and comprehensive enough to endow you with a multitude of insights on any subject.

    I mean just as a humble instance from my personal experience, whenever I go to a cafe to study on something this proves to be a serious problem for me unless I go there to read Joyce.
  • Smartso
    edited October 2007
    Here's a NY Times Article on ebooks if anyone's interested...very curious about development in this area of technology

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/technology/06amazon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
  • Ether
    edited October 2007
    I'd rather have Ebooks than textbooks. However, nothing beats a paperback for fiction. They're just easier on the eyes.

    Those ebook readers would be too much of a pain in the ass to carry around just to read books; especially when I already carry my laptop everywhere.
  • NukeChem
    edited October 2007
    Some textbooks come with CDs that have password-protected PDFs of the book. That's actually not a bad idea - you can read the thing but not print it out and resell it.

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