Ebooks vs paper

[cjsmith]

What are your thoughts on Kindle (or other electronic format) versus paper books?

I’ve got an unwieldy paper library and am starting to collect books in Kindle format. I suspect Kindle will be my preference for fiction, since I go through that quickly and it’s a lightweight way to carry a lot. Browsing is awkward in electronic format, leading me to think I’d rather have paper cookbooks, but the nondestructibility of a tablet in a case is also attractive in the kitchen.

Which kinds of books do you prefer to have in which formats?

Comments

[ckd]

Anything I want to regularly reread, especially long series and/or books, I want in DRM-free ePUB ebook so I can read it wherever and whenever I want.

I still carry a few mass-market trim size paperbacks on trips, because I like to fall asleep reading and if I drop my reading material on the floor I don't want it to crack.

Nonfiction I'm often getting from the library, usually in ebook format these days as well.

[cjsmith]

*grin* I can sympathize with not wanting it to crack when it hits the floor. :)

I’m looking at how much it’s going to cost me to convert all my dead tree fiction to ebook. It’s not pretty.

[excessor]

I read fiction on my Kindle. That's the vast majority of my reading activity. It takes a little getting used to, but I don't mind it these days. The advantages are pretty good:

• I just have to carry around an eReader (such as a Kindle Fire or an Apple iPad). No more overstuffed gym bags or travel cases!
• The Kindle software has a way to bookmark a page if I want to.
• There is a word definition lookup function that I find very handy for writers with vocabularies bigger than my own.
• I can store hundreds of books on my device.

There are some downsides:

• If you use an iPad, you can't buy new books using that machine. Apple doesn't let its users give money to the competitor.
• You have to pick a reader device that allows you to read the kind of thing you want to see. My Kindle Fire is a black and white device with a not-very-high resolution; if you read magazines online with hi-res photos, you won't like a low-res black and white Kindle Fire.

Other types of reading are not so successful. I love maps so if you have a book with large maps in it and you're on a device with a small screen, the experience isn't very good. On the other hand, I look at recipes from recipe sites all the time and use my iPad to view and cook from them.

[cjsmith]

I find I *can* buy Kindle books but not through the app; I have to go to amazon.com using a browser.

Do you find that the iPad screen-saves too quickly to be convenient for recipe display?

[excessor]

Oh, I never tried using a brower. D'oh!

Yes, it's annoying. So I touch the screen occasionally to restart the screen-save timer.

[cjsmith]

*nod* I find that the ebook reader app stays visible longer than a browser or other generic phone / iPad function, but even that will eventually go dark.

[jenett]

I moved almost entirely to ebook after two cross-country moves. (Also, I am all for not needing to bring at least two books with me at all times. Now I have 1000 books on my phone, and as long as I have battery power, I am all set for reading material.)

Mostly what I have in print now (I'm down to under 1000 print books) is:
- Pagan books that I expect to want to pull out and/or reference with other people
- Books where the physical copy has sentimental value
- Things I can't get in ebook
- Thing where the print copy is just generally gorgeous
- Cookbooks and crafting books.

I usually travel with one or two print books in case of bathtubs and times when a phone is not doable.

[cjsmith]

Do you also find you loan your paper books to others sometimes? I could imagine doing that with reference types of materials.

[nosrednayduj]

I do loan my paper books (mostly fiction) and find it annoying that ebooks take away that ability. I guess they will also destroy the used book market. I get a lot of my books from library book sales, or abe books. Sometimes I discover an old book or series of an author and it's now out of print, so I get it used from Abe.

[cjsmith]

I agree that the ability to loan books and the used book market are significant, and I’d miss both of those quite a bit. :(

[jenett]

Theoretically, yes, but since I just spent about $100 to replace books that hadn't come back for various reasons, I am growing less inclined to do that except with really really close friends.

(Or in practice, people where I go over to their house sometimes and can remember to ask for it.)

[cjsmith]

(nod) I’ve definitely lost books this way too. Some are difficult to replace.

[hitchhiker]

i definitely like fiction in electronic format. i like to have non-fiction in paper format because it's easier to browse at random, but i don't enjoy reading it linearly as much; i've grown to far prefer the experience of reading anything linearly on a kindle or phone.

[cjsmith]

Wow, I think I still prefer the feel of a book in my hands, but the collection is simply too unwieldy. Maybe I will grow to prefer the electronic experience some day.

I wonder what could be done about browsing. That’s a big barrier for me.

[nosrednayduj]

I still prefer the feel of dead trees in my hands. This last trip I only took the kindle, and it was convenient, but I missed the feel of a book.

[cjsmith]

I too enjoy the feel of a book. I also recognize beloved titles by how they look on my physical shelf. For travel, though, and if I ever move again (!!), paper is just bulky.

I’m not looking forward to the expense of converting, though. Yowza.

[nosrednayduj]

I don't re-read much, so If I had to abandon dead trees I wouldn't try to convert my entire library. I'd just shed a small tear and move on. We have thousands of books, and it kind of defines our house, but really, it's quite rare that I actually look at one of our existing books. The new ones come in, are read by 4-5 people, and then shelved. Some of our series' have holes in them; some books we end up getting from the library, and others are on the kindle, so in some ways the library is kind of stupid because you're never sure what you actually have. I still like it, though.

[cjsmith]

Your house sounds delightful. I’d probably get lost in there for months on end. :)

Having moved several times in a short span, and mostly to smaller spaces, I got rid of most of the stuff I thought I wouldn’t re-read. The amount that is left is, well, optimistic. :) I probably don’t have enough free waking hours left on this earth to re-read them all. Still, they’re the ones that I find hard to part with.

[batrachian]

100% dead tree. The only thing i'll read in e-format is fanfic, and then only because printing it is impractical.

[cjsmith]

I hear ya. I really like the feel of a book in my hands. ♥

[batrachian]

That's definitely some of it; I'll cheerfully grant most is not actually based in logic so much as resistance to change.

[cjsmith]

Resistance to change is at least cheaper! But the clutter... Sigh. Physical space is so limiting.

[firecat]

I've switched to ebooks almost exclusively because I love buying books and have no physical space to store more books, and because I like taking notes about books as I read them, and ebooks make that a lot easier. It's also easier to search an ebook, and searching is useful now because my memory isn't what it once was. But I'm mostly not making an effort to replace my paper books with ebooks, except if I see a book I own that's on sale in ebook form for a couple of bucks, I buy it.

I exclusively buy ebooks I can convert to non-DRM epub format. There are conversion tools that work with the Calibre ebook management app. Converting Kindle books is hard, so I mostly buy ebooks from Kobo or ebooks.com or one of the smaller retailers of epubs. I store my ebooks in Dropbox. I read them on an iPhone or iPad using the Marvin app.

I can see how cookbooks might work better in paper, but I don't usually use cookbooks in the kitchen. If I want a recipe I print it out.

[cjsmith]

I do like the fact I can highlight bits of an ebook without feeling like I’ve damaged it. This may end up being especially helpful for nonfictIon where out of the whole book I got one gem of really useful info.

Interesting about ePub! I have got to learn more about non-DRM ePub. I’ve been simply buying things when they’re on deep discount in kindle format.

I should probably drop the idea of converting my existing library. Not only don’t I have the money for that, I don’t have enough lifespan left to read them all again anyway.

[lcohen]

i like kindle for travel because i can carry a lot of books with me easily, but i almost always bring one paper book with me in case of running out of battery or not allowed to turn on device or device malfunction or.....

i find that trying to borrow kindle versions of books from the library glitches almost every time so i definitely read paper books from the library. i frequently use paper books for rereads because then i can turn to something--hopping around on a kindle trying to find a specific passage sucks.

i like the kindle but i have a lot of paper books and i'm not getting rid of them any time soon.

[cjsmith]

Good point about having something for those times you can’t use an electronic device. Even if I’m 100% ebook in future, I’ll probably always have a pen and paper puzzle to do or something like that.

And yes, hopping around on a kindle sucks big time. :/

[noelfigart]

I have a physical library in my house whole room dedicated to books and lounging and reading or working.

I like having hundreds of books in a device that fits in a large pocket, yes. It has absolutely changed the way I buy purses.

The books I use regularly or refer to regularly for craft purposes are physical. The diagrams translate better to my brain in printed format, apparently. These are mostly books about knitting and sewing.

For reading text... just text? Wow, I prefer electronic format.

For a cookbook? I use All Recipes on a tablet in a safe case, yes. So, really an app. I'm trying to think of the last time I've referred to a physical cookbook. I have several in my kitchen. I haven't used one in years. If I need a recipe, I'm more likely to look for it online.

My only problem with the Kindle is I feel like I don't own a copy of the books and am somewhat afraid of the license for reading it getting yanked for some reason and the book disappearing. I mean, yeah, I don't think I've read a new paper novel in years, but still... It causes me to think.

[cjsmith]

I’d like to get a bit more comfortable with digital recipes. I get annoyed by screensavers and ads, as well as the awkwardness of scrolling around when a device is behind something to protect it from spills.

I do worry about the “I bought it but I don’t own it” aspect of Kindle. It irritates me.

[wcg]

I have a lot of e-books in EPUB format (without DRM). It's become my preferred format for just about everything. For some reference books I own both hardcopy paper books and e-books, because there are advantages with both formats when looking things up.

I do have some things in Kindle format -- mostly gifts from others. It's a tolerable format, though I prefer the portability of epub.

[cjsmith]

I don’t even know where to get non-DRM books. I guess I naively assumes anyone who had those had simply cracked a DRM format. Not so?

[wcg]

I can get them from the Internet Archive. I also employ DRM removal software when needed. I don't want to have anything in my library that was DRM'd with an obsolete code.

[cjsmith]

I’ll check out the internet archive, thanks!

If you un-DRM Kindle format can the kindle reader no longer read it? I am so uninformed about this stuff.

[wcg]

I honestly don't know about the Kindle stuff. Perhaps Dr. Google will know?

[cjsmith]

Good thought. Dr. Google knows a lot. At some point I’ll get myself educated about this stuff.

[britgeekgrrl]

I really like having an e-reader for mass market fiction, but it's got a ways to go when it comes to huge-ass costume/fashion books. That said, I've bought some costume and crafting titles in e-form because they were substantially cheaper and, on a laptop/desktop, they're totes readable. On my celphone or Fire? Not so much - although I got used to reading comic books on my Fire in nothing flat, because you can set it to show one panel at a time, rather than a whole page.

The space-savings are fantastic (at this point, I try to buy ALL of my mass-market fiction material in e-book only) but yeah, it can be a pain if you're craving a title that never made it to an e-reader format...

[cjsmith]

Big illustrations are definitely not my e-reader’s strength. I’m in a Kindle app on an ancient iPhone 6.

I’m trying to see if I can convert myself to “fiction in e, nonfiction in paper” or some such. I suspect reading a lot of fiction in electronic form will at least let me try to get comfortable with it. So far, part of me still longs for the feel of a paper book.

[dantesspirit]

I prefer paper.

There are those who swear by ereaders.

I say, each to their own.}:)

[cjsmith]

True enough. :)

I’m in an acquisitive phase, and I know there’s just no more space I’m willing to dedicate to paper books. I’m trying to see if I could ever really get comfortable with electronic format, and if so, can I get comfortable more quickly. Jury is still out.

[rulenumberten]

I want to move to ebooks for reasons of space and sustainability but I find I take things in better when I read from a paperback. For me, it's much easier to skim and not really pay attention when I'm reading on a screen.

As for cookbooks, I make notes on recipes - ways I've changed the recipe, additions so that it's there for next time.

[cjsmith]

Hmm. I think I might take things in better on screen, but I’m not sure yet. :)

Do you annotate paper cookbooks or e-cookbooks?