E-books.

[Tsutarja]

What are your thoughts on e-books?? Do you prefer them over physical books or not? What do you think the pros and cons of e-books are?

And to add more to this: what are your thoughts on e-textbooks as well?

 

[Meganium]

75% of the time I use ebooks. They are cheaper than physical books, ESPECIALLY textbooks from college. 3/4's of my classes use e-textbooks and that makes my book bag very light to carry to and from the parking lot. :)

I can't really think of any cons about ebooks, other than it hurts the sales of physical books.

 

[Cordelia]

I love ebooks! I read all the time on my Nexus 7 and before that I had an old Nook. :3 It's totally awesome to be able to carry so many books at once. <3 I keep them all on my G-Drive, too. It syncs reading positions between my phone and tablet as well.

aka

LOVE IT

 

[Lord Scalgon]

Love it. Realistically speaking, provides me with less weight when it comes to carrying my backpack everyday.

Another benefit regarding e-books - Makes beneficial use of Ctrl+F when it comes to quizzes and midterms. Can't find a certain term? Ctrl+F is for you.

 

[Starry Windy]

I like e-Books, because I can read almost all of my favorite books in a single pocket that I don't have to bring many books in real life, it makes it simpler. However, I still prefer physical books over e-Books because I feel it more authentic if reading a physical thing.

 

[pokemasta92]

What are your thoughts on e-books?? Do you prefer them over physical books or not? What do you think the pros and cons of e-books are?
I think they are a great feature of technology, although I prefer physical books. The pros are that you can store all of your books on a single device, can read in the dark, and paper is saved. The cons are that if you already own a bunch of physical books you have to pay for them again to read them on a screen, the battery can run out and "turn off" your book, and it doesn't feel as authentic or real.

And to add more to this: what are your thoughts on e-textbooks as well?
If they are accessible offline, great. If not, bad. I've been living in Wisconsin mostly for the past year and am unable to get an unlimited home internet plan in the location I'm in. I share 20GB with one other person for $50/month and every gig over is $10! Rip-off I know, but it's all I got. If these e-textbooks cannot be completely stored on my device and require you to be on the internet to read them then I am not a fan. I want to be able to have a textbook "open" as long as I want and not worry about these kinds of things.

 

[Puddle]

They are a lot more convenient than other books, however. Everytime I'm on the computer, I want to do fun stuff. So it tends to distract me from the task at hand.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

I haven't really used eBooks much, but when I did I found them a lot easier to handle. There is, however, an exception: I can't stand digital copies of manga and the like. It's… just not the same as being able to look at the pages in their uncorrupted glory. Maybe I'd just like some clean, official scans as eBooks?

 

[Morkula]

I would much rather have a physical book. I prefer the feeling of a book in hand, and I'd much rather read from paper rather than a screen. Plus it's nice to be able to put your books on the shelf and display them when you're done.

 

[Omicron]

I agree with Morkula. Even though I still like e-books a lot! I have a kindle paperwhite and it is amazing.

 

[Tsutarja]

I find e-books fine as well as it's a really neat concept and you can read without having to flip pages or hold a book with both of your hands, but what I don't find fine is e-textbooks. With textbooks, you have to probably have to go back and read things over several pages, which could become a nuisance after a while I'm sure :p and it's just a preference of mine to have a physical copy of my textbook as well.

 

[Raine]

To be honest, I've never been the type to read anything unless absolutely necessary XD With that said, the only books I read nowadays are textbooks. The great thing about e-books is that they save the environment, but I actually do prefer to have the physical copy rather than digital. For textbooks, for instance, I tend to digress whenever I'm online reading, but at the same time, reading the physical copy makes me sleepy extremely fast. All those psychology textbooks took a long time to go through because I would find myself getting tired within 5 minutes of starting XD

 

[Hiatus]

I personally love them. You could have all e-books that you need downloaded onto your tablet (or any other device, really) and access them from almost anywhere. Plus, they drastically reduce the weight of your book-bag. Whenever you're moving from class to class, you wouldn't have such a hard time anymore, haha.

 

[Goo]

I think there's nothing really better than to be able to hold the physical book in my hand. I also like how physical books get worn so and I can remember how it happened. I know they're lacking in convenience but its just a better feeling. Also, its great because when you recommend someone reads something you they can feel how much you loved the book by how well its worn. It speaks volumes when recommending books to others when they can see how much you loved that book you're putting in their hands by the creases on the cover or the tears in the pages or the spine being worn.

 

[Morkula]

I've never owned an eReader or tablet, and I don't plan to. I much prefer reading an actual book - I don't particularly like intensive reading on a screen and I would much rather have a nice book in my hands that I can flip around in (if I want to refer back to something, for example), turn physical pages, and put back on my shelf to display when I'm finished.

 

[Synerjee]

I don't mind e-books, but I prefer the physical touch of pages under my fingers much more. The thing about e-books is that they are only available online unless you download them. There is not always an Internet connection, or even if there is, there is a possibility of the connection failing, making then quite unreliable especially when you need them most. With physical books, although they are heavy and inconvenient, one can always have sure access to the content anytime, anywhere. Of course, there are advantages to e-books as well: one does not need to carry around often-heavy physical copies, plus many copies can be stored on a single device. Despite that though, my vote goes to printed pages. It's what I have grown up with since young and will always remain with me.

 

[Master Kwesi Nkromah]

I've used E books on only a few occasions. Most of the time the book itself related directly to a programming language I was studying. As such.. I never found the need to purchase an e reader, or tablet.. I can't program on the go... and when I'm working at home there really is no need for a stand alone device.. i can pull the e book up on my monitor.

That being said I can think of loads of PROs for owning something like a Kindle.

1. It's lightweight and easily portable
2. a long battery life and a bright backlight make it easy to read anywhere
3. 100s if not 1000s of books can be stored on a single device.
4. direct resources (via the web) for dictionaries, Wikipedia, Google and other sources for further research on a device
5. Less expensive than new physical books purchased from the web or in national retailers
6. find it fast with control + F
7. Copy and paste! tablets and some e books allow you to create a scrapbook of quotes and save on the device
8. instant downloads from anywhere when connected to the web
9. tablets and sometimes eBooks do more than just display text, they play games, videos, music, you can browse the web, email and multitask

All of that being said.. there's only a few reasons why I haven't jumped on the Kindle band wagon...

1. Absolutely zero resale value
2. while eBooks are less expensive than new physical books, there are about 1000% more expensive then the same book available from www.half.com

and when I consider that the majority of my reading is done at home anyway.. meh.. I'll stick with the tried and true method.

 

[Treecko]

I don't mind e-Books, but I prefer actual physical books. I love the feel of holding a book in my hands and being able actually flip through the pages and feel the paper along my fingers. It's also gratifying having to own an actually copy of a book cause it's something you can display and show-off. E-books aren't bad at all though. They're convenient when I don't have a book on me when on the go and they're usually cheaper than physical books. But I do honestly hate knowing that actual printed books could be obsolete one day. :(

 

[Burakki Tsuki]

I hate clutter so I like eBooks far more than traditional. I recently got a Kindle Fire and its great in that respect. Also a lot quicker to find a book and sample them then going to the book store and walking around for hours. I'm not a big reader so this Kindle actually gets me to read as I would never have any interest to go to a bookstore.

On the other hand I never like eTextbooks. It's is more complicated to do homework and study with in my opinion. I like the old fashion tabs and highlights in some subjects. I have tried an eTextbook and it was more expensive and I couldn't sell it. To be honest I think eTextbooks would be far more popular if they didn't cost so much. I understand the business dynamics why they are charging more but as technology becomes more accessible to students I hope the price drops.

 

[Sheep]

I prefer physical books since it's easier for me personally to bring them to class. Sure they're heavier if you're bringing them along but I don't want to bring my iPad with me since I can make notes way easier when I have the pages in front of me to write on as well as have that physical presence that I'm used to with books. But if I have the option of getting a free .PDF/e-book.. you bet I'd choose that.

I also like to resell my textbooks; at least I'd be getting my money back in the end if I bought a physical copy.