With the largely successful Kindle by Amazon, Sony’s Ebook Digital Reader and the usual over-hype about what may or may not be a tablet type device from Apple, I can’t help feeling that the idea of an e-book reader is absurd.
Over 500 years ago Gutenberg invented the printing press which revolutionised the world, there are now billions of books throughout the world and are reasonably cheap to buy. I’m not a person who thinks that revolutions can’t happen again, but sometimes things just don’t need revolutionising, the book is one of those.
Let’s look at some of the reasons we’re presented with in order to get us to buy an e-book reader;
Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing. – Books are pretty simple to use are they not? you start at the front and work your way to the back (in the west), unless of course it’s one of those ‘Choose your own adventure’ books.
Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. – looks like real paper huh? Imagine that.
Low energy use for a long battery life – I’ve never ever had to charge up a book, ever.
Get a huge choice of eBooks – A book shop has a huge choice of books, Amazon and (my favourite) The Book Depository has a massive choice of books. Even better my local library has thousands of books, and they’ll lend them to me. For Free.
The idea of being able to store hundreds of books on a device isn’t quite the same as storing thousands of music tracks on your portable music player, music is mostly instant gratification and most of us enjoy the ability to skip through thousands of tracks finding something that reflects our ever changing tastes or moods. I don’t know why anyone would want to do the same with a book.
It just doesn’t make sense, If you’re going on holiday throw 2 books in your bag. You don’t have to worry about losing an expensive gadget or getting it wet when someone throws themselves in the pool. I can read a book anywhere, on the bus standing up, on the train without looking like a twat, on the toilet, in the bath. I can lend it to my mate. I can leave it on the bus.
This isn’t to say that electronic books aren’t useful, we have tons of technical manuals at work in PDF format, they are good for looking things up, but they are useless for studying – the simple fact is people don’t like reading from a screen for any length of time.
In a world where it seems we’re sometimes doing things with Tech simply ‘because we can’ this was always bound to happen but I really don’t see the point in reinventing the wheel. If you have an e-book reader I’d be interested to know what drove you to buy it, or if you’re using it much now. Have you burned all your books in a bonfire? Leave a comment.
p.s. local book buyers will no doubt recognise the picture above as The Market Bookshop in Wellington.
When buying any kind of media content. A thought also has to be given to longevity of storage. If treated properly books will last centuries. It’s highly unlikely any ebook reader can match that.
Nor will books come loaded with DRM to stop you transferring the stored data to other devices and sharing the content.
Books also constitute a slightly less appreciable storage system to your average burgler. Now is he going to a: empty ten shelves of books and lug them off in his sway bag: Or b: swipe the shiny touchscreen thingy off your desk?
… but you don’t get paper cuts from e-book readers though…
Yay for books! Book shelves are some of my favourite pieces of furniture when stacked to the brim with books of all sizes, styles and eras. People can take interest from a distance, you can even get a good idea about the book owner’s personality just by looking at book spines standing side by side. There’s something almost magical about books (perhaps less so with non-fiction).
Electronic readers lose all of that.
Second hand books are unbelievably cheap too and it’s a good job because when you lend them to a friend, oh I don’t know let’s say Don Simon, they get lost and need to be replaced regularly.
I love books. I love the way they look on my desk, the way they look on the shlef, the way they feel, the way they smell, and sometime I even read them! I love being lost in a stacked bookshop picking up, putting down, fingereing the spine and absorbing the blurb. I like to read at lunchtime, dip into a different world for an hour, ignoring the “look at me” birdsongs of the myriad technology already giving me headaches in the office. I can’t imagine wanting to look at a different backlit screen for an hour instead. An e-book reader is very near the top of my “Never want one” list. Just below an air-tight bottle of Bernard Manning’s “essence” and The Greatest Hits of Beyonce.
Looms smashed while you wait…
Looms helped the growth of the textile industry, made this country a global leader in something that didn’t even grow here. What the fuck is an e-book going to do to change the world!
Pretty sure the looms Ned Ludd wanted to smash were weaving wool…anyway as you very well know I’m not defending ebooks as such, rather the transition from transition from printed media to an electronic and interactive one.
That and massive phones that can’t even make phone calls.
…and I’m saying that sometimes transitions don’t need to be made just for the sake of it. I’m not denying it’s good tech but I think it’s pointless tech.
In the interests of full disclosure I should add that I’m currently reading three ‘paper’ books and one ‘electronic’ one and I won’t be bothering with any more on the iPhone.
ebooks, ibooks whatever. Their just not as cuddly as your proper book. And can you safely use them in the bath?
On the other hand, I am suffering something of a shelving crisis at present. The mrs ever suggested I might not need so many books! But with a little electronic book tardis my house might look less like your photo…
I agree wholeheartedley – give me a good old tangible book over yet another retina burning piece of technology any time. I’m no luddite but there’s nothing like the smell of the pages of a brand new book, or the glimpse into its history when you see a scrawled message in the front page of a musty old second hand book.
One perspective that hasn’t been mentioned here though, and as far as I can see it’s the one big advantage of e-books, is the ability to have a massive amount of text books easily accessible for reference if you’re in academia.
After all, you wouldn’t want to carry around a bookshelf full of bulky text books just to call upon when you need them. An e-book gets around that very effectively, and the search function is infinitely more efficient than using the index too.
I suppose it doesn’t do much to counter the ‘twat-factor’ but I’m sure that’ll be offset by the tweed, leather patches and the enviable ability to look natural smoking a pipe.
Well I did kinda touch on the text book element when I talk about the hundreds of technical manuals we have and use at work, like I said great for looking things up but horrible for reading cover to cover.
Good bloggage Merk, I wrote a long comment but i scrubbed it instead for this bit of wisdom.
‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.
Books are brilliant, as are the many book shops where they can be found.
Imagine a sterile little world with no books filled with e-book readers. Dreadful, I’m sure you’d agree.
George Orwell 1984, that’s my favorite book. I’ve got Penguin Classic copy from the 60′s I think? Its pages are almost orange with age and it has a price written in pencil on the front, in old money!
I love it when you open a secondhand book and it has a hand written message in the front cover, a Christmas present to a friend with a date or a dedication. Lovely stuff.
I think that the ipad or an ereader is a good idea in principle being able to take a lot of books around with you and being able to pick and choose what you want to read. I just don’t think that the technology is there yet for it to be a suitable alternative. The screen needs to be more like paper, it needs to be more durable so you can chuck it about, dunk it in water, put a cup of tea on the opposite page, it needs to be thicker and more flexible so you can curve the it like you would a book
A few points in favor of the ebook reader:
1. Nobody is improving or forcing upon any type of change. The ebook reader is just an accessory that some people might find useful (students and professionals who require technical documents in particular). Businessmen who enjoy reading the news in the morning can enjoy their favorite paper anywhere in the world (anywhere where there is a point in dealing business that is) and keep in touch with the news in their native tongue.
2. The horrible eye-killing backlit screens of monitors are a thing of the past with the invention of the e-ink display (unless you want the e-reader/tablet/game platform/web-browser/movie-player/ mp3 player/ vacuum-cleaner that is the iPad). The e-ink display, instead of shining the image into the reader’s face, uses an array of microcapsules that contain charged black and white particles to mimic a natural solid surface similar to a book page.
3. With a battery life of almost two weeks (this is not on stand-by, but actual reading time) the ebook readers can outlast most other mobile devices that offer the same capabilities, making it an item which can be charged once and carried around for weeks like a regular book, yet occupying the space of small magazine and having the ability to be any book you wish it to be at the touch of a button.
Of course the ebook reader has limitations such as not being able to deliver the feeling of opening a fresh new book (or perhaps even an old aged one), or making you look like a twat on the train (
), but going as far as to calling it a useless invention is a bit much.
i was thinking about buying an ereader but after reading all the comments you have all made my mind up. Books are better!!!!!!!!!!!!! Choosing a book in a book shop is great, sharing them with family and friends would be impossible with an ereader
thank you all for helping me decide
Hi V,
Thanks for your comments, I take on board what you say about the battery life, but I still can’t see the major benefits of a e-book reader, beyond the reference idea that I’d already mentioned. Businessmen can just as easily pick up a real newspaper in their native tongue in most parts of the world, for instance I have bought English newspapers (Alas it was the Times) in various European cities.
I’m not seriously suggesting no one should *want* one any more than they want any other gadget but I really struggle with why anyone would want one. I read somewhere there are now 400k+ e-books available and that e-books were out selling real books on Amazon, this is all well and good until you realise that they are outselling Hardback books (which are generally still quite expensive and cumbersome) but they are no where near selling paperback, and while 400,000 sounds impressive, there are 14 MILLION books printed in the English language. 14 Million!
I watched an episode of the Book Club not so long ago, in which they were extolling the (supposed) virtues of the e-book. I can’t say I was impressed then and nothing’s happened to make me think otherwise now. I’m a HUGE book lover and have been from a very early age. The thought of replacing all my books (currently 250+) for ANOTHER electronic gadget absolutely horrifies me! I appreciate the reasonings behind having an iPod (other MP3 players are available!) but storing 3,000+ books electronically just doesn’t appeal.
And I totally agree with your comments – simple to use, revolutionary and low battery life; SO WHAT! Books are the simplest things to use in the world and are pretty low energy when you consider you’re the one expending the energy in the first place (move hand, turn page, move hand, turn page, move hand… you get the picture?!) No electrical parts means nothing to go wrong AND I can lend them to my friends, who then all get together to discuss them! Imagine that?!
I’m not saying that e-books don’t have a place in the world somewhere, but I’ll be sticking to my good old fashioned paper versions thanks.
I purchased a Kindle a week ago and came across your blog while I was searching for some stuff on eReaders.
That is what prompted me to buy one in the first place! And since I am not such a voracious reader, the absence of many titles on the e-format doesn’t bother me at all.
My few cents on the eReader:
A true Bibliophile would certainly not approve of fancy gadgets like the eReader. To them, the look, the feel, the smell and the entire reading experience is something they would really want to cherish. To a book collector (note the difference from a book reader), what would matter more is to have a unique collection of books – say early editions of classics, or author signed copies of books. The requirements of both these categories of people are not going to be fulfilled by the eReader at any length. Other disadvantages of the eReader have already been spoken about in the blog/comments – such as difficulty in lending to friends, not enough titles being available on Kindle store etc.
Now, I am no Bibliophile, neither am I a book collector. In fact, I am not too much into reading in the first place. I spend more time reading on the internet rather than physical paper/magazines. Given this, I would anytime prefer having a Kindle rather than filling my cupboard with loads of books. I have used it for just a week and I love the experience. The device is quite compact in contrast with bulky paper books and therefore I can hold it with ease when I’m reading lying down on the bed. It is quite easy on the eye unlike a laptop where staring at the screen for long results in a strain. Of course the other thing is that technology and fancy gadgets fascinate me
Now you know what kind of audience eReaders really target! The younger generation with a fancy for the latest gadgets, who are not much exposed to the art of true book reading nor do they have the patience to browse through various titles in a physical book store before they choose one they like.
I have nothing against books – I love them but I’m not that rich to buy every piece of literature I want in my collection.
I bought an e-reader for $100. I downloaded about 400 e-books during the first 2 months for $0. I didn’t have to go to the library to borrow anything or renew the rental. I actually own the copies and if it’s storage you’re worried about, it takes less than 30 seconds to backup the files. If in the unlikely event that my computer, ipod, usb flash drives, external hard drive, and sd card all kick the bucket at the same time, I can always rebuild my collection at no cost at all.
As for “looking like a twat” while reading on the bus or the subway, I’m sorry to say that there’s nothing I can do to mend such ignorant and childish views. Good day. =)