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Would you ever read/buy an eBook?

Would you ever read/buy and eBook?

  • Yep, probably would

    Votes: 23 53.5%

  • No way

    Votes: 20 46.5%
  • Total voters
    43
Bob_the_lost said:
I do like having books around but as soon as there's a sensible system of charges on ebooks and a decent reader then i'm getting one. Save me a hell of a lot of space and weight when travelling around plus the flexibility of having my entire library on a SD card in case i feel like revisiting an old one.
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I agree. I wish there were more books available as ebooks. I have very little space and it is already crammed with books. I already scan my recipe tears from mags, but so few recipe books are available as ebooks although I have bought one or two. It's annoying coz most cookbooks are utterly huge, then you find you only use one or two recipes anyway. They take up too much room in proportion to thier usefulness.

I also wish you could get more online subscriptions to magazines. I get a couple of USA trade mags as pdf downloads, cost alot less - $25 a year instead of $300 a year (for the paper versions). Get them instantly as they are published, instead of a week late by airmail. Can keep them forever (unlike real mags which form into vast, yellowing stacks that end up being chucked out), but I'm assuming that ABC don't count online subscriptions towards circulation figures, because UK companies seem reluctant to switch. I'm really pissed off that Drapers Record won't give me an online subscription, it's only available to overseas subscribers. It's so silly when you think about how many in the fashion trade are constantly travelling and an online subscription would make much more sense.

Real books are nice, but I like the convenience. It would be good to have more choice between formats, like we now have with music.
 
Orang Utan said:
yes and have ditched all my records and am about to ditch all of my CDs but I'm talking about books here
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Books that fall apart if read too much, books that take up space, books that cost lots of money, books that get lost, books that require barbaric accessories like a book mark if you stop part way through.

Let's face it, there are some serious advantages to ebooks /+ e-readers. Some downsides: Format being a major one and a harder nut to crack than cost or performance which will inevitably decrease and increase respectively.
 
As much as I like the idea of an eBook a society where all books are eBooks would not appeal to me.

Books that are £9.95 when new are still available to people without bags of disposable income for a fraction of the cost at second hand stores. I'd hate for us to lose that.

Books have always had a bit of a wierd pricing policy imo. If buying brand new, you have to pay the same (£7) for a 200 page Pratchett novel writen 15 years ago as you do for a 700 page one written 2 years ago. Yet you can pick up a second hand one for 50p, Which features the original purchase price of £1.99. Thats right the price has gone up not down over time!!!

I'd only support eBooks if the cost of purchasing them was substantially lower. i.e. they passed on the fact that printing costs have not been incurred. They don't seem to do that though. Just like CD's never passed on their reduced manufacturing costs when they replaced records.
 
Gromit said:
As much as I like the idea of an eBook a society where all books are eBooks would not appeal to me.

Books that are £9.95 when new are still available to people without bags of disposable income for a fraction of the cost at second hand stores. I'd hate for us to lose that.

Books have always had a bit of a wierd pricing policy imo. If buying brand new, you have to pay the same (£7) for a 200 page Pratchett novel writen 15 years ago as you do for a 700 page one written 2 years ago. Yet you can pick up a second hand one for 50p, Which features the original purchase price of £1.99. Thats right the price has gone up not down over time!!!

I'd only support eBooks if the cost of purchasing them was substantially lower. i.e. they passed on the fact that printing costs have not been incurred. They don't seem to do that though. Just like CD's never passed on their reduced manufacturing costs when they replaced records.
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I would have thought that book prices have gone down dramatically in real terms given inflation.
 
If I was to go travelling agian for any length of time, I would almost certainly buy one. My reading habit cost me a fortune when I was away for a year.

Not sure how they would react to sand though. :hmm:
 
Diamond said:
I would have thought that book prices have gone down dramatically in real terms given inflation.
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If we take a £2 book and increase it by how much beer has gone up in the last 15 years that book would cost £3.20.

Base on irish prices and I couldn't find UK.
 
When civilisation has torn itself apart and I'm cowering in a cave somewhere gnawing on the leftovers of last night's chargrilled rat surprise I'll want something to read that doesn't run on fucking batteries thank you very much.

Inventing something to replace what doesn't need replacing should be seen as a terrible way to make money, but sadly some cunt invented marketing and now we're strip mining the planet to death for all this superfluous shit :(
 
pinkmonkey said:
I agree. I wish there were more books available as ebooks. I have very little space and it is already crammed with books. I already scan my recipe tears from mags, but so few recipe books are available as ebooks although I have bought one or two. It's annoying coz most cookbooks are utterly huge, then you find you only use one or two recipes anyway.
Click to expand...

It is quite likely that all books (most old and all new) published by relatively big printers will get the eBook treatment. The industry is behind it, amazon are well in there, and its going to happen whether people like it or not.

I agree that it has its place, so long as those who want books - printed from sustainable sources - can have them.

Have a look at this from the brilliant Rooted zine (Godhaven Press):
:)
book001copy.gif
 
Yes, definitely. I already read a fair amount of fiction online.

I don't see them as a replacement for real books - too many people like real books and they do have several advantages over e-books. It's not like the way MP3s are replacing CDs which almost completely replaced vinyl.
 
I can definetly see it re-invigorating the sales of hardback books. I for one am far more likely to d/l books and if I like it enough, purchase a hardback edition.
 
i think if everytime you purchased a hardback book you got a link to download an ebook version that would be very cool

and may get the ball rolling on download only sales
 
If I'm buying a book for it's information content I'd much rather have it in e format. I don't care about the smell of the paper and all that bollocks; plus, with a ebook it's easier to quote bits in other writing, and you can still make annotations etc.

If I'm reading for enjoyment I don't mind paying a paper premium so much, particularly if the book has a nice physical form. Two things come to mind there: first, I have most of A Series Of Unfortunate Events in book form, and those are very nicely bound in hardbacks with illustrations, appropriate paper and proper covers, in a way which really fits the series.

Secondly I subscribed to a "serial" a while back, The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters, which came in weekly installments which line up on the shelf nicely to make a picture with ther spines. Also, there was something very pleasing about actually getting the new installments in the post every week. Pity it didn't last all that long.
 
Shippou-Chan said:
i think if everytime you purchased a hardback book you got a link to download an ebook version that would be very cool

and may get the ball rolling on download only sales
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That would be an excellent idea.

I guess the main problem would be that a lot of people would copy the books for their friends - just like people can get around the copy restrictions on itunes, they'll do it on ebooks too.
 
kitty_kitty said:
i don't think i'll ever stop loving the chunkiness and smell and fold-over-dogeared-pages of proper books.
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Perhaps I'm doing this wrong but modern books don't smell to me. How close to the page do you read them...? Do you lick them, too....? :confused:

The only book I've actively smelt was when I worked in a solicitors and was one of their old record books from the 1700's... Full bodied roamer of musty old paper and possibly infested with bookworms.

I've never understood people who smell books.... I think they are same as the ones that smell vynl.
 
jæd said:
Perhaps I'm doing this wrong but modern books don't smell to me. How close to the page do you read them...? Do you lick them, too....? :confused:
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they do smell. musty is about right for secondhand (i have no fear of bookworms or nose-borne diseases), new books smell.. newer? :confused:

i don't sniff 'em in the shop, like...

why would i lick them? :confused:


jæd said:
I think they are same as the ones that smell vinyl.
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guilty :o
 
Is reading summat off Project Gutenberg the same as an e-book? If so yes, for something out of print that would have had to be in prohibitively expensive leather-bound antiquarian form. Otherwise I much prefer real books.
 
Mrs Magpie said:
Is reading summat off Project Gutenberg the same as an e-book? If so yes, for something out of print that would have had to be in prohibitively expensive leather-bound antiquarian form. Otherwise I much prefer real books.
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This, pretty much.

I do download a lot of articles from Jstor, though. Much easier than sorting through shelves of dusty old journals in the university library and then queuing for the photocopier.
 
The only reason I'd probably buy a reader is if I plan to download a lot of books and read them because it's a pain process to print each page, plus a waste of ink. But I don't download enough to warrant buying one. I've got pdfs that are less then 15 pages and i just read them on my computer and delete them. I like the feel of a paperback; knowing you can carry it where ever you go, and not worry about charging it because the battery is dying.

I don't know; seems like too much hassle. People are always on their media readers, like they've had it for ever. IMO, it's yet another technological phase we (generalising here) as a culture are going thru.
 
scifisam said:
That would be an excellent idea.

I guess the main problem would be that a lot of people would copy the books for their friends - just like people can get around the copy restrictions on itunes, they'll do it on ebooks too.
Click to expand...

that is the problem for any format

one could say the same of cd's
 
Orang Utan said:
WTF? you get weirder and weirder. no books at all?
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Not for quite a few years - I've almost lost the ability to use a pen too.

I read a few classics - 1984; Brave New World; etc, but I don't feel inspired to get inside other people's heads like that.

I had a go at Joyce's "Ullyses"once - hoping it would be a bit like music, but I found it claustrophobic ...

One author sums up my general view of classic fiction - Jane austen. :p

I was thinking of finding a French book to read ....
 
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