the elibrary revisited
Mar. 13th, 2012 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishGiven: Bookshelf space is a serious consideration for housing. We got unbelievably lucky with the place we're in right now but it's bloody expensive, and we may not be so fortunate in the next place.
Also, books are the great majority of the physical objects I own. If I'm looking to reduce the amount of Stuff in my life (and I usually am; the "do not have any attachments" pattern is locked in eternal conflict with the "might be useful someday" pattern), books are a place to start.
Hence: the possibility of going over to ebooks for the small portion of the library available in that format plus anything new that comes out.
The imminent release of the new iPad is doubtless a small factor in pondering this possibility.
Pros: Less space, obviously. Being able to buy books immediately as I want to read them may (may) curtail the need to Buy All The Books whether or not I have time to read them. (Case in point: acquired "Throne of the Crescent Moon" this weekend, but gord only knows when it'll slot into the stack.) Not as much having to haul a giant hardback around because it's what I'm in the middle of (e.g., Anathem). Ereading is likely to lend itself to reading more online magazines & contemporary short stories.
Cons: Love of the physical experience of reading a paper book. Fear of lost data. The visible library is a defining feature of Home. Another %&$ device that needs to be plugged in. Can't loan ebooks to people who don't have an ereader. Many older works are unavailable as ebooks, leading to frustration. Need to find an ereader acceptable touilos as well as one for me, otherwise she'll just buy dead-tree copies of anything I pick up in ebook that she wants to read too.
Unknowns: The biggest factor is how well I'll like reading on an ereader / tablet / what have you. (Already known: how well I like reading on the Device, that being "not very," but that's a function of the tiny screen.) How much of a problem the confusion of "do i have that in ebook or dead-tree" will be. How much of a problem DRM will be, though I anticipate "not much."
Thoughts?
Also, books are the great majority of the physical objects I own. If I'm looking to reduce the amount of Stuff in my life (and I usually am; the "do not have any attachments" pattern is locked in eternal conflict with the "might be useful someday" pattern), books are a place to start.
Hence: the possibility of going over to ebooks for the small portion of the library available in that format plus anything new that comes out.
The imminent release of the new iPad is doubtless a small factor in pondering this possibility.
Pros: Less space, obviously. Being able to buy books immediately as I want to read them may (may) curtail the need to Buy All The Books whether or not I have time to read them. (Case in point: acquired "Throne of the Crescent Moon" this weekend, but gord only knows when it'll slot into the stack.) Not as much having to haul a giant hardback around because it's what I'm in the middle of (e.g., Anathem). Ereading is likely to lend itself to reading more online magazines & contemporary short stories.
Cons: Love of the physical experience of reading a paper book. Fear of lost data. The visible library is a defining feature of Home. Another %&$ device that needs to be plugged in. Can't loan ebooks to people who don't have an ereader. Many older works are unavailable as ebooks, leading to frustration. Need to find an ereader acceptable to
uilos as well as one for me, otherwise she'll just buy dead-tree copies of anything I pick up in ebook that she wants to read too.Unknowns: The biggest factor is how well I'll like reading on an ereader / tablet / what have you. (Already known: how well I like reading on the Device, that being "not very," but that's a function of the tiny screen.) How much of a problem the confusion of "do i have that in ebook or dead-tree" will be. How much of a problem DRM will be, though I anticipate "not much."
Thoughts?
no subject
Date: 2012-03-14 03:15 am (UTC)I'm not an iPerson, so I don't know what is analogous to that system.
In eReader stuff, I've got the Nook, the Kindle, Google Reader, an Office-type program (for .doc reading) and a PDF reader on my Android phone, but my go-to reading app is FBReader - Free Book Reader. It reads epub documents, which usually are DRM free, and I find that I can get most of what I want to read in that format. Except of course of things that I buy on Amazon or B&N...sigh. I especially like that I can shop on Baen.com for books - both from their free library and from their normal shop - and download in epub with no problem.
As it is, I read on my phone ALL the time. I find that I prefer it for most things. It's always with me and because it's backlit I can read at night (insomnia is sometimes an issue) and not bother my husband while he's sleeping.
My suggestion - find people you know who already own various readers in various forms and try them out for an hour or so. See what you like and don't like about 'em.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-14 05:52 am (UTC)I've read a couple of novels on the Device. It was ... a not overly pleasant experience. Part of it was that I thought the novels weren't so great, but also the tiny amount of text per screen just made it difficult to keep focused on the book.
Yeah, borrowing a reader (or two) to try out is probably best.