While we do love our friends at Wired, we have a small bone to pick with their recent piece, "5 Reasons Why E-Book Aren't There Yet." Being fans of both eBooks and print books we felt compelled to share our reasons why we think eBooks are here and why we as bookworms love them.
It is no secret that here at Unplggd we love both our print and digital books. We are a group that is fairly heavy leaden with bookworms as well as frequent travelers and it is for these reasons that we felt compelled to answer the 5 shortcomings of eBooks that Wired listed. For those unfamiliar with the original piece, we have listed their reasons why eBooks are not here yet along with our responses.
1. An unfinished e-book isn’t a constant reminder to finish reading it.
We beg to differ, unlike with print books, the eBooks that we have from various sources (including the public library) are always with us on one (primarily our iPad) device which means that it's easy to see where we are in the various titles we are reading. Another great feature of eBooks that are loaned from the public library is they let you know how many days they have left which helps to spur us to finish titles before they are due and vanish off of our devices.
2. You can’t keep your books all in one place.
As we mentioned in the first point, one of the reasons why we love reading eBooks on our iPad is that we can have books from various sources all exist on one device. It's wonderful as a bookworm being able to not be weighed down with lbs of books when packing for a vacation and still being able to bring all of the desired titles. While it might be fun to see an app that would show us all of the titles we have in the various eReading apps on our device, we are not terribly bothered by this since we primarily use three sources for content: iBooks, Kindle, and OverDrive (public library) and it is not that troublesome to click on three different apps.
3. Notes in the margins help you think.
As mentioned by several folks in the Wired comments most eReading apps allow for notes and highlighting in eBooks. One of the newest tablets on the market, the HTC Flyer, shown above takes this one step further by allowing annotations with the tablet pen.
4. eBooks are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.
We are not sure what bookstores the author is shopping at (perhaps comparing used paperbacks?) but we find that when it comes to new books the pricing for eBooks is easily half of a print title. As a bonus with the new enhanced eBooks hitting the market we not only get to pay less for the book, but we also get additional content which is pretty full of win in our books. While most eBooks are not as cheap as used paperbacks, there are also tons of free books out there and almost all of the print classics that we were paying a few dollars for are free eBooks.
5. eBooks can’t be used for interior design.
While we cannot argue against the beauty of a well stocked bookshelf we have to agree with commenters on the Wired piece that eBooks allow for a more careful print book selection. By buying print books for their content and their aesthetic possibilities we are more able to curate exactly how our shelves look instead of simply buying every print book that we want read. While we love books we know that some books are titles that we will cherish and re-read and others are ones that will only be read once. A book that we want to re-read, gaze at its spine on our shelf and pass down to our children is something we will buy in print today, in a decade, who knows?
A Love of Reading Regardless of Format
We'd also like to add that another reason why we love reading eBooks is the built-in dictionary and we think that this is a boon for literacy. How many times have you read a book and wondered at the definition but were too focused to get up and find a dictionary? Having the definition of a word built right into the reading experience is a great thing and we know that in our lives it has led to more accurate pronunciation and word definition.
Since eReaders have entered our lives we read a lot more and we have returned to borrowing from the public library. We were always challenged of finding a way to visit the library during the hours they were open and struggled to return titles on time. Borrowing eBooks from the library is a great fit for us as we can peruse the available titles at our leisure and the returns are done automatically.
We are also mutli-tasking readers and very rarely are ever reading only one book to completion. Having an eReader is perfect for this because regardless of which reading mood strikes us there is always a book handy. Because our devices are generally always with us, this means our entire currently reading library is too which makes it brilliant for unexpected queues and delays. One can never be bored when there is a book handy!
We love eBooks. We love not having to stock our luggage with books when we travel. We love always having a great book handy. We love being able to borrow from the library at all hours and we love being able to start reading desired titles in only a few taps. eBooks have increased the amount of money we spend on books which is good for authors and have increased exponentially the amount of books we read. Being the bookworms that we are we strongly believe that a love for books and an increase in reading is a good thing for humans and we see eBook technology as a great leap forward in improving literacy which is good for the world (we look forward to eBook reading devices being further democratized). Is the eBook technology perfect? No, but we do think that eBooks are "here" and they are making the world a better, more well read, place.
What do you think, are eBooks here? Why do you love or hate them?
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2) You can’t keep your books all in one place.
Obviously they've never heard of Calibre.
(With e-readers, you are doubly punished, because you can’t buy anything outside the company store anyway).
I've purchased many ebooks for my Sony ereader from sources other than the Sony Reader store. You just have to purchase from sources that don't lock their ebooks with DRM. Or you could remove the DRM... theoretically, of course... though that might be illegal.
3) Notes in the margins help you think.
As Joelle stated, many ereading apps (and some ereaders like my Sony) let you make notes. I'm happy to make all sorts of notes in my ebooks, but the idea of writing in a dead tree book is anathema.
5) E-books can’t be used for interior design.
Really? Really? Really?
The biggest advantage of eBooks that people often forget about is search. I know that I often forget the names of secondary characters. I just search the name and I can see when they were first mentions which is also when they were usually described. It is the greatest feature in my mind and alone is enough for me to justify ebooks.
Also, with Instapaper, between my iPhone and the Kindle, I never read long non-technical articles on the computer anymore. It is so great to be able to read them in a more comfortable place and time. I am sure that iPad owners really have it good in the being able to do more than just read category (though I do sincerely understand when and how that is a bad thing)
I'm on my second Kindle with the Kindle3. I love the fact that I have about 500 titles on it and not in boxes around my home. My bookcases are packed, I only buy reference and titles I know I will want on the shelf. And yes, I buy e-copies of the ones I already have on the shelf, but know I will read over and over again.
The ease of holding the Kindle has made reading a renewed pleasure; it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold a hardcover or paperback open for long periods of time. The Kindle can be balanced on a pillow or something and all I have to do is push the button to turn the page. No hand or wrist fatigue.
I'm thinking of getting the new iPad to make reading these sites easier. I work on my laptop all day and it gets heavy and awkward for blog reading.
I think eReaders are here to stay.
Ditto dalesq!
Why do I love eBooks "let me count the ways".
Once found, eBooks will change the way you read - forever.
Twice removed they will not affect you lineage.
Thrice the benefits of a traditional book - a dictionary - less pollution - not just authors from a gate kept society.
4. eBooks are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.
When I can buy a book on half.com for $3 that is still running on the Kindle for $9.99, it's not cost effective for me to buy the e-book.
I've decided that I will not buy an e-reader until there is a Netflix-like program for e-books. That, to me, is cost efficiency.
I wouldn't say e-books are half the price, expect for the occasional hardcover bargain.
Most of the time books seem to hover around and average of $2 less than the paperback costs. If you're unlucky enough to like a fairly popular author, though, some of the prices lately have been exactly the same as the physical copy. (Ugh!)
E-books will never be as cheap as used books. However, as a former junkie of used books, I am willing to pay full price because a.) e-books are a million times more convenient than physical and b.) publishers are going through a hard time right now.
Each dollar you spend on a book is a vote that says "I want more books like this."
As *wonderful* as used bookstores are, none of that money goes to the authors you love.
Oh, I should also say I don't regard e-books as "disposable." They are mine now, and I fully intend to keep using digital reading devices for the rest of my life. Heck, they're less "disposable" than some physical copies, since I have near infinite space and don't have to occasionally sell off boxes of them to make space on my shelves, or worry about them when moving.
(Anyone who has ever moved 1000+ books, even if most of them are paperbacks, can see the instant appeal in e-books!)
It's true that DRM is an issue, but it is one you can get around. If, say, Amazon decided tomorrow to shut down all their Kindles, I would have no hesitation breaking the DRM and taking my books elsewhere. I feel no shame for keeping products I bought for entirely fair (and again, sometimes equal to the physical book) prices.
Check with your library! More and more libraries have e-book lending systems (the books simply expire after the loan period, much like a trial software version stops working). Excellent, and FREE!!!
StyckyWycket, there is a Netflix like service for e-books; it's called the public library! Download Overdrive to whatever device you own, and borrow e-books from most public libraries.
The pricing for eBooks isn't there yet. I recently priced a 4 book set and found that the eBook version was $20 more than the paperback version. Does that make sense to you? It sure doesn't to me.
I'm still waiting on the technology to get better with e-readers (and the price to go down) - I'm not jumping in early! I still have a ton of unread books at home anyway.
I have two major objections at the moment to e-books:
1. I buy used books at Goodwill for $1-$3. Very often I find books that are on my Amazon wish-list. You just have to be patient and be a good searcher. (Also, I often buy used books at Amazon for a penny + $3.99 shipping - still better than $9.99 for the e-version. P.S. I still go to B&N once a month with my son and let him pick out whatever he wants.)
2. I like setting aside my read books to pass on to my sister the next time I see her, or if a friend expresses a fondness for one book, I'll give/loan her one of my books that I think she would also like.