Does Anyone Read Anything Anymore?

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estesbob said:
I have my daily newspaper delivered to my kindle.
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I live in a really small town and it isn’t available for my kindle.

Or I would do the same.

I hate seeing the newspapers pile up between recycling pick ups.
 
maryjk said:
I live in a really small town and it isn’t available for my kindle.

Or I would do the same.

I hate seeing the newspapers pile up between recycling pick ups.
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I don’t like they way the newsprint feels anymore. I used to be a big newspaper reader.
 
I much prefer actual books as opposed to e-books. JenRevert, you are so right! We just moved and I had to leave a lot of books behind because of the weight and how much space they took up. I felt like I had to choose between my children, trying to decide which ones to take. That was the only time I thought an e-reader would be better. My son has a kindle but I dread reading anything to them off it. I used to have a Nook as well, but it’s very out of date and I only read three books off of it before I decided I disliked e-books.
 
Maybe I’m a old geezer but the feel and smell of a book is almost like comfort food for me. I’ve tried Kindle and the others. It’s just not he same for me.
Ski
 
tomarin said:
A Kindle e-reader doesn’t hurt the eyes. Just FYI.
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People’s eyes are different. You can’t say that it doesn’t hurt anyone’s eyes, because you can’t possibly know that. Since you were responding to someone who said his own eyes were hurt (not that they hurt people’s eyes generally) you appear to be saying that it’s not possible that his eyes would be hurt by reading from a Kindle. I’m pretty sure that Amazon doesn’t claim that.

I know from personal experience that it is not true anyway, because it tires my eyes (which then hurt) faster than a print book. Possibly not as fast as other tablets, though. I haven’t done scientific inquiry into it. Also, possibly, since I am not always reading in bright light, that would feed into it.

There are a lot of factors that affect eye strain. Perhaps, “I have found that a Kindle e-reader doesn’t hurt my eyes like other tablets” would be better to say in the future.

–Jen
 
I prefer real books when available, but like my Kindle sometimes because I can increase the font size.
 
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

NO EXCUSES
 
Some of us prefer to read real books in hand. Staring at a screen too long makes my eyes sore.
 
I read books constantly. You might think it goes with the territory for a librarian, but the truth is I run a computer lab at the library, and when I get home I do my reading! I read mostly nonfiction – history, economics, social issues, philosophy, religion, science, and so on. Most of the fiction I read is historical. I like to post book reviews at my blog.

As far as magazines go, I’d like to read more; I get The Economist and read St. Anthony Messenger from the library. When I’m in a town with a larger bookstore, I look for short story collections like the Ellery Queen mysteries.
 
In recent years entering college students clearly do not subscribe to the print media and, I sadly note, don’t keep up with current events (except if they watch the Colbert Report or the Daly Show and many don’t even do this). I have it on good authority that the that the NY Times will be ending the printed paper in ten years. I am now getting students (I teach in a selective comprehensive college) who have not read a play by Shakespeare and I doubt have ever read a non-fiction book completely through. Indeed their reading skills are really poor and they seem to have little curiosity or intellectual stamina. It has gotten so bad that for the first time in my life I am really looking forward to retirement. Nietzsche’s Last Men are now here and are inside the Academy. In some cases they are even getting hired and getting tenure. This broad trend is not reversible.
 
PoliSciProf said:
In recent years entering college students clearly do not subscribe to the print media and, I sadly note, don’t keep up with current events (except if they watch the Colbert Report or the Daly Show and many don’t even do this). I have it on good authority that the that the NY Times will be ending the printed paper in ten years. I am now getting students (I teach in a selective comprehensive college) who have not read a play by Shakespeare and I doubt have ever read a non-fiction book completely through. Indeed their reading skills are really poor and they seem to have little curiosity or intellectual stamina. It has gotten so bad that for the first time in my life I am really looking forward to retirement. Nietzsche’s Last Men are now here and are inside the Academy. In some cases they are even getting hired and getting tenure. This broad trend is not reversible.
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That depends on location and educational stratum. For instance, everyone who graduates from my high school has read Romeo and Juliet, and at least formerly, Julius Caesar. Or it feels like there’s a higher proportion of students in my dorm who follow the news, possibly because it’s the honors dorm. (For that matter, anyone who eats in my dorm’s dining hall regularly follows the news passively. We always keep the news on)

Also, digitization isn’t necessarily bad. I took a very interesting class freshman year about digital humanities. (It was also fun because I used Minecraft in one project)
 
My daughters got me a Kindle for Mother’s Day, and I love it.

I see advantages to both kinds of media, but I must admit the Kindle takes up a lot less space. Since I am married to a pack rat, space is limited in my house, and this way I can keep plenty of books right on my nightstand. And I never have to dust them!

I’m published on Kindle, and one of the terrific advantages of it for a writer is that if I find a typo, I can correct it and re-upload the file. Once a typo is in print, however, it’s essentially “carved in stone” until a second printing is made.
 
SouthernBelle00 said:
I keep hearing reports of how print media is drying up and how everyone is going digital these days. Does anyone read actual magazines or books anymore, or do most people read digital mags or ebooks these days?

I love curling up with a good PRINT book or magazine but I do often read digital mags and books as well.
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I got a kindle a couple years ago, but I still prefer actual printed books. It is different when you feel the paper in your hands and flip the pages yourself. I also recently heard about some studies that showed that reading digital books wasn’t as beneficial as reading actual printed books. The absorption of information isn’t as good when reading digital as when reading printed material. Here is a short article on it.

healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/
 
not as much as I should. I, too, love printed material and don’t read enough of it now in the digital age.
 
I love the smell and feel of print books. I have read books on kindle and I appreciate the benefits (such as being able to take ALL your books with you on vacation!) but I still love print books.

My own novels are available on kindle and in print. The irony is, I always carry bookmarks with me to sign for people who plan to download it to their kindle but still want the author’s signature (it’s hard to sign a e-reader and not mess up the screen!)
 
SouthernBelle00 said:
I keep hearing reports of how print media is drying up and how everyone is going digital these days. Does anyone read actual magazines or books anymore, or do most people read digital mags or ebooks these days?

I love curling up with a good PRINT book or magazine but I do often read digital mags and books as well.
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Since I work in the book industry, I can tell you most people prefer print books. Ebook growth has slowed. Part of the problem is that people who have published ebooks have greatly multiplied the number of ebooks out there. That said, it’s harder to find ebooks worth reading as opposed to those that are not. It has been recently reported that about half of the self-published books produced earn $500 or less for the author/publisher in a year. Finally, while writers are publishing their ebooks, they are not doing very well at getting the word out, or “How do I find your book or know it’s been published?” Marketing your book is another skill authors need to learn about. I have no information about magazines.

Best,
Ed
 
SouthernBelle00 said:
I keep hearing reports of how print media is drying up and how everyone is going digital these days. Does anyone read actual magazines or books anymore, or do most people read digital mags or ebooks these days?

I love curling up with a good PRINT book or magazine but I do often read digital mags and books as well.
Click to expand...
I much prefer printed books over anything on a screen. I could see possibly getting a Kindle if I traveled a lot, as it would save room, but right now that’s not an issue. I like magazines too, but magazines off the rack tend to be expensive these days, so I rarely buy them. I do, however, sometimes read them at the library, in print form.
 
I think you meant “Does Anyone Read Anything In Its Paper Format?”

Now, does anyone read anything anymore? Yes.

A good percent of the books I read are in paper form. I only read in digital if I’m going on a plane or if I’m away from home for an extended period.
 
I love physical books best of all. I can only read very short articles online, because the screen hurts my eyes. Monitors actually flicker on and off so fast that it’s imperceptible, and my guess is my eyes just can’t take it for too long. Books and a good light source make reading highly pleasurable, though.
 
I absolutely love my Kobo e-ink ereader and I believe I will be using that for many of books I buy going forward. It reads just like paper and can be easily read under direct sunlight, and with a front-light, can just as easily be used at night.

However, there are just some books that cannot be properly used on an ereader. I think I will always have a print Bible, Missal, Breviary, Concordance, Dictionary and Thesaurus.
 
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