Does Anyone Read Anything Anymore?

[Roman_Catholic_1]

My wife has moved to all digital reading but I’m still holding out. I have to have physical books and I don’t think I could get through an entire digital book. I need to know how much is left of the book (by either seeing it or feeling the thickness of the book that’s left) and also how far to the next chapter or next possible stopping point. I’m sure those things can be done with e-readers but there’s a difference between seeing percentages or time left to finish a book and actually seeing how much is left. To this day I have not read a single electronic book.

There are some things I see beneficial to digital reading. They include space and money savings, being able to change fonts and screen lighting for reading at night just to name a few.

God bless

 

[Wonderette]

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.

I most certainly still love to read actual magazines and books. I do notice that most people of my age group heads to the computers in the library, but I still head for the bookshelves.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I think any judgment call is unnecessary, whether you’re for books or for digital media. It’s really about the pros and cons of the technology and how much you’re willing to put up. For me, I voraciously consume both digital and print formats. Where digital formats offer me more ‘space,’ accessibility, and rivals the portability of books, the dependence on electricity is its greatest flaw. Books don’t run out of batteries. Smartphones and laptops do. Meanwhile, books seem more expensive, cumbersome, and prone to permanent damage. The cost of material and print drives up the price so much at times, it’s not always practical. And yet, they’re easier to work with. You don’t have to worry about unseen glitches or bugs. Just pray to God it doesn’t fall into the mud or suffer some other physical trauma and a book can be quite as handy at times.

I believe the future lies somewhere in innovations of both (if not some elusive hybrid). It’d be nice to have a device that can let you read plenty of things but doesn’t require charging nor a few extra dollars to repair/replace/protect.

 

[a1621517]

i read all things but dont bother to buy books or magazines
its all about digital now bro

i feel u on the old school feel of curling up with a book
times change

 

[ProVobis]

There are benefits to both but something in defense of books.

Sometimes one can remember things better when he can visualize their location on a printed page. Or even when it’s highlighted in yellow or underlined. Some of this ability is being incorporated on ebooks but it seems it’s not that easy yet to use.

 

[a1621517]

on my tablet i tap the top right corner
and it puts a bookmark

its mostly old people that dont like the new digital stuff
took me a lil while but i liek it more
im gettin up there so i feel u tho haha lol

 

[tomarin]

There are benefits to both but something in defense of books.

Sometimes one can remember things better when he can visualize their location on a printed page. Or even when it’s highlighted in yellow or underlined. Some of this ability is being incorporated on ebooks but it seems it’s not that easy yet to use.

Another, related problem that I’ve experienced is that while I have no problem remembering the content of e-books, I find that the title and name of the author becomes more ephemeral when I experience a book in the format of an e-book. That is, when you hold a real physical book in your hands as you read it there are countless moments when you take a break from reading and glance at the spine or cover of the book, and that seems to reinforce the memory of who wrote this and what it was called. That is missing from the e-book experience and I think it’s a loss (just as I miss all the information that was contained on the packaging of music in the form of vinyl records, cd’s, tape cassettes, etc. and I’m still a little surprised people gave that all up so willingly, without so much of a second-guess). That said, I still prefer and consume most of my reading material as e-books.

 

[revert_jen]

There are benefits to both but something in defense of books.

Sometimes one can remember things better when he can visualize their location on a printed page. Or even when it’s highlighted in yellow or underlined. Some of this ability is being incorporated on ebooks but it seems it’s not that easy yet to use.

And at the risk of sounding like a privacy nut (which I am willing to do because I am to some extent a privacy nut), when I read a paper book, Amazon doesn’t know when I’m reading it, how long I’m reading it, which passages I read most, how long it takes me to finish books of different types, and what annotations I make in it. Nor can they share that information with someone else.

Here is an interesting article, albeit by a biased source: spideroak.com/privacypost/cloud-security/is-your-kindle-tracking-your-reading-habits/

(This is a company that is, AFAICT, trying to sell people tracking-free cloud services, but I don’t think their information is incorrect.)

I know there are people these days who don’t care that all of this information about them is being collected (and in some cases sold) and that their reading habits can become a commodity to be used by anyone who wants to sell them something. They feel that the convenience of having things they like marked directly to them is worth the loss of privacy.

I have one friend who just doesn’t understand why the large and growing amount of information that is being collected creeps me out. I don’t understand why she doesn’t mind. When we talk about it, it’s like we’re from different planets.

I’m the first to admit that my life is boring and there is nothing scandalous that somone could find out, because there’s nothing to find. (“Ooooh, look, she’s reading Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ again, alert the media!!”) That doesn’t mean I want the minutiae of my life collected and analyzed.

So for those of you who don’t mind, that’s fine. But if there is anyone else who does mind this kind of thing, you might want to keep this aspect of e-books in mind.

–Jen