ebooks | How to fall in love with ebooks?

Entry tags:

ebooks vs trad publishing

How to fall in love with ebooks?

I've noticed that generally people seem to fall in instant love with ereaders. I didn't, and I'd really like to, in hopes of being able to haul around somewhat fewer dead trees (although much of my book collection is unfortunately not a good candidate for digital replacement).

Is there anyone out there who was not immediately enthused, but grew to love an ereader anyway? What helped? Better technology (the new eInk screens are significantly better than on my old Sony)? A different model? Something else?

At present, I pretty much only use my ereader for traveling. I feel like the advantages of print books for me are a) I find them more comfortable to read, b) higher contrast (possibly resolved by new eInk?), and c) I enjoy being able to flip through books (I also enjoy being able to search books, but mostly do this on my computer). Also, for many of the backlist books I love, ebook conversions are often extremely poor in quality, and I resent having to hack a file to fix formatting and OCR errors when I can get a perfectly fine paper copy, and may already own one. So I don't know, maybe these are insurmountable issues?

Anyone else been in this boat and found a way to make ereaders really work for you?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have a Sony as of last Christmas. I still find the process of downloading books to be clumsy and frustrating. It makes me throw the thing in the corner and say, "what a waste." And no, I'm not buying from Sony's own marketplace, so that may be part of the problem. I find free things and can't get them, and I even paid ten dollars for an eBook on Amazon, and after they took my money, the damn book wasn't there in my library and it took a call to Amazon's support people to fix it. I just don't need my book procuring to be this kind of hassle.

I suppose I'll learn and then love it. *sigh*

I've had a Sony for close to two years now, I guess it is, and I love it. I've never had any of these problems, and most of my books come from places other than the Sony marketplace. I don't know if this is a difference in models or what.

It's probably my own issues with dealing with new technology. I wasn't trying to whine so much as commiserate. *g*

It's cool, I didn't think you were whining. XD I just figured I'd jump in as someone from the other side of things.

I am not sure you can buy books on Amazon for anything but a Kindle, unless you're cracking them? I could be wrong, though.

(I have to admit, I find Calibre painfully slow, but maybe it'll be better now that I have a faster computer.)

Can you try Calibre? It's a free program that really smooths out the process for me. It can also remove DRM with addons, if that's being a problem for you.

You know, thanks for reminding me of Calibre. It isn't really my Sony; it's what I got my mom, and I try to help her at times. I forgot about Calibre.

I've always been interested in the concept of ebooks and ebook readers, but I had no actual interest in buying a reader until the very latest generation of readers.

The older generations had too slow of a page refresh rate for my reading speed. I definitely would not have fallen in love with my ereader if I had owned anything but the most recent generation.

I think mine's only one or at most two generations old, but while the page refresh is mildly annoying, the contrast is moreso. Although I think the most annoying thing is that it doesn't seem to hold a reasonable charge, which may mean the battery is dying.

Alas, I don't think I know anyone with a current generation ereader I could borrow to try out.

I didn't either! :)

I actually tested out the page refresh rate by trying the display ereaders at a local office supply store (Office Depot and Staples probably have display Kindles), and I tried the Nook at a Barnes and Nobles, the iPad at an Apple store, and the Kobo at a Borders (before it closed, but the office stores might have display Kobos now too). If you're near any of those places (generic big-box stores like Walmart and Best Buy might even have display ereaders), I definitely recommend them for trying out ereaders.

Yeah, that's what I did last time and it was helpful, but I think I'd need a couple days to see if the screen really works for me and I'm likely to use it enough to justify upgrading.

Some libraries let you check them out.

My actually local library doesn't; the other one doesn't allow out-of-area people to put holds on things, so there's no way I'd be able to check out an ereader. :-/

What really helped was finding that I could download fanfic to my kindle for free. I'd collected a lot of free books from Amazon before I bought a kindle and having loaded them all on there, the other thing that was really useful was having 200 books at my disposal when I was unexpectedly stuck waiting for 12 hours. I wouldn't have brought fluff reading but that was all I was up for.

I also found it really nice to have at the gym because people couldn't tell what I was reading and therefore wouldn't ask me about it when I was trying to climb the stairway to nowhere.

It took me a really long time to get used to the page turn redraw lag.

I read paper books at home though. I still buy paper books. But When I drop reading material in my bag for the day it's always my kindle.

Got to second the fanfic thing. I still find buying ebooks to be often frustrating due to the DRM imposed by the majority of the publishers.

I put fic on my ereader! And then I only read it when I go on vacation. :-/

I would really like to be able to replace a chunk of my nonfiction collection with ebooks, ideally, and get new nonfiction in ebook form. Fiction I often check out of the library, but nonfiction I keep around for reference, so it ends up taking up a lot of space.

This. I download fic from Archive of Our Own (they have a download .mobi button! So easy!) and it's fantastic for when I'm sitting in a cafe or on public transit.

I wish I could offer any answers to the question, but I'm afraid I'm one of the people who didn't have much trouble switching to ereaders. I hope that the comments below offer you something useful regardless, though. Despite the fact that I fell for ereading pretty quickly, I've still found things that improve(d) my experiences.

Looking at your list of advantages, I have to ask why print books are more comfortable to read for you. If you know why you find them more comfortable, there might be things you can do to mimic it with an ereader.

If they're easier on the eyes, then new technology/eInk might help with that. I don't know. My ereader is several years old and I haven't looked into replacing it yet. If they're easier to hold, it might be worth investing in a cover that makes your ereader feel more like a book. Mine's been worth every penny for me. I have pretty small hands, so it's hard to find a print book that I can hold particularly comfortably. My ereader is a tad too thin and its edges a tad too rough to be comfortable on its own, but putting it in a cover/case has worked wonders for me. It's the most comfortable 'book' I've ever held now. (Plus, its front now has a pretty, colourful print, so my brain can believe it has a cover image. Pasting on a decal skin just isn't the same.)

I do find that reading on my tablet edges slightly ahead of reading on my ereader in terms of preference purely because that usually allows me more control over the presentation of the books and because the screen is larger. I hadn't thought that that'd matter to me, but apparently it does. On my tablet my page count looks smaller, I'm not bound by only three font sizes but can set the one that I'm most comfortable with for a book myself, it's easier to get to a book's ToC, I can set the screen brightness however I want, it's in colour, doesn't take forever to load when it's scaling pictures...

None of those are things that I desperately need, but they're all things that do enhance my experiences with an ebook.

Looking at your list of advantages, I have to ask why print books are more comfortable to read for you. If you know why you find them more comfortable, there might be things you can do to mimic it with an ereader.

Something about the ergonomics for my wrists, I think. Before I bought my ereader, I played with every model I could get my hands on to try to find something comfortable. This might be resolved with better touchscreens; I don't know (I am more used to touchscreen swiping now that I have a smartphone; when I bought my Sony I was still looking for something that also had buttons). I do have a cover, but it's a pretty cheap flimsy one--I'm just hesitant to spend $70 on a fancy cover until I know I'll use the ereader a lot.

Paper is also definitely easier on my eyes because of the contrast. But the newer eInk models I've looked at are much nicer, so IDK.

I thought about something with an LCD screen, but the shorter battery life and inability to read in direct sun are still pushing me towards eInk for my purposes.

Ergonomics are important. (It's the main reason I try to avoid mass markets. All the ones I want to read are massive and painful to hold for long.)

I'm just hesitant to spend $70 on a fancy cover until I know I'll use the ereader a lot.

Definitely! Same here. I didn't buy mine until I had my reader for quite some time and was sure I'd be happy with the added expense.

(I'm actually curious now how new generation ereaders handle nonfiction...)

I'm finding my Nook Color much heavier than a paperback or trade paperback; not sure how it compares to a hardbound...but it's working so far, and that fancy beautiful cover with the dragonflies is looking rather appealing.....

I just bought a cheapo cover. It's terrible in lots of ways, but it has a wide elastic strap inside the front cover, such that when folded back it's behind the reader and you can just slip your hand into it. It's a huge improvement in ergonomics, allowing the reader to just rest there instead of needing to grip it.

I guess I'm now going to be looking for a decent cover with this same feature.

I initially fell in love with the Kindle when I got it from my brother, and then when I bought my own fell out of love, then back in love. It took me a while to get used to the difference in flipping through (highlighting helps!) and the different way it fits in my hand. Now I so dislike the idea of pbooks.

My library has a decent selection of stuff online, which really helped. I'd just request them for when they're available, and get a notice in my inbox. It made getting books I really wanted to read easy, and checking out stuff I'm not so sure about. Being able to try all different kinds of things without the commitment of going to the library, checking out a heavy stack, and then having to bring them back again and potentially not even like them!

For getting an upgrade, I don't know if it's this easy at every store, but I bought a Nook at Barnes and Noble and returned it a week or two later when I discovered it didn't save my notes the way I needed them. Full refund, no questions asked. I'm not sure I'd recommend that for a trial, but some stores have friendlier return policies if you're worried about making a big jump.

Hmmm, it just occurred to me that I'm not sure if my library's no-holds-out-of-area policy also applies to ebooks. Although they did just add a huge section to their website about how ebook publishers are trying to kill the library market. :-/

Turns out that I really like to read in landscape format, or with only one column of print (where a printed book is a minimum of two), both of which I get on my tablet. As it is always with my, being my diary, and my note taking device, I find that every now and then I need something to read, and it is Right There. So, I came to love it for other features, and then added in ebooks.

I haven't really cottoned onto ereaders as such*, but I found that having a smart(enough) phone with an app really converted me just about overnight. Do I have my phone with me == do I have eleventymillion books/stories with me and the opportunity for more (unless the train's in a tunnel).

* I commute on the bus and the train, carrying a laptop, lunch, water, snack, coffee, iPod, and phone with me. I strongly resist carrying *anything else* if I don't have to.

Alas, my phone's battery life is crap. :-/

I did get a Nook Color, though, and I think that may actually have converted me, even if it doesn't have the battery life of eInk....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How to fall in love with ebooks?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject