1. Shorter is better. I don’t like reading long nonfiction books on my Kindle. It’s too easy to lose track of where I am if I go a week or two without reading. It’s more cumbersome to go back and “flip through” the last fifty pages of what I read to refresh my memory. My favorite Kindle reads have been shorter books that can be read in a few sittings. The books published by Seth Godin’s Domino Project are the perfect length for ebook readers. This doesn’t apply to fiction. I’ve read some long, dense novels on kindle with no trouble.
2. Footnotes don’t work well in ebooks. I chose to buy the hard copy of Bill Simmons’ The Book of Basketball because his footnotes alone are worth the price of the book. I didn’t want to mess with them on my Kindle even though I would have preferred to buy and read the Kindle version.
3. The ability to underline and compile all my highlights into a single document after reading a Kindle ebook is almost enough to override the previous 2 points. eBook readers make note taking a breeze.
4. I will not pay for an ebook the same price (or more) that I would have to pay for the print version. This makes no sense to me. I know publishers are keeping the price of ebooks at or near the price of the print versions in an effort to protect (prop up?) the print side of their industry. It pretty much guarantees that I’ll go check out a hard copy from the library rather than buying either version from a short-sighted publisher.
5. I will not pay more than 7.99 for an ebook. I don’t think twice about paying 4.99 or less.
6. I’m suspicious of the quality of an ebook priced at 99 cents unless it is a short-story or a twenty-four hour sale. (Have you read my short story yet? You can get it here for 99 cents.)
7. I will download any free ebook that looks remotely interesting to me. But that doesn’t mean I’ll read it. My Kindle is full of free books that I’ve downloaded and never opened. It’s easy to give away an ebook. It’s much harder to get someone to read it.
8. I’ve bought and collected my share of books, but I have no romantic feelings about books themselves. People who wax eloquent about how much they enjoy the look, feel, and smell of a good book in their hands need to watch more romantic comedies with members of the opposite sex. I love to read and learn, more than I love books. eBooks help me do more of what I love in a more convenient, and increasingly cost efficient, way. I don’t lament the loss of books. I lament that I don’t have enough time to read every book that interests me, even though I can store them all on my Kindle.
What are your thoughts about ebooks?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I don’t usually have emotional connections to objects, but I am exactly who you describe in #8. When I went back to Hawaii in 2003 and visited the library where I got most of my first non-picture books, I was overwhelmed with the smell and sight of the musty basement it’s in – I realized these sensations were reading to me. Had to sit down and just take it in (probably along with mold and fungi).
I’ll use a Kindle for traveling, but for the most part, give me pages to turn.
That your early reading experiences took place in HAWAII makes your romantic attachment to books permissible, even enviable.
I upgraded to an Android phone at Christmas last year, and promptly installed both Nook and Kindle software. This year I have read more books (eBooks) than any of the three of four previous years combined. So on the whole I love eBooks, especially for fiction.
My biggest pet peeve however surrounds the secondary book market. I do not like the restrictions placed on eBooks that prevent them from being resold like any printed book. There will undoubtedly be court battles over this in the future.
That’s a good point about reselling them. I’ve sold a lot of used books on Amazon. If there is no resale value in an ebook, that’s another reason for keeping the prices lower than print copies.
Jeff brings up an interesting point regarding resale. Hmmm…
I have full-price purchased exactly one ebook and it was for my husband to have a specific book to read last week (Unbroken) while he was traveling. It was worth the $13. I, like you, have downloaded dozens to my Kindle app for free, that may forever languish there. I won’t pay $4.99 for them unless I am FIRED UP about it. I will download from my crummy library, borrow from a friend, or buy using Swagbucks gift cards.
Agreed that the shorter the better. First of all — I don’t have an actual Kindle. I have the app on my laptop, iPhone, and we only recently got an iPad. My husband uses the iPad a LOT so I can’t really rely on it being here for my reading and reading a huge novel on my phone stinks and curling up with my laptop is no fun at all. Still prefer pages and, like Charles… LOVE the smell of my very first library. But I grew up in Louisiana, so it has no romantic notions whatsoever.
I don’t know what books from Louisiana smell like, but I could spend the rest of my life sniffing Cajun food.