I treated myself to a Kindle over the Christmas holidays. According to Liza Campbell’s report, nearly 1.5 million e-book readers and Tablets have been sold over the festive time.
From my experience, I feel that switching from printed copy to e-book is a difficult decision. It is not only because of joy of reading, but also about style of reading which we have become used to for long time.
It is amazing that an e-book reader can hold over 3500 books in a small and light device, two months battery charge, and a variety of useful features such as adjustable font size, dictionary, commenting and bookmarking.
In my opinion although it is exciting to play and download new stuff into the device, but the touch, feel and even smell of paper is somewhat missing. Say goodbye to the comfort of dropping the book by the bed when going asleep. We can’t deny the pleasure of exploring a big bookshop as opposed to shopping books online. The good feeling of sending your unwanted/read books to a charity shop or passing them to a friend is going to be missed too.
I read Jonathan Franzen’s article about e-books in The Guardian a while ago whereby he said “the combination of technology and capitalism has given us a world that really feels out of control.” I partially agree with his view in the sense there is no doubt that new technology improved access and added comfort to reading, something which was unimaginable even ten years ago. However, I think the pace of advances in technology is faster than general public can adapt. At least it is not as easy as information professionals are expecting.
For better or worse, I thought it is time to move on to e-book reader. I had a long search about different e-book readers (Sony, Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle fire) and other available tablets. Choosing the right device depends on the user’s expectation. There are continuous debates about the advantages and disadvantages of different devices, even versions of the same device. Personally when I read, I do not like to be distracted from other tasks or applications on the device. I watched Kindle fire ad, but wasn’t convinced why I should watch my favourite movie on a tiny screen when I can watch it on a big screen. At the end it is about you and what you really want from your device. I preferred Kindle 3G which can connect to 3G networks almost anywhere in the world for free and download e-books.
I was surprised to find out there are large collections of free e-books available on line e.g. http://www.gutenberg.org/ and http://openlibrary.org/
What about borrowing e-books? According to CILIP, by March 2010, 30 out of 151 public libraries authorised provision of an e-book lending service. By November 2011, about 87 out of 151 are either lending e-books or plan to introduce the service before end of the year. E-books have wider reach through libraries in the US than in Britain but they are beginning to make an impact here as well.
There are some of issues for publishers who are concerned about security, such as illegal downloading and so on but I am sure solutions will come about in near future. Libraries have also opened new section for their e-books lending service. It seems inevitable that the number of printed books will soon be overtaken by e-books.
As a new e-book reader, I start to familiarize myself with my new device and try to enjoy new style of reading…....
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E-book are great to me! I'm a students, 3 years ago before I used e-book, I carried 3-5 books in my backpack that could weight up to 10 pounds!! All I'm carrying right now is my e-book, a notebook, a pen to class!
ReplyDeleteWith e-book, I can have hundreds of books in one device. I can purchase the book anytime I want, without going to the bookstore! It's like having a library in one your hand.