The (printed) book bounces back

[prizzley]

There's an interesting article in today's Sunday Times suggesting that the rise in purchases of ebooks is slowing. And that committed ebook readers are now finding that, while an ereader may be convenient, they prefer a physical book. Perhaps even that the advent of the ebook has encouraged publishers to provide higher spec print books.

That's certainly my experience. I'm already regretting having bought a research book in ebook format rather than print.

What are your thoughts, ereaders?

 

[thaddeus6th]

I like ebooks for fantasy and physical books for history. I prefer the feel of a real book, but lack of space, higher cost and slower delivery make ebooks better in various regards.

I think both will continue to exist for the foreseeable future. Certain book types, especially art and cookery, don't lend themselves well to electronic format.

 

[Vertigo]

I still think that evetually eBooks will totally replace printed; it's just a question of timescale; could be twenty years, could be a hundred.

However, I do agree with you on reference books; I only buy reference books in printed form. However I fully expect future improvements in eReaders to change that. Again the only question for me is when.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

For reference books I prefer print because of the ease of flicking back and forth. (Although I do like my kindle's note function).

For fiction though I much prefer my ebook and keep looking at my bookcase. It is stuffed full of books but between Google and my Kindle they are barely looked at.

 

[LukeW]

I dislike ebooks. I find it difficult to focus when reading from any sort of screen. I haven't tried a Kindle but I would assume that I would get a similar result.

 

[thaddeus6th]

You might be presently surprised, Luke. I felt much the same way, but lack of space all but forced me to try an eReader (a Kindle). The screen is nothing like a TV or PC monitor, it's as easy on the eyes as paper.

 

[J Riff]

What, are they making them from rubber now?

 

[Boneman]

Doesn't surprise me. As a dyed-in-the-wool luddite, I've always preferred 'real' books. But for my University course last year, I did download a lot of classics on my wife's ipad.I hated it - bookmarking was supposedly easy, but I went goggle-eyed once I'd put in more than three, trying to read/find them. Whereas... a yellow sticky in a real book was markable, readable and ten times easier to flick backwards and forwards.