Nick Hornby wrote an interesting guest post for the Penguin Blog about why eBooks have not caught on the way mp3 players have. In it, he makes some really good points that got me to thinking about why I haven't explored the world of eBooks.
There are a number of reasons I haven’t used eBooks. The first is format. I don’t want to read a book on my computer. I want something that is portable. So, why not buy an electronic reading device? Because they’re too expensive. Amazon sells its Kindle reading device for $359. And that’s just for the device. It doesn’t even include the price of the eBooks. NetLibrary eBook checkout is available through the library but when I searched for a number of titles I was interested in reading, none were available. In fact, they only have a total of 27,713 eBooks in their holdings. So that basically means I’d have to purchase all the eBooks I’m interested in reading. To me, that seems wasteful because when you’re done reading your eBook, you can’t share it with a friend or trade it in at a used book store.
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About Me
- Laura M.
- This blog was created to chronicle my participation in Jacksonville Public Library's Learning 2.0 project.
1 comment:
Laura,
I completely agree with you on this one.
Perhaps folks of younger generations who do almost all their reading and entertainment online will find e-books attractive.
I, on the other hand, don't see them as having anywhere near the level of "convenience appeal" that audiobooks do.
More basically, reading has been a core experience of my life since I first learned, and the whole "feel" of carrying and reading a book is part of that.
Plus, books which I want to study in detail, I buy and underline and make marginal notes in and index on the blank pages, etc....
I know there are mega-expensive reading devises which let you highlight or make notes...but why pay that much?
Hope I survive the shift to "e-whatever."
I'm hanging on by my fingernails now.
Mike
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