Ebook or real book?

[Scottish Business Owner]

Here's an interesting topic for you I've never really felt that Ebooks have really taken off. Dont get me wrong I have many but I still prefer a book that I can dip in and out of.

I've seen a few products go down the digital paper route where you could effectively have newspapers etc download direct to this little screen.

So what do you all prefer Ebook or real book?

 

[Brian McIntosh]

I've tried both, and audio books, and I'm torn between them. I listened to a lot of audio books lately and the digital readers are in their infancy but, right now, i prefer the real thing. I would like to spend a bit of time, maybe a dozen books, on the digital reader to see if it is all it's cracked up to be. What's your thoughts on them ?

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

There are a few digital readers out there but to be honest with most of them being around 200 quid they seem very expensive. You'd have to buy a fair few ebooks which cost a little less than paperbacks to recoup that outlay.

I cant quite understand why they are so expensive, you can buy a laptop cheaper than that! I always get moaned at for the amount of paper books I have so i'm pretty sure the wife would be really chuffed if I was able to store them all digitally

 

[Tirfuir]

Being an AVID reader I do nearly all mediums... Love the Hardback - there is nothing better than getting that new edition from a favourite author, Paperbacks are great especially when buying a new author. I have audio for the vehicles - when I get tired of Radio 4 the audio books kick in - though I have found myself having to pull off the road to clear the tears of laughter from my eyes (Christopher Brookmyres One Fine Day in the Middle of the night cracks me up endlessly). I also have adobe digital reader on my laptop and have a tendency to down load books about once a month - was tricky at start as there were a few glitches but got it sussed and now have to admit that there are times when I am in company (boring company) and I excuse myself telling them I have some papers I have to catch up on then open up a book and read a couple of chapters. Completely bad I know..

 

[Neil]

I like both mediums and have often printed out ebooks just to be able to use them and mark them up as flicking between screens can be a pain.

One thing I do like is audio as I travel a lot with my work and this can make good use of "wind screen time". Some one I knew nicknamed his car a "University on wheels"

 

[IT Training UK]

For me personally, without doubt I prefer real books but that is just me, i know alot of friends and colleagues who prefer ebooks and i can understand their strong points.

I am giving some usefull ebooks away for free on my site if anyone is intrested.

Scott

 

[ScottJ]

Whenever I see ebook all I think of is long copy sales pages with a clickbank product,

I think may of us spend enough time at the computer so until affordable digital readers are prevalent that are light/portable & cheap I think it's a welcome break to pick up the physical version.

 

[JamesWilson]

I like both.

 

[brandmantra]

it depends on the subject and the situation. ebooks provide up to date information. you can also get free ebooks. a major problem I'm facing while reading real book is -there is no find (ctrl-f) option.
but I like to read novels. short stories etc. sometimes just forget to eat or drink while totally concentrate on reading any interesting books.

 

[jimbairn]

Real books, any time, anywhere. One of my greatest joys is ferreting around in second hand and charity shops for books.

And today I learned that one of my favourite haunts, MURDER ONE - a specialist crime and mystery bookshop in London - is to close at the end of the month. Dammit, dammit, dammit...

 

[easycheapweb]

I did work for a company in the early ninties who 'pioneered' the concept of a book on a computer, complete with hyperlinks. This was before the Internet. They were the Voyager company, one of the pioneers of CD-Rom, laser disc and other early multimedia. I never thought much of the idea, and now nearly 20 years later, I'm still not impressed.

 

[Terry]

For anything with a lot of text a book is the winner for me hands down. I am sure there will come the time that a portable reader takes the place of a book but not for a good few years yet.

 

[amestaper]

Tried it once and I got sore eyes but it seems a good idea however if you can save several books to the hard disk and use hyperlinks I believe. Which is more likely to be stolen, a real one or ebook?
Old fashioned 20th century books is my preference.