5 ms·

I've tried every format and device and I can't read e-books. Nothing, to me, beats a real book. I don't enjoy the experience for one, it strains my eyes (yes ev

I've tried every format and device and I can't read e-books. Nothing, to me, beats a real book. I don't enjoy the experience for one, it strains my eyes (yes even e-ink). But also, and this is something I wouldn't have considered back when I was younger and it seemed like books surely must die in their dead-tree form, I actively seek ways to not be interacting with electronics and books are sublime for this purpose. I work all day on computers, I carry a small one in my pocket that bothers me constantly through the day, so when I want to read. I want to read. I have no desire to have that experience coupled in anyway to the internet or electronics.

marvindanig 7y ago
Have you tried/heard of the Superbook [1] format? :-) [1] https://bubblin.io/docs/format https://bubblin.io/docs/format
bamboozled 7y ago
I agree with so much of what you said, plus I have to say I love post-it notes for keeping track of notes etc, nothing is better and more convenient then flipping the page open and immediately having the content at your fingertips. No slow crappy UI or micro keyboard to deal with, just what I wanted, the information. Yes there are downsides, but it's what I find most enjoyable and efficient.
- auggierose 7y ago
  If you have a slow crappy UI you might want to change your reader ...
  - bamboozled 7y ago
    Sure or just use a book, where as I said, this isn't a problem for me.
JohnFen 7y ago
For me, it depends on the book. For recreational reading, I strongly prefer real, printed ones. For reference materials, I strongly prefer electronic ones (stripped of DRM and converted into a non-proprietary format). I can keep my entire technical library on my phone and I can grep through the entire set of books for something in particular that I need to find. I remember the days when my technical library was in printed form. It took a lot of space and often I'd be unable to predict which book I'd need at home vs at work, and end up not having it available. On this front, electronic books were a total game-changer for me.
- telotortium 7y ago
  How do you do this in practice? What do you use for OCR, and what do you use to search all the books on your phone?
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    I don't OCR, I buy the books in electronic form. I convert them to both text and PDF files. I grep to find the book(s) that have what I'm looking for, and search individual books using the PDF reader.
- 100qs 7y ago
  Agreed. As for reference materials, you missed the key point that they tend to go out of date. An outdated reference book is largely useless, in contrast to a good novel.
- shadowprofile77 7y ago
  If you don't mind my asking, how do you best search through your library of digital technical books? I've got over a couple hundred in my phone and many more in another device and keeping track of bookmarked sections is a hassle sometimes. Also, any particular reading app you recommend?
- ilkan 7y ago
  My split is reference/search (ebook), entertainment/immersion (ebook) and education/assimilation (paper). Ebooks are still too undifferentiated and featureless for effective learning. For example I can often remember that a definition or philosophy is in a large green book with an illustrated cover, 3/4 of the way into the book, on the bottom of the left hand page, author's notes in the left margin, citation reference in the bottom margin, smell of the page, paper color, font, initial cap size on the paragraph. That hooks into my recall and keeps the book interesting while I memorize it. Ebook formats lose a lot of information.
ses1984 7y ago
I'm the opposite, nothing beats the convenience of every book in the world in my pocket. I like my back lit ereader, I can read in bed in the dark and not bother my wife. If I don't have my ereader I can just use my phone. E readers and phones are all much lighter than books.
icebraining 7y ago
> I carry a small one in my pocket that bothers me constantly through the day Personally, I don't get why people put up with that, and then feel forced to escape their devices. I put up with Slack on my work machine, but on my personal laptop nothing can interrupt me, and even on my phone only calls (which I rarely get) and alarms can do so, everything is on the drawer for when I get to them. I know the defaults are often terrible, but it generally only takes a few minutes once to change them. The annoyances of paper books, on the other hand, can't be configured or scripted away :)
- mrmonkeyman 7y ago
  Don't marry or have needy friends is also a good tip.
jaredklewis 7y ago
As a fellow curmudgeon who really loves dead-tree books, I still sometimes smile thinking about an appearance Maurice Sendak made on a variety show shortly before he died: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPEZj21NmE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPEZj21NmE I have a few reasons to prefer paper books: - They don't have to be charged. - First sale doctrine applies. No 50 page TOS explaining what I can or cannot do with my own books. - I can lend my books to friends and family - After reading a book, I can easily give it or sell it to someone else - Notifications don't pop up when I'm reading. But like Sendak, I think I mostly just have an innate aversion to ebooks. I just don't like them. To me, an ebook feels like one of those electric wine bottle openers: efficient, but charmless.
- alpaca128 7y ago
  > They don't have to be charged My reader lasts weeks without recharging, that's enough for me not to matter. > Notifications don't pop up when I'm reading. I've never heard of notification pop-ups on an ebook reader. I hope you don't seriously compare reading on a normal tablet with paper books. I agree that old-school books are definitely more flexible and customer-friendly when it comes to lending etc. But I prefer carrying a light, thin device instead of a whole bag of books on journeys.
machinehermit 7y ago
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 with the adaptive display on is just better than any book IMO. The lighting is always perfect, the text is clearer than paper. I will be heart broke then I eventually have to replace it. To do anything but read on it is a sin. Reading on paper, I am just slower than reading on the S 8.4. 2560x1600 on such a small screen is what is needed to beat paper.

marvindanig 7y ago

Have you tried/heard of the Superbook [1] format? :-) [1] https://bubblin.io/docs/format https://bubblin.io/docs/format

bamboozled 7y ago

I agree with so much of what you said, plus I have to say I love post-it notes for keeping track of notes etc, nothing is better and more convenient then flipping the page open and immediately having the content at your fingertips. No slow crappy UI or micro keyboard to deal with, just what I wanted, the information. Yes there are downsides, but it's what I find most enjoyable and efficient.

auggierose 7y ago
If you have a slow crappy UI you might want to change your reader ...
- bamboozled 7y ago
  Sure or just use a book, where as I said, this isn't a problem for me.

JohnFen 7y ago

For me, it depends on the book. For recreational reading, I strongly prefer real, printed ones. For reference materials, I strongly prefer electronic ones (stripped of DRM and converted into a non-proprietary format). I can keep my entire technical library on my phone and I can grep through the entire set of books for something in particular that I need to find. I remember the days when my technical library was in printed form. It took a lot of space and often I'd be unable to predict which book I'd need at home vs at work, and end up not having it available. On this front, electronic books were a total game-changer for me.

telotortium 7y ago
How do you do this in practice? What do you use for OCR, and what do you use to search all the books on your phone?
- JohnFen 7y ago
  I don't OCR, I buy the books in electronic form. I convert them to both text and PDF files. I grep to find the book(s) that have what I'm looking for, and search individual books using the PDF reader.
100qs 7y ago
Agreed. As for reference materials, you missed the key point that they tend to go out of date. An outdated reference book is largely useless, in contrast to a good novel.
shadowprofile77 7y ago
If you don't mind my asking, how do you best search through your library of digital technical books? I've got over a couple hundred in my phone and many more in another device and keeping track of bookmarked sections is a hassle sometimes. Also, any particular reading app you recommend?
ilkan 7y ago
My split is reference/search (ebook), entertainment/immersion (ebook) and education/assimilation (paper). Ebooks are still too undifferentiated and featureless for effective learning. For example I can often remember that a definition or philosophy is in a large green book with an illustrated cover, 3/4 of the way into the book, on the bottom of the left hand page, author's notes in the left margin, citation reference in the bottom margin, smell of the page, paper color, font, initial cap size on the paragraph. That hooks into my recall and keeps the book interesting while I memorize it. Ebook formats lose a lot of information.

ses1984 7y ago

I'm the opposite, nothing beats the convenience of every book in the world in my pocket. I like my back lit ereader, I can read in bed in the dark and not bother my wife. If I don't have my ereader I can just use my phone. E readers and phones are all much lighter than books.

icebraining 7y ago

> I carry a small one in my pocket that bothers me constantly through the day Personally, I don't get why people put up with that, and then feel forced to escape their devices. I put up with Slack on my work machine, but on my personal laptop nothing can interrupt me, and even on my phone only calls (which I rarely get) and alarms can do so, everything is on the drawer for when I get to them. I know the defaults are often terrible, but it generally only takes a few minutes once to change them. The annoyances of paper books, on the other hand, can't be configured or scripted away :)

mrmonkeyman 7y ago
Don't marry or have needy friends is also a good tip.

jaredklewis 7y ago

As a fellow curmudgeon who really loves dead-tree books, I still sometimes smile thinking about an appearance Maurice Sendak made on a variety show shortly before he died: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPEZj21NmE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPEZj21NmE I have a few reasons to prefer paper books: - They don't have to be charged. - First sale doctrine applies. No 50 page TOS explaining what I can or cannot do with my own books. - I can lend my books to friends and family - After reading a book, I can easily give it or sell it to someone else - Notifications don't pop up when I'm reading. But like Sendak, I think I mostly just have an innate aversion to ebooks. I just don't like them. To me, an ebook feels like one of those electric wine bottle openers: efficient, but charmless.

alpaca128 7y ago
> They don't have to be charged My reader lasts weeks without recharging, that's enough for me not to matter. > Notifications don't pop up when I'm reading. I've never heard of notification pop-ups on an ebook reader. I hope you don't seriously compare reading on a normal tablet with paper books. I agree that old-school books are definitely more flexible and customer-friendly when it comes to lending etc. But I prefer carrying a light, thin device instead of a whole bag of books on journeys.

machinehermit 7y ago

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 with the adaptive display on is just better than any book IMO. The lighting is always perfect, the text is clearer than paper. I will be heart broke then I eventually have to replace it. To do anything but read on it is a sin. Reading on paper, I am just slower than reading on the S 8.4. 2560x1600 on such a small screen is what is needed to beat paper.