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You can read ebooks on even a quite low-end smartphone; all you really need is a display large enough to present readable text. There are lots of cheap Android
by aaronem 13y ago
You can read ebooks on even a quite low-end smartphone; all you really need is a display large enough to present readable text. There are lots of cheap Android phones out there; you can get them subsidized on a cell contract and not pay anything out of pocket, or go prepaid instead and spend around $50 for a device capable of running Kindle for Android.
Sure, there's a small initial barrier to entry, in the sense that you have to have some device, where a paperback novel has no such constraint. On the other hand, how many paperbacks does $50 get you these days?
- untog 13y agohow many paperbacks does $50 get you these days? In a used bookshop? At least fifty.
- aaronem 13y agoExcuse my imprecision; I should've said "how many new mass-market paperbacks does $50 get you these days?" Most of what you find in a used book store isn't available in ebook format at any price, at least in my experience of used book stores.
- untog 13y agoMost of what you find in a used book store isn't available in ebook format at any price Which is precisely the problem. eBooks destroy the very valuable (particularly in a societal sense) used books market.
- minikites 13y agoI went to an annual end-of-year book sale where paperbacks are 10 cents, so $50 would get you 500 books. The inability to re-sell ebooks destroys this secondary market.
- gdilla 13y agoYou can also read ebooks in a browser, so if you already have a computer, no new hardware.