4 ms·

Being a "I can't wait for" enthusiast of eBooks before they existed, when they finally arrived I must sadly report they "aren't ready yet". There are two major

Being a "I can't wait for" enthusiast of eBooks before they existed, when they finally arrived I must sadly report they "aren't ready yet". There are two major issues that prevent eBooks from supplanting paper books. 1. The design of devices on which to read eBooks are far too bulky, non-ergonomic and expensive. Until 13" tablets are ultra-light weight, malleable, full color, and have extra long battery life, at a reasonable price, the medium will play second-fiddle to the comfort of a real book. 2. eBook ownership is confusing and tied to particular companies which exert authoritative control over one's library. Having to recollect the particular app to open to find a particular book sucks. But worse, the horror stories of cancelled accounts and subsequent loss of all purchased books will keep any thinking person away from anything more than cursory purchases. Fix these two problems and the eBook deluge will really begin. Until then I wouldn't even be surprised to see a drop in sales.

bryanlarsen 12y ago
13"? E-book readers should be smaller, not larger. A phone size e-book reader would be perfect for fiction. It would be crazy lightweight, you could read all day without having to rest your arm to hold your book. The size is also perfect for reading: your eye can focus on several entire lines simultaneously without any eye scan. I have several nice e-readers, but I always read on my phone because the size is much more comfortable. That forces me to sit up so I can rest my arm in my lap. In the dark an OLED screen will always be superior to e-paper due to the lack of a backlight.
- adrusi 12y ago
  But you need a larger medium for technical books that are filled with diagrams, or if you ever want to read a pdf. Really you'd want a device in the shape of an A4 or US letter paper. Phones, especially 5"+ phones, are great for reading novels. I don't see the need for a dedicated device for ebooks that can be re-flowed accurately.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Supposedly the paperwhite doesn't use a traditional backlight http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/26/technology/light-reading.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/26/technology/lig...
- kruk 12y ago
  I use Kindle Voyage and the reading experience in the dark is superior to that of iPhone 6. The screen is lit but it doesn't shine in your face, so you can read comfortably for a prolonged period of time. I still read a lot on the phone because it's always available but with 3G enabled Kindle you can freely switch between the two devices and always pick up where you left off no matter what device you're using. I somewhat still prefer reading paper books but I do majority of my reading on Kindle. It's always available, it can hold thousands of books and if there is a book you want to read chances are you can get it on your device within minutes.
- TylerE 12y ago
  I'd love to see something with a slightly smaller screen than the kindle voyage, with physical page turn buttons ON THE BOTTOM, for comfortable one handed reading. Ideally physical buttons on all 4 sides so it works however you want to hold it.
jerf 12y ago
I consider my 7" Nexus tablet to be more comfortable to read than a trade paperback already. I fiddled with the Kindle app settings quite a bit (light text on dark background, set the font somewhat large because, what, I'm going to run out of paper?), but I'd rather read novels that way now than the weird ways you have to hold a trade paperback. Well-bound hardcovers are a bit of a harder call. But still, I'd contend a lot of people's "comfort" with such books is still just familiarity. Hardcovers can still poke you, when brand new can still be stiff and pages can tend to flip themselves back and are really fairly particular about how they are held... I mean, I don't want to make it sound like reading a book is some sort of physical ordeal, my point is merely that, well, both ebooks on easily-available hardware and real books are really quite trivial now and to the extent that there is a difference, it isn't much. Why, the Kindle app even occasionally accurately captures the experience of dropping the book on the floor and losing your place when you accidentally pull up the bottom bar and then accidentally swipe 50% forward into the book! And it replicates the experience of finding your place again by finding where the pages start sticking together because they've never been opened (there's a little marker left in the book's scrollbar when you jump somewhere). Really the verisimilitude has gotten out of hand in ebook apps if you ask me.
- ghaff 12y ago
  Ebook fiction (and other linear mostly text) is great on a Kindle Paperwhite and mostly good on a tablet. It's lightweight and easy to read even if the lighting isn't perfect and I can hold an entire library when I'm traveling. The main downside is that I can't pass it to someone else or buy "free"/cheap (+ shipping) used copies. A graphically rich book tends to be less good (or, at least, hit or miss with tablet better than epaper Kindle) and I find the ebook model tends to fall down completely for certain types of books where you flip back and forth or stick sticky bookmarks in like cookbooks or guidebooks. Searchability should be a win I guess but I just don't like them. Because I read most of my books when I travel, I tend to buy ebooks (even if they end up costing more) for what's likely to be linear text and physical books for everything else.
sliverstorm 12y ago
Bulky? My Kindle is smaller in every dimension than any book I've ever read. As for 13" tablets, I don't want a 13" tablet for reading gumshoe novels. I think there is a sharp divide that needs to be drawn. Biology textbooks require an entirely different kind of device than Harry Potter. Books already acknowledge this- the paper, size, ink, hell even the binding & covers are completely different. I agree that the biology-textbook-format readers have a ways to go, although I think that's largely a question of demand. There is little market interest in a 14" 4x3 tablet (which is the digital equivalent to the 8.5x11 format). I'm bummed because I have a number of magazines and reference books I'd like to have on tap.
Turing_Machine 12y ago
Why do you need full color or any of the other things you mention to read novels? When it comes to textbooks or art books, yes. Monochrome is fine for novels. The eInk Kindles have quite a long battery life, too.
manicdee 12y ago
I use my iPad Mini 3 for reading PDFs such as data sheets, schematics of circuits, photography books, and so forth. I can understand your interest in larger screens such as the iPad Air 2, but there are so few book I even have access to (much less, use) that are that kind of format. The largest books I regularly use are O'Reilly publications. My notes are usually taken in A5 spiralbound notebooks, or Field Guides pocket books. A4 is a gigantic format for me. As for ownership of books, I buy DRM where possible, and strip the DRM from the books which aren't available any other way. So I have Michael C Feathers, "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" in my iBooks library even though it is exclusively a Kindle book. Yes, I had to taint my credit card with the stench of Amazon, but I won't let them take back something they have already sold me. Especially when the electronic version costs more than the paper one!
viraptor 12y ago
I think it really depends on the audience, location, expectations, etc. I started to read ebooks at the time when my device was (seriously) SL45i - that's around 20x8 letters if you can handle small text. At that point it was already better than books because I could actually get the texts I could not get locally. For me that meant I could read a lot, in original (not translations), ... for free (ebooks weren't really sold at the time...). And already at that point I said it was better than carrying books around. I could read on the bus on the way to school, even with the backpack already full of stuff I needed to take. Now I buy .epub/.pdf versions without protection whenever possible, but also got a lot of google play books. Honestly, apart from one or two, I don't expect to re-read them later and if my google library disappears for some reason, I don't care. (which doesn't mean I don't say DRM/file-rental is bullshit and shouldn't exist anyway) I haven't experienced the "particular app to find a particular book" issue in ~15 years. At the moment I have two apps - play books (store + epubs) and kindle (just one or two books not available on play). I rarely had more than one in the past. Maybe my experience is different than yours - but just saying that we're doing way better than in the last decade. And for some of us the last decade was already enough to drop physical books whenever possible.
SwellJoe 12y ago
"bulky, non-ergonomic and expensive" and you want a 13" tablet for reading!? I have a Kindle Paperwhite and a Nexus 7, both are perfect for reading books; I don't find them bulky or non-ergonomic (except the zooming problem which I have on all multi-touch devices...I don't seem to have the motor control required to effectively use multi-touch screens). A friend had one of the 10" Kindles and I found it bulky and non-ergonomic. It was just too big. I can't even begin to imagine trying to curl up in bed with something the size of a mid-sized laptop screen! Current tablets are already cheap, full-color, and have quite long battery life (though not as long as the original Kindles which had tremendous battery life, or the current gen Kindle e-ink models which last a week or so). Your point 2 is valid, and I agree with it, but not enough to not buy ebooks. I have read more books in the past five years of having a Kindle than at any time except when I was in school and read to escape the tedium of my teacher's talking. And, your predicted deluge of ebook buying has begun, and there has not been a drop in sales, though some of the old publishers are feeling the pinch, thousands of independent authors have stepped in to fill the space.
throwwayZfF93 12y ago
eBook ownership is confusing and tied to particular companies which exert authoritative control over one's library. This is easily remedied with about 30 minutes of googling and fiddling with the right software. Once you have the software installed, it is pretty easy to strip the DRM from all your ebooks. You will be able to keep them forever and pass them on to your grandkids.
shmerl 12y ago
> 2. eBook ownership is confusing and tied to particular companies which exert authoritative control over one's library. > Fix these two problems and the eBook deluge will really begin. If you want to fix #2, don't support those who publish e-books with DRM by buying them. I.e. vote with your wallet.

bryanlarsen 12y ago

13"? E-book readers should be smaller, not larger. A phone size e-book reader would be perfect for fiction. It would be crazy lightweight, you could read all day without having to rest your arm to hold your book. The size is also perfect for reading: your eye can focus on several entire lines simultaneously without any eye scan. I have several nice e-readers, but I always read on my phone because the size is much more comfortable. That forces me to sit up so I can rest my arm in my lap. In the dark an OLED screen will always be superior to e-paper due to the lack of a backlight.

adrusi 12y ago
But you need a larger medium for technical books that are filled with diagrams, or if you ever want to read a pdf. Really you'd want a device in the shape of an A4 or US letter paper. Phones, especially 5"+ phones, are great for reading novels. I don't see the need for a dedicated device for ebooks that can be re-flowed accurately.
sliverstorm 12y ago
Supposedly the paperwhite doesn't use a traditional backlight http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/26/technology/light-reading.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/26/technology/lig...
kruk 12y ago
I use Kindle Voyage and the reading experience in the dark is superior to that of iPhone 6. The screen is lit but it doesn't shine in your face, so you can read comfortably for a prolonged period of time. I still read a lot on the phone because it's always available but with 3G enabled Kindle you can freely switch between the two devices and always pick up where you left off no matter what device you're using. I somewhat still prefer reading paper books but I do majority of my reading on Kindle. It's always available, it can hold thousands of books and if there is a book you want to read chances are you can get it on your device within minutes.
TylerE 12y ago
I'd love to see something with a slightly smaller screen than the kindle voyage, with physical page turn buttons ON THE BOTTOM, for comfortable one handed reading. Ideally physical buttons on all 4 sides so it works however you want to hold it.

jerf 12y ago

I consider my 7" Nexus tablet to be more comfortable to read than a trade paperback already. I fiddled with the Kindle app settings quite a bit (light text on dark background, set the font somewhat large because, what, I'm going to run out of paper?), but I'd rather read novels that way now than the weird ways you have to hold a trade paperback. Well-bound hardcovers are a bit of a harder call. But still, I'd contend a lot of people's "comfort" with such books is still just familiarity. Hardcovers can still poke you, when brand new can still be stiff and pages can tend to flip themselves back and are really fairly particular about how they are held... I mean, I don't want to make it sound like reading a book is some sort of physical ordeal, my point is merely that, well, both ebooks on easily-available hardware and real books are really quite trivial now and to the extent that there is a difference, it isn't much. Why, the Kindle app even occasionally accurately captures the experience of dropping the book on the floor and losing your place when you accidentally pull up the bottom bar and then accidentally swipe 50% forward into the book! And it replicates the experience of finding your place again by finding where the pages start sticking together because they've never been opened (there's a little marker left in the book's scrollbar when you jump somewhere). Really the verisimilitude has gotten out of hand in ebook apps if you ask me.

ghaff 12y ago
Ebook fiction (and other linear mostly text) is great on a Kindle Paperwhite and mostly good on a tablet. It's lightweight and easy to read even if the lighting isn't perfect and I can hold an entire library when I'm traveling. The main downside is that I can't pass it to someone else or buy "free"/cheap (+ shipping) used copies. A graphically rich book tends to be less good (or, at least, hit or miss with tablet better than epaper Kindle) and I find the ebook model tends to fall down completely for certain types of books where you flip back and forth or stick sticky bookmarks in like cookbooks or guidebooks. Searchability should be a win I guess but I just don't like them. Because I read most of my books when I travel, I tend to buy ebooks (even if they end up costing more) for what's likely to be linear text and physical books for everything else.

sliverstorm 12y ago

Bulky? My Kindle is smaller in every dimension than any book I've ever read. As for 13" tablets, I don't want a 13" tablet for reading gumshoe novels. I think there is a sharp divide that needs to be drawn. Biology textbooks require an entirely different kind of device than Harry Potter. Books already acknowledge this- the paper, size, ink, hell even the binding & covers are completely different. I agree that the biology-textbook-format readers have a ways to go, although I think that's largely a question of demand. There is little market interest in a 14" 4x3 tablet (which is the digital equivalent to the 8.5x11 format). I'm bummed because I have a number of magazines and reference books I'd like to have on tap.

Turing_Machine 12y ago

Why do you need full color or any of the other things you mention to read novels? When it comes to textbooks or art books, yes. Monochrome is fine for novels. The eInk Kindles have quite a long battery life, too.

manicdee 12y ago

I use my iPad Mini 3 for reading PDFs such as data sheets, schematics of circuits, photography books, and so forth. I can understand your interest in larger screens such as the iPad Air 2, but there are so few book I even have access to (much less, use) that are that kind of format. The largest books I regularly use are O'Reilly publications. My notes are usually taken in A5 spiralbound notebooks, or Field Guides pocket books. A4 is a gigantic format for me. As for ownership of books, I buy DRM where possible, and strip the DRM from the books which aren't available any other way. So I have Michael C Feathers, "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" in my iBooks library even though it is exclusively a Kindle book. Yes, I had to taint my credit card with the stench of Amazon, but I won't let them take back something they have already sold me. Especially when the electronic version costs more than the paper one!

viraptor 12y ago

I think it really depends on the audience, location, expectations, etc. I started to read ebooks at the time when my device was (seriously) SL45i - that's around 20x8 letters if you can handle small text. At that point it was already better than books because I could actually get the texts I could not get locally. For me that meant I could read a lot, in original (not translations), ... for free (ebooks weren't really sold at the time...). And already at that point I said it was better than carrying books around. I could read on the bus on the way to school, even with the backpack already full of stuff I needed to take. Now I buy .epub/.pdf versions without protection whenever possible, but also got a lot of google play books. Honestly, apart from one or two, I don't expect to re-read them later and if my google library disappears for some reason, I don't care. (which doesn't mean I don't say DRM/file-rental is bullshit and shouldn't exist anyway) I haven't experienced the "particular app to find a particular book" issue in ~15 years. At the moment I have two apps - play books (store + epubs) and kindle (just one or two books not available on play). I rarely had more than one in the past. Maybe my experience is different than yours - but just saying that we're doing way better than in the last decade. And for some of us the last decade was already enough to drop physical books whenever possible.

SwellJoe 12y ago

"bulky, non-ergonomic and expensive" and you want a 13" tablet for reading!? I have a Kindle Paperwhite and a Nexus 7, both are perfect for reading books; I don't find them bulky or non-ergonomic (except the zooming problem which I have on all multi-touch devices...I don't seem to have the motor control required to effectively use multi-touch screens). A friend had one of the 10" Kindles and I found it bulky and non-ergonomic. It was just too big. I can't even begin to imagine trying to curl up in bed with something the size of a mid-sized laptop screen! Current tablets are already cheap, full-color, and have quite long battery life (though not as long as the original Kindles which had tremendous battery life, or the current gen Kindle e-ink models which last a week or so). Your point 2 is valid, and I agree with it, but not enough to not buy ebooks. I have read more books in the past five years of having a Kindle than at any time except when I was in school and read to escape the tedium of my teacher's talking. And, your predicted deluge of ebook buying has begun, and there has not been a drop in sales, though some of the old publishers are feeling the pinch, thousands of independent authors have stepped in to fill the space.

throwwayZfF93 12y ago

eBook ownership is confusing and tied to particular companies which exert authoritative control over one's library. This is easily remedied with about 30 minutes of googling and fiddling with the right software. Once you have the software installed, it is pretty easy to strip the DRM from all your ebooks. You will be able to keep them forever and pass them on to your grandkids.

shmerl 12y ago

> 2. eBook ownership is confusing and tied to particular companies which exert authoritative control over one's library. > Fix these two problems and the eBook deluge will really begin. If you want to fix #2, don't support those who publish e-books with DRM by buying them. I.e. vote with your wallet.