iPad and Kindle: The demise of the Book

[Dannielle]

Don't get me wrong...I do love books too. But there was a time they were taking over my home. I've reclaimed that space (most of it...still have bookshelves of children's books)

psst...you can take your kindle to the pool with this-
http://www.amazon.com/Kwik-Tek-Multi...4305374&sr=1-2

I use a smaller size with my iphone on the boat or when reading in the tub...and I keep it with me when biking just in case it starts raining.

[stella2]

Dannielle, thanks so much for the tip for that product. I was really missing reading in the bath and in the pool on holiday. Now problem solved.

[mudmucker]

I am not averse to either.

I love the book experience for it's obvious soulful and tactile experience. I love my kindle too. In my 20's though, I helped a friend move around 80 boxes of books and it wasn't fun. I vowed from then on to not obtain a collection like that. I became a library fan. Anywhere I moved, I got library cards to at least 5-6 surrounding towns. I love the library experience, to go in and lose yourself among the myriad of aisles and quiet. On a rainy day I've emerged from the library hours later, quite transformed and refreshed. I love the library experience so much I attempt to make the experience as organic as possible - I make a point to ride my bike to the library with my panniers and depending on where I've lived, has been many miles. Currently, riding to the nearest library is a 34 mile round-trip so it becomes a special destination experience for me.

I also love used bookstores. B&N and all that is fun and I often visit, but it is comparatively glitzy and commercial...new books are even superflous in a way although it must start new at some point. Like libraries, going to a used bookstore to me is green and utilitarian. I take comfort in used books. My favorite used bookstore is Troubador Books, a treasure of a place within driving distance to me.

I don't have a lot of room, nor do I like the accumulation of piles of newspapers, magazines, etc. I will still buy a book now and then, used or new but it has to be something like a reference or something not amenable to electronic form.

I love my Kindle too for obvious reasons stated previously. I bought one this winter as a present to myself before a long recovering from surgery. I couldn't drive for 6 weeks and it was stormy enough to keep friends from visiting often. I could get most anything I wanted immediately and at any hour. I can pile hundreds of books in one device and carry it where ever I want. I can read comfortably in bed without having to hold a heavy book. Saves a lot of space in my house that's for sure.

I don't think books will vanish anytime too soon. Books are too much of an ethereal human experience to be lost forever.

[withm]

What's inside your Kindle????

http://www.eevblog.com/2010/09/03/ee...fi-6-teardown/

Scroll down for a video highlighting the insides.

[GLC1968]

I have given in and asked for a Kindle for Christmas. While I'm a HUGE fan of actual paper books, I am now seeing enough of a draw to consider e-books.

1) I want to be able to enlarge the text so that I can read while on the treadmill or trainer.

2) I want the option to enlarge the text for when I don't have my reading glasses handy (aging sucks!).

3) I read fast. For novels, this is wasteful as many of the books I read I have no interest in keeping. I donate them, but still...what a waste of paper and resources for 8 -10 hours of entertainment! I will continue to buy books that I want to keep as a resource, but for novels...ebooks just seem smarter.

4) I hate the waste of magazines. We are down to only two subscriptions - both of which are magazines that we save after we have read them (again, as resources). One is National Geographic and one is Mother Earth News. The rest? I'd be happy to read online/electronically.

5) Because I read fast, traveling is a pain. I cannot carry all the books I'll go through on a long flight and I hate buying new ones when I've still got unread books on my nightstand. With a Kindle (or other such device), I can carry way more books than I'll ever read in a single trip.

I do think there will always be room for real paper books on my shelves though. That will never change.

[emily_in_nc]

I do not have an e-reader and am not attracted to them, but I can see that I may be needing one in the future.

We recently downsized from a 4BR house to a 1BR apartment. During the pre-move downsizing, we sold, donated, or swapped hundreds of books. I especially enjoy bookmooch.com and swaptree.com (now swap.com - they merged) for swapping a book I'm through with for something I'd like to read at very low cost. We're now down to a couple of shelves of books, and that is plenty. Except for books that are special and that we'll always keep, we use the library or swap.com so we don't acquire more books that take up valuable space.

If I lived in a place where books were hard to find (no good library, bookstores, etc), I would definitely invest in a Kindle so I could continue reading. I may do that soon as we are building a condo in Belize. When we move down full-time, books will be hard to come by and expensive to ship in, so I can see a Kindle filling a real need, not just a want. Until then, I'll stick with real books. Like so many have stated so eloquently, there's just something about the feel, the smell, the satisfaction of a real book in one's hands over an electronic device.

[Roadtrip]

Here's an interesting link about the new Kindle 3 that's out now.

http://kevinrose.com/blogg/2010/8/27...y-love-it.html

Very, very cute little machine and down right cheap for the Wi-Fi version. I mostly do book shopping while near a WiFi spot so $139 with free shipping it's really quite reasonable. Now, the price of the books are still going to sting if you read loads and loads of books. Each popular title is about ten bucks, some cheaper, some more expensive. My local library has even joined a program that allows them to lend secure ePub versions of eBooks that are supported by some eReaders, so that is an option for me now, not sure how wide spread that program is or similar ones.

http://ohdbks.lib.overdrive.com/
(seems limited to State of Ohio Libraries)

I still love going to used book stores and libraries. There is simply something about a book that is somehow pacifying. Perhaps a connection to my youth and always having a book in my hand where I could escape to another land in-between the pages, if even for a moment.