My current home library, sadly culled for a cross-country move, is now almost four (six shelf) bookcases. I love physical books. But, man, I love my ereader for so many of the reasons you listed. Plus one more: it has made accessing my public library much easier. I still go in, because I love the building, but carrying books and worrying about late-fees made it a lot harder to enjoy browsing. Now, I can spend my time there, and take out books, but I also can do a fair bit right from my computer/mobile device. I take out library books from my bed, from the park, from the bus, and they automatically expire so I don't have to worry about carrying them on a bad day or about late fees. (I actually do mourn that; late fees must be good for libraries. But I've donated to mine in the past and I want to start doing directed donations for ebooks now.)
Reading on an ereader and reading a physical book are completely different experiences. For most books, where I read them lineally, the ereader is best because it's easier to hold and has adjustable font sizes. For other books, where I'm continually wanting to flip back and forth, a paper book is what I crave. But, hey, I also preferred all my parents records over friends' tapes, because as much as they provided a convenience for portability, I liked being able to drop the needle exactly where I wanted it. And these days, the mainstream choices are CDs and digital downloads. Everything is always a tradeoff, so why shouldn't we all get to pick the tradeoff that works best for us?
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 10:06 pm (UTC)My current home library, sadly culled for a cross-country move, is now almost four (six shelf) bookcases. I love physical books. But, man, I love my ereader for so many of the reasons you listed. Plus one more: it has made accessing my public library much easier. I still go in, because I love the building, but carrying books and worrying about late-fees made it a lot harder to enjoy browsing. Now, I can spend my time there, and take out books, but I also can do a fair bit right from my computer/mobile device. I take out library books from my bed, from the park, from the bus, and they automatically expire so I don't have to worry about carrying them on a bad day or about late fees. (I actually do mourn that; late fees must be good for libraries. But I've donated to mine in the past and I want to start doing directed donations for ebooks now.)
Reading on an ereader and reading a physical book are completely different experiences. For most books, where I read them lineally, the ereader is best because it's easier to hold and has adjustable font sizes. For other books, where I'm continually wanting to flip back and forth, a paper book is what I crave. But, hey, I also preferred all my parents records over friends' tapes, because as much as they provided a convenience for portability, I liked being able to drop the needle exactly where I wanted it. And these days, the mainstream choices are CDs and digital downloads. Everything is always a tradeoff, so why shouldn't we all get to pick the tradeoff that works best for us?