Our recent move has offered some insight into my preferred reading mode. The advent of the Baen Free Library got me reading ebooks. The recent gift of a Sony Touch has moved me from reading ebooks at my desk at lunch to using ebooks anywhere I want to read. I even plan on taking the ereader deer hunting this year. But I digress as I so often do.
When we listed our house at the beginning of August my wife and I packed my large collection of hardcovers and and paperbacks into boxes and stored them in order to make the house look less cluttered. Two or three thousand books even neatly stored will make a house look cluttered up apparently. So for the last seven or eight weeks I've been reading exclusively using my ereader.
With the recent purchase of Out of the Dark by David Weber I've discovered that I prefer to read using the ereader over reading a physical book. So the next time someone suggests that reading a physical book is a superior experience to using a device I'm going to politely suggest that one needs to use an ereader exclusively for a couple of months before categorically stating that the physical book is a superior experience.
I have tried the Kindle and the Nook. I found the Nook's controls off putting as I find the weight of the Sony off putting. I've tried an iPad.
ReplyDeleteAs a long time reader of PDFs, I appreciate that technical books and cookbooks and other 'reference' works are best served by a format with 'search'.
Also, blowing up text is a plus.
I thought the Nook had a 'good enough' screen, the weight was about right (not too light, not too fragile), and it felt good in the hand. But the key placement was a disaster and made it useless.
And ultimately, the DRM on most books makes them not something I will buy.
I will buy an eBook reader when:
1) I get one with the right weight
2) I get one with the right controls for my reading style
3) I get one with a good eInk screen
4) I can buy books utterly unencumbered by DRM that I can lend to friends, etc.
When the eReader and the book distribution network provide the functions of a basic book and for reasonable prices, I'll consider jumping in.
PS, I'll try an eReader for a couple of months when you lend me one. Since stores generally won't, I'll just have to labour in ignorance of the awesome.
ReplyDeleteI generally have been reading hardcover books and the Sony Touch that I have is about the same weight but the torque it applies to your wrists is less since the reader is a touch shorter than a hardcover book.
ReplyDeleteFrankly the weight of the reader is less of an issue than the interface.
That's too heavy for my tastes. I found the Nook, which weights about as much as a normal paperback, is about right, given the size and dimension. I'd have bought one if the buttons were not utterly, unusably backwards.
ReplyDeleteI guess you must have very girly wrists. I mean 286 grams is such a burden compared to the 864 grams of trade sized paperback I have in my office (The Legend of Beowulf). Or the 430 grams of the paperback (Monster Hunter Vendetta)
ReplyDeleteI guess you'll be relegated to reading magazines :-P
BTW, the Nook weighs 328 grams.
ReplyDeleteActual weight is irrelevant I suppose, as opposed to weight distribution. I feel the one handed torque far more pronouncedly on your Sony than on the Nook I tried out.
ReplyDeleteI just don't like your Sony. It feels awkward and unwieldy to me. The Nook felt good in my hand. If I could get a hack to handle reversing the buttons, it could be usable.
I've also been looking at iPads, but my desire to give Steve Jobs a cent is remote.