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I have had a Kindle since January. My husband has had an iPad for about the same length of time. Having an e-reading device has revitalized his love for reading. He buys books and reads them often. The only reason he will buy paper any more is if he is at the book signing of a friend and wants to show support. He’ll bring home the paper book and then buy an e-version for reading. We buy all the books on one account, so when he buys an e-book I can also read it. It is kind of nice to not have to negotiate over first turn. I really liked reading the Hugo voter samples on my Kindle. However we’ve noticed some troubles.
Howard bought the latest Pratchett book and began to read it. I then downloaded it to my Kindle, which helpfully assumed that I’d want to start in the same place where Howard had been reading. I began reading on chapter three without realizing I was doing it. Another problem also manifested with this particular book. Pratchett loves to do footnotes. I love to read his footnotes. On an iPad you tap, read the footnote, tap, and are back to your place. On the Kindle I have to push up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-u
I still find reading on an electronic device to be a touch distracting. It takes awhile for my brain to settle into the story because I associate electronic devices with internet and work. When I am stressed and need to disengage, I pick paper over electronic unless there happens to be a book that Howard bought electronically that I really want to read. Most of my reading is still on paper.
I know it is possible to borrow e-books from my local library. I don’t want to learn how. I want to read, not learn a new electronic-based skill. I certainly do not want to have to troubleshoot a loaning system. Electronic devices invariably have snags, errors, crashes, and annoyances. All of these can be recovered from, but all of them can steal my small space of relaxation and kill my good mood. About the only frustration a paper book can supply is being lost.
I regularly loan books to a long-time out-of-work neighbor. He has no money for cable television or to buy an expensive e-reader. Getting to the public library costs him money either in gas or bus fees, but he can come raid my library easily. If all my books were electronic he would be out of luck.
We are still buying kids books on paper only. I do so for the following reasons:
I can hand a child a $7 paper back and not have to police the treatment of the book. Books end up in bathrooms, spattered with snack food, left on floors, buried under piles of clothing, stepped on, shelved, stacked, and read. I could not do the same with a device costing over $100. I would have to keep track of it and spend time training my kids to treat it correctly. This is not just a kid problem either. I constantly have to remind myself not to leave my Kindle laying where it could get knocked off, stepped on, or otherwise smashed. That little bit of extra required attention can be wearisome when I'm stressed or tired.
I have four kids. I want them all to be reading, sometimes simultaneously. I don’t want to spend $400-$700 to get enough reading devices for everyone to read at the same time. Additionally we have a house policy that a child can have an electronic device when they care enough to buy it with their own money. This way they have an emotional stake in taking care of the device. If my kids save up $150, they’ll buy an iPod or a 3DS, not an e-reader. They regularly spend $3-$15 buying books for themselves.
One of the best ways to get kids to choose reading is to have books laying around where the covers can catch their interest. Many moments of boredom have resulted in hours of reading because book was laying nearby. This does not happen if all the books are neatly filed on my Kindle.
Physically taking my kids to the library addresses reading in a new way. The kids are able to speak with a librarian and really think about what they are looking for in a book. Then sometimes their favorite books are ones that happen to be shelved near the one that the librarian was showing them. Involving a librarian in the book selection process means a new perspective and opens up new possibilities for the kids.
Owning a physical book and shelving it with their possessions is one of the ways my kids begin to form their identity. Different kids will latch on to different books or series of books. Then they loan them to each other. There is power in being the one who loans or recommends a book. If all the books are organized in the same electronic library my kids will not feel the same sense of ownership.
My children spend a lot of time playing computer and video games. Sitting down with a paper book gives their brains a break from the flicker of screens. It encourages them to switch over into a relaxed way of thinking. I’ve had them read things on my Kindle or Howard’s iPad, they read for shorter lengths of time because the presence of the electronic device is a constant reminder that there are video games in the world and that those video games might be more fun than reading.
When my Kindle was new, I had three children taking turns with it reading the same book. The process for bookmarking and unbookmarking was button-press intensive. As a result, they only book marked, never unmarking. This meant that we always spent at least a minute, sometimes as much as five, trying to figure out which of the bookmarks belonged to the child whose turn it was to read.
In summary: Paper books are still useful to me in ways that e-books have not yet managed to replicate.
Read more by Sandra Tayler or view the original post at onecobble.com.
One parent’s perspective on e-readers for kids
Well Said.
PS. I have to admit though, that I personally prefer audio books when I can get them. More costly, but they free my hands to doodle sketches while I listen.
I loved going to the library as a child and looking at all the brightly colored book covers. I still like perusing the shelves to see what catches my eye. I know I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but I often do. I can chose a thick or thin book by sight. And I don't have to purchase a book until I've read it and want to own it.
If I need to refresh my memory about a scene I can usually find it by guessing how far into the book I was by sight (the read side was about that thick), then scanning through that area. You can't do that on an e-reader.
If I drop a book it won't break and prevent me from reading all my other books too.
I find there is something very comforting about curling up on the couch with a paper book in hand. I like feeling the weight of the book in my hand, hearing the whisper of the page as I turn it, feeling the texture of the paper between my fingers.
Sync
Awesome!
I especially agree with ALL of your reasons for paper books for your kids. I'm encouraged the next generation might actually know what a real book IS, even. :)
Inconvenient externalities
Sadly, per Sandra's post, this is inconvenient for the rest of the family, and for the friends to whom I could otherwise be loaning good books. But those are largely external costs, and I've heartlessly prioritized my own convenience over that.
(I say "largely external." When Sandra buys a paper copy of a book I'm reading on the iPad it comes out of funds we share, so yeah, I guess that's a case where an external cost has come back around and become internal.)
Re: Inconvenient externalities
Michelle J.
http://www.onecobble.com/2011/11/05/kin
Same boat, different Captain
However, we do often read one of my wife's books at the same time. This involves me dog earing the page I am on, and then, after she finishes, taking it to work, where I will usually kill it off in one or two shifts.
She doesn't like the idea of an ereader, because most of her reading is done in the bathroom, and electronics and tub time don't work well together.
Me, because a lot of my reading is in 10-15 minute bursts while loading or unloading, my kindle app is perfect. Being the only one using it, I go right to where I left off, no fuss.
However, there is something to be said for paper books. While I was in the military, I was never without at least one book in a cargo pocket. With a lot of hurry up and wait, I was always able to tolerate the lines because I was instantly somewhere else. And, I could always manage to read a soggy book. I had an early 90s electronic book, it lasted a month and a half.
Re: Same boat, different Captain
Howard recently updated to the OS on his phone and the process destroyed a contact list he'd spent a decade accumulating. Technology does not always behave as we expect.
DOSbox and Good Old Games have been my friends. :-)
http://www.dosbox.com/
http://www.gog.com/
Kind of agree
The Kobo is 16-grey e-ink like the newer kindles, but is touch-screen, so the reading process is much more like a paper book than with the typical navigation keys. Touchscreen was one of the non-negotiable features - frankly, Amazon should've made kindle 3 touch - and I see they now are making a touch model. The only thing Kindle has which is cool is a keyboard, but I don't have an e-reader to type on, and the on-screen one is OK for occasional use on the touchscreen.
I don;t reckon I'd like a non-touch reader, and I know I wouldn't want an LCD type screen - e-ink was another non-negotiable feature, granted it doesn't do colour, but I don't mind that, most books don't either - and the reading experience is, for me, much better.
But I still own paper books and will no doubt continue to acquire them...
Edited at 2011-11-05 09:42 pm (UTC)
Essentially, if I am trialing a new author, the reduced cost of a Kindle copy wins every time, this is because a paperback novel in Australia is now over $25.
If it is a book of popular non-fiction, Something that I am likely to read once and consider/ponder for a bit before moving on to something else...Kindle. Everytime.
If it is a book I want to read while travelling/doing yacht racing or want to read underwater (yes, I have a full function, 12m rated, waterproof satchel for my kindle)... Well, being able to read novels through my diving mask while doing an equalisation stop on the way back to the surface is just amazingly cool!
But for novels that truly effect me, for the joy of going browsing through second hand books stores and bringing home some rescues/adoptions, for lending and borrowing treasured books with friends... That takes paper versions.
I have now managed the fine art of falling asleep in a hammock on a hot , weekend afternoon with a kindle....but where a book will neatly shade my face by draping its elaves across me...the kindle just bumps my nose.
Alex
HOWEVER, I lived abroad for 5 1/2 years and wasn't able to take my books with me, which was heartbreaking. Sadly, I didn't do much reading while in Sweden, since my access to English books was limited and I struggled along in reading Swedish. I would have sold a kidney for an e-reader then!
In a couple of months, my family and I will be moving to Saudi Arabia. I realized that my book problem was too big a problem to ignore. The cost of transporting the books was too high. Buying a Kindle was the solution for me. I have been diligently downloading a large selection of classics for free and then modern fiction for reasonably low prices. We'll bring the kids' books along with us to Saudi Arabi After traveling with my kindle, I'm sold on it. I can carry an entire library with me without wasting any space. I still buy paper books. I still borrow books from the library. But I consider my Kindle the greatest gift for my new adventure living abroad.
As for bringing a kindle into the bathroom, putting it in a ziploc bag and sealing it should solve the problem of getting it wet.
I do love my Kindle for travel, although it annoys me that stewardesses make me "turn it off" for take offs and landings. Those are the nervous times when I most want to be able to read and distract myself.
If they give you a hard time, just turn it off temporarily and turn it back on after they're gone.
In the mean time, I had an ingenious idea. Since Kindles will display PDF files, you can just load up an empty PDF and that should work. I just made one right now: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8071753/blank.p
That should work, in theory, to save you any argument time about turning it off.