The Joy of Reading

Hsve been an avid reader all my life, sometimes two or three books a week. And, in spite of all the electronic options, I STILL like books, real books, with pages to turn and reviews on the back cover and good cover art. I bought a Kindle Fire, thinking I might like it. I don't. Then I won a Nook Reader at my company's picnic. Don't like that either (although, in reality, it is better than the Kindle in many ways, at least for net browsing.) I hate the fact that bookstores are declining. For those of us who feel the same, what is it about reading an actual book that provides so much more enjoyment than reading something on a tablet?

It's a paper fetish, dear. Try wrapping some paper towels around your head before you read electronic print.
Hugh Kenner had a lot to say on this subject. There is something about holding a book in your hand. Depending on circumstances, for example, a hardcover or a paperback might suit you better. And flipping from one page to another, say to check the two, ever-so-slightly different uses of the word potato-head, to see what the author is doing between pages 42 and 317... that can't be accomplished on a tablet. Also, we were raised with the visceral experience of books. Snuggling next to a parent while reading or being read to can not be evoked or reproduced by scanning a story on an invention.
LOVE my Kindle. I love reading more than I love books. I like being able to be in my bed and find a book I want to read and in 5 seconds it is on my Kindle and I can start reading it. I love being able to preview books because many times I will read the free preview and decide I don't like it. I used to love bookstores though. Still do. But now I view actual books as needless clutter. There is no point in having the physical book anymore, unless it's a signed book or a coffee table type. Book snobs just want to display their book clutter so people think they are smart.
I like books too OP, but I just don't have the space for them. I'm about to purchase a Kindle. I don't want a tablet to watch movies or go online, so I'm thinking the Kindle White is the best option for me.
I'm with r3, and was a bit of a real book snob and a hold out for a long, long time, but totally converted to an ereader. I love the fact that I can make the type larger so I can read without reading glasses, and the backlight so I can read in bed with the light out. I still get books from the library that aren't available electronically, but the library is going digital and just about all new releases are available to download.
[quote]And flipping from one page to another, say to check the two, ever-so-slightly different uses of the word potato-head, to see what the author is doing between pages 42 and 317... that can't be accomplished on a tablet. Yes, it can. Not only that, you can search for every use of the word "potato-head", and get the definition of "potato-head" without leaving the page. Then you can instantly download and read"The Tale of Mrs. Potato-head" without having to track down a copy and wait until it arrives. Then you can keep both books forever without taking up any shelf space. And will no one think of the trees?
Also on the Kindle HD, you can get magazines. Full color magazines, no clutter. You can save them or let them expire off your device. I had the black and white kindle but upgraded to the HD Fire for the magazine subscriptions.
I have a Kindle, but I don't use it very much. I still like books for all the reasons already given. Also, for me, there's just something about finishing a book and then putting it on a shelf that says, "Hey, I finished another book." I don't get this sense of completion reading on a Kindle. I don't know how I'd have decorated all these years if not with books. I've been a reader since age three. Having books around seems as essential as having food in the house to eat, something to drink, clean clothes, and so forth. I do like having the ability to change typeface size in Kindle, and I think this is what will win me over in the end. I now have enough books, even after shedding 1,000+ plus around ten years ago, that I'll never need more for the look they create. I miss bookstores. These last four years, I have lived without a bookstore in walking distance of my home for the first time in my adult life. (It moved, not I.) I miss record/CD stores even more. If I could snap my fingers and bring back bookstores and record stores, even though it meant the end of computers and our new way of life, I'd do it like that :::SNAPS FINGERS:::
Reading magazines on the computer sucks, R7. I don't know if reading them on a Kindle is better, but I will never like reading magazines on a computer.
I love reading and I love books. But I absolutely love reading, even long books, with ibooks on my iphone. I love having a narrow column and a screen with contained text and a built in dictionary. I prefer ibooks on my iphone even to my ipad. And I love being able to have reading material with me without carrying a book around. I am reading more and more quickly than ever before. Sure, I love the physical feel and look of a book, and I love having a library at home, but I actually prefer reading with ibooks.
Kids want gadgets, and nothing else. Musio that exists nowhere in their room, books likewise, Facebook "friends," ... Everything sensory in some "Cloud."
OP = too poor to afford cable.
I love the books too OP. Although I am sure I could adapt and read on a tablet. I recently read some short stories on my IPhone- too small. I find reading tablets (my IPhone) can make getting to sleep if I read in bed, more difficult. I do have books all over my home. But I do not have them to make people think I am smart. I have them because I read them and like to share them with other friends who read. Whether I am smart of dumb or whatever probably is not apparent by the books in my home- rather from knowing me. Personally I do not know anyone who has lots of books who is not a reader, i.e. has lots of books so they look smart.
someone told me that flipping back to re-read, to check on something several pages or chapters earlier is not very good on kindle books are better for curling up with - reading on the bed, in bed, on a bus etc - don't like holding onto a hunk of plastic
R12: What does having cable have to do with preferring real books over devices?
Another vote for books - and yes, I have tons.
R12 thinks it has to do with money. He is proud that he buys the latest marketed technology
I always chuckle when people say that they just like their books. Do you still listen to music on a 8-track. When was the last time any of you bought a cassette? It's still the same material just in a different format and your hand doesn't go to sleep while holding it. Book snobbery is fun.
Get off my lawn!
R11
no one liked 8-track or cassettes - they were forced on us like CDs and all of this plastic kindle and stupid itune crap now
Cassettes???? I still listen to vinyl!
R18, I never owned a single 8-track (and I am old enough) nor bought more than a couple of pre-recorded cassettes. I made my own cassettes, from my rekkids. Chuckle on that, douche. R12, that's really pathetic that to you, liking books equates with poverty. And by pathetic, I mean it must really suck to be you, to have to think using your brain. R20 for Entertainment Czar.
OP, I enjoy the texture of books. Especially the texture of books made with nice paper with beautiful edges and a dustjacket with lovely art such as 'Living to Tell the Tale' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in hardback. I also just enjoy the texture and feel of most any book - especially those with a interesting cover and back. I think books are special artifacts. I like the varied sizes of books and I also find some sacredness in books of high quality of content and materials.
I love reading, and I love books. Haven't switched over to ebooks yet, and it might be a few more years for me. I'm not opposed to ebooks at all--there just hasn't been a reason for me to switch, since I can find everything I want to read in print at the library where I work (or via interlibrary loan).
I have some sensory issues, and dry feelings on my fingertips are intolerable to me. I like to read, but as I'm getting older I'm finding that turning the pages is getting more and more annoying. Hand lotions don't help, and licking my fingers to turn every page isn't reasonable. Something about the dry feeling of the paper on my fingertips makes me shudder, I was the same way about chalkboards when I was a kid. Weird. Anyway, e-readers are one way to avoid it. But, I like the book jackets and illustrations and, as mentioned, skipping around so easily. I'm not naive though, I know books aren't here to stay.
books may last longer than kindles and ebooks
R26 One of the reasons I've resisted putting books on my Kindle is because if my Kindle dies, amazon isn't going to give me replacement books/files/whatever they're called.
R25, you sound mentally disturbed and mentally ill.
R28 You are a cunt. And mentally disturbed and mentally ill. And a cunt.
R27 your books are available on Amazon cloud so if you lose or break your device you just need to replace that and not all of your titles.
R30 Really? And they won't charge me again?
A lot/most of the books I buy are not available on Kindle.
Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Once you own a Kindle you can never buy an paper book again.Or check them out at the library. Rats! Just think of all the books I'm going to miss reading because I bought a Kindle.
I am reading so much more since I got an iPad and an iPhone. I work a lot, and never seemed to get around to going to a bookstore or library. This way I hear an author being interviewed on NPR and just download the book right then and there, or read a review or a friend's suggestion. I used to get so overwhelmed at the bookstore trying to remember what I wanted to get, and I'm never organized enough to keep a list on me. I illustrate children's books, so I certainly love printed matter, but for reading...
I love taking a hot bath and reading a good book. I freaked the books that friends sent and inscribed.
R35 How do you freak a book?
I love books too. Read them. Collect them. Have hundreds. I like books as objects too--their covers, their jackets--especially older books. Paperbacks are great for traveling. Electronic devices just don't have the same feel. Of course I miss bookstores too. Remember when the small bookstores were screaming because the large bookstores like Barnes and Noble and Borders were putting them out of business? And now the big bookstores are out of business too.
anonymous
I like reading in the bath, too.
R18 makes an excellent point. Let's see how a similar debate on this site goes in 2-3 years.
I do not find R18's point to be excellent nor applicable.
That was treasure. I pad changed that for me )
35
I love the smell of paper/books and how it feels in my hands. Still go to book stores very often!
Anonymous
Thanks for the laugh, r1.
I love books, paperbacks only. I don't like large print. Oftentimes I will have to wait until a book is released on paperback because I hate the large format so much. It is also needlessly expensive. I tend to read on a screen mostly for free. I have an Amazon kindle that I use to read books that are only available as ebooks. I've purchased 3 so far. I didn't like the experience very much and each time, couldn't believe I had just spent money on this. I prefer books.
Tablets are crap for reading books on, proper ebook readers are the best. R27, any ebook you buy on Amazon remains in your Amazon account and, no, they don't charge you again for it if you lose your kindle or buy a new one. You can also read an individual book on five different devices (laptop, phone, tablet), so it's not all dependent on the one Kindle. With some other ebook readers you can store your books on your hard drive, on a card reader, on an external hard drive. If you're naughty you can also find places on the internet to download some books for free, read them on a Kindle or other ebook reader and also keep them forever. Another thing I enjoy about the Kindle, and it might be the same with other ebook readers, is that you can post items to your device. So, for example, if there is a really long newspaper or magazine article that I don't want to read on my computer screen, I save it as a pdf, email it to my Kindle account, which converts it into a readable format and sends it to my Kindle, and enjoy reading it that way. OP, you carry on enjoying your paper books. Just don't think you're superior to the rest of us who read using ebook readers. And, just so you know, sometimes we also read paper books too. Bookstores are declining, but that's not solely because of ebooks. On the other hand, thanks to ebooks people are reading more, reading more widely and able to discover a much broader and more diverse range of books than before.
I love the fact that as long as there's some light, I can read without having to make sure something's charged.
ssr
I have a Kindle, but rarely use it, although I have a huge number of books on it that I want to read... In theory it's perfect, but in practice I find the interface too slow, the screen too small, etc. The tech is frustrating. However, I love reading on my iPad with its retina display. I especially love being able to click on words and have them automatically defined, researching references in a browser in just a couple of taps, and easily searching the text for specific words or characters, its great. When I go back to physical books, I feel trapped and confined. However, reading a text in an ebook does break up the slow, natural immersive quality of reading a physical book, and I bring to it some of the same habits and behaviors that I've developed reading things online, which is a far quicker, less patient, and shallower experience.
I like the fact that an ereader can last for ages without needing recharging and that I can choose between 100s of books to read, wherever I may be.
r45, Thanks for your comments. Do you know if I can download a Kindle book onto a PC? I was just going to read something, but my Kindle needs to be recharged. TIA.
R27
r49/r27, there is a Kindle app you can download to your PC. But the Kindle charges up in minutes. As long as it is plugged in, you should be able to download and read until it's fully charged.
Shouldn't the title be The Joy of Reading Paper Books? Reading on an e-reader isn't reading? Happy that technology has helped me get back to reading regularly now. E-reader, read and listen to books on my smartphone and of course, the old standby, the dead tree books.
Hi, R50. My Kindle has been charging for about 20 minutes. Usually it takes around an hour. I'll look for that app. Thanks.
I'm not averse to Kindles, Nooks, or IPads. I read newspapers and magazines on my IPad. Yet, I still enjoy turning the page of a novel, going to the index of a monograph, and reading the conclusion before the introduction. Walking into someone's home or study and seeing what he or she reads or browsing the shelves of a library or book store are experiences that ebooks or the Internet cannot replicate.
BonniePrinceCharlie
IF you want the bookish experience, don't buy the Kindle Fire. Buy the cheaper Kindles, with or without backlighting. The screens on those actually look like book pages. I like mine but after a book or two, I generally pick up the real thing, just so it feels different.
I love reading so I love both. My tablet is great for travel, or on the train going to work and reading in a dark room. But there is still something about holding a book that is special, like a different kind of "energy," if that makes sense. But I still love my tablet. Someone on the train told me of a good place to download for free, does anyone know of any?
I love reading but have zero interest in e-readers. Reading is a sensual as well as an intellectual experience for me. I love the look, the feel, and even the smell of a well made book. E-readers leaves me cold. I spend enough time staring at screens.
Try gutenberg.org or openlibrary.org, R55. Also, most libraries now have an elending program.
r56 gets at a good point for me: I spend all day staring at a screen, so the last thing I want to when I'm reading is stare at another screen. Also, others have mentioned the feel and smell -- there are certain books that have a particular scent that takes back to the time and place you first read it. Another item mentioned is the ability to peruse somebody else bookshelves, to get a feel for what kind of person they are. But I'm not going to knock e-readers; my mom has a Kindle and LOVES it. If it gives her pleasure, I'm totally cool with that.
There have been a few studies done that I have read about that seemed to demonstrate that reading comprehension is not nearly the same on an ebook or tablet or Kindle as it is when reading a "real" book. I can't remember exactly why, but it has something to do with the way our eyes tend to travel on a graphic screen as opposed to the actual page of a book. We apparently tend to "scan" more when looking at computer screens and ebooks, thereby missing often critical points of the text. I'll have to look the articles up again.
RE: the smell of books. Some photo/coffee table/cookbooks are so smelly from printing chemicals, I hate to look at them. I just got THE SMITTEN KITCHEN COOKBOOK out of the library, and it stinks to high heaven. Obviously, such a book won't translate into a basic Kindle. Can anyone tell me what the best kind of reader is for a book about 10" x 10" x 1" with lots of color pictures? TIA.
Thanks 58, I just hate my library's selection of ebooks, they always have a cover of a woman being ravished by a muscled shirtless guy or a woman in love with a vampire. I still go to the physical library but I what I don't miss with ebooks are the boogers and uh, brown stains on the pages. You just know they have been "bathroom books."
55
R27/r49, there is an app, see link. R56, what happens if there's a book you want to read but it's not well made, the print is small, the font ugly, the cover flimsy? Do still enjoy the reading? R59, did you read that article in print? Because it sounds like you missed many of the critical points.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref%3Damb_link_355960802_3%3Fie%3DUTF8%26docId%3D1000426311%26pf_rd_m%3DATVPDKIKX0DER%26pf_rd_s%3Dauto-sparkle%26pf_rd_r%3D2898CBEC7E50442181F9%26pf_rd_t%3D301%26pf_rd_p%3D1362584282%26pf_rd_i%3Dkindle%20app%20for%2
Ok, maybe don't see link, but just do a search for Kindle+app+pc at Amazon.
Really, R61? When I go to my library's webpage, (Brooklyn Public Library) I choose the book I want to reserve (either electronically transmitted or to have the actual book sent to my branch). I don't think there has been a book that I have wanted immediately and, therefore, electronically, that has not been available. You look up the title and they list the different formats available for each book. I love having the option to reserve an actual book or to have it sent to my kindle. What library do you use?
Another person with a Kindle that I use for travel and commuting, but reads paper books at home. Maybe like a previous poster, it's because I spend too much time reading online for work. Maybe because it is easier on my eyes.
People are not reading more with ebooks, they are reading less. Photos and art are miserable on e-books, which is odd, because I can get beautiful photos on my computer any time I want. E-books won't replace books because the input-output function is too slow. You can find something in a hard copy book much faster than you can search for it on an e-book, and without losing your place. You technology geeks won't believe it but it's true. Also e-books suffer from the general i-o constraint of a desktop. A real desk can have four or five things going at once. You have to have a really big computer screen to do that, and in practice nobody does, therefore making electronic books less efficient than the old fashioned desk when it comes to investigating interesting things and actually learning from a book. I had an e-reader. They are easy to lose, the page turning button is exactly where I would naturally hold the book, and it's easy to break the screen, to have the battery die, to lose stuff. My hard copy books on the other hand are always there impinging on my consciousness. It never gets old to notice one again that I haven't read in years or that I never got around to. I'm not a Luddite, but e-books didn't make it when they were introduced in the 80s and the only reason they are doing marginally better now is the money Amazon has put into supporting the market. Their design is simply not good enough yet.
"What library do you use?" I will get killed for this but its a suburban library in "fly over country." At least in that area the stereotype is valid, I think a house frau picks all the ebooks (and reads them, for months the most popular book has been one of the 50 Shades books, so yea, I can get lady porn but not a good book.
I am reading the funniest book and anyone that grew up as a Jehovah's Witness will appreciate it. The book is I'm Perfect, You're Doomed.
R66:[quote]You can find something in a hard copy book much faster than you can search for it on an e-book, and without losing your place. Can someone tell me if there's a way to get a Kindle to show you what page you're on instead of their insidious "percentage read" function? It could correlate with the page numbers in the real book.
On a Kindle or other electronic device you buy the right to read the book - you don't actually own the book. I like having my lifetime of books on the shelf as a sort of personal history. Also, after spending 8 hours a day on the computer I find reading a book more soothing for my eyes than staring at yet another electronic advice. I understand that using an electronic device takes less space, uses less paper, yada yada, I just prefer an actual book. It doesn't make me a snob, it's just my personal preference.
[quote] It doesn't make me a snob, it's just my personal preference. Until they take it away, the way they did with music.
You won't believe it, r66, but I spent 40 years of my life reading paper books so I know exactly what they're like. I also know I'm reading more and am also reading more widely because there is much more available to me and I can access it almost immediately. You might not believe this either but, even if you have an ereader, you can still read art books and books with lots of images in paper book form. (You can also view images in books on a computer or tablet screen...) Another thing you might not believe is that you can search for terms on an ereader, so it's quite easy to find things. It depends on what you're reading. A textbook or reference book is easier in paper version. Ereaders are great for novels and books you just want to read from cover to cover. R70, I spend 10 hours a day in front of a computer screen at work but don't find it at all tiring reading from an ereader - the screen is completely different.
Anyone who has had to move and has a shitload of books can tell you that they are the heaviest and most annoying objects to pack and move. And if you die and your relatives have to come clean out your book collection, they will toss them/give them away and secretly hate you for your paper fetish. I live in a small space. My Kindle helps me not to look like a hoarder. And I read far more with it than I ever did when I had to drive to a bookstore or library.
R65, since you read print books at home, you sound as if you use your Kindle while commuting just to look to others what you think is cool or avant-gaarde or with-it or modern or fabulous. I suppose you'll give the 'Kindle is lighter in weight than a book while commuting' excuse or the 'Kindle allows me to turn to 2 or 3 different books while commuting' excuse. But in reality, you use the Kindle while commuting because you want to project to others a certain image which you erroneously admire.
[quote]...you want to project to others a certain image which you erroneously admire. Hehehe. Pot meet kettle.
Fortunately, they will all die before me and will be spared that terrible annoyance R73.
R74 is projecting like mad. I read a Kindle on the subway because it's easier to hold and to read in the crappy light. But the cool kids all read paper books.
Kindle while commuting is a good way to drop the Kindle and break the screen.