E-Readers - Do you use one and are they still the future of books?

[memento]

i find that whether or not i prefer to read something via ebook or physical book depends on the content of the book. nonfiction and essays and stuff like that i prefer on ebook, fiction and anything with pictures i like on paper. but i can read anything in whatever format is most convenient ^^ i read ebooks mainly on my laptop and very old ipad but i wish i had an e-ink reader, i think e-ink looks so nice. i just can't justify the expense rn when i already have plenty of devices to read things on

i think the world has plenty of room for both digital books and physical books, i don't think we have to think of them as being in competition with one another. if physical books ever go away it won't be because there wasn't a demand for them

[cyberdreamz]

I got a pocketbook era color as a birthday gift this year. Half a year has passed, and... I barely use it >__> I'm just personally more drawn to physical books. I like being able to hold them in my hands (i love the textures!), look at the covers and see how much of the story I've read so far by looking at where the bookmark is. However...
I like how lightweight it is as it makes it easier to carry around, I like that it has a backlight for when I'm in the mood to read before bed (I have a reading lamp but it got a really short battery life and I often forget I need to charge it), and I like being able to download (pirate) books I wouldn't be able to get in a physical format anyway.
But even with all of that I still like walking around in bookstores and recently even started checking out books from a library as well. And I know for sure there are loads of people out there who feel similarly to me. So I don't think ereaders are going to replace physical books, ever.
No other kind of physical media ever went away when digital and more convenient options appeared, either, people still watch dvds and play games on cartridges, some even listen to music on vinyls. Digital and physical offer different experiences and can exist alongside each other :] (even if some companies nowadays are going fully digital. I saw people on youtube burn games from their steam library on disks. Made their own box art and everything... But I'm kinda getting off topic now.)

[Seechain]

The physical book is basically hardware. Most writers completely ignore the hardware and focus 100% on the software, so there's no problem reading it on an e-reader. On the other hand, there's a small percentage of works where authors make use of the hardware: role-playing manuals, gamebooks, and some rare works like Hopscotch (the novel by Cortázar). In those cases, the physical book is even more comfortable than the e-reader.

[caracalled]

Coming back to this thread because in the past year or two all of my reading has been on my e-reader or on my phone/laptop!!
I use KoReader on the ereader, an onyx boox go color 7, and on my phone and laptop I use readest, which I warmly recommend everyone here, it's such a good e-reading app and it syncs between koreader and readest! There are so many features it comes with, i LOVE readest so so much.

I genuinely love digital reading so much. Sure, the page turning is nice, but i haven't read a physical book in so long that i don't really miss it. I love how extensible it feels to read digitally, and how free! Like wow, I really CAN just have access to any book, similar to game emulation! It kinda makes me be more picky with what I actually read because the collecting–drive that books give is gone, and I value a book by its contents only. I read mostly theory, and reading is the only media consumption (if it can count as such?) where I really do want to maximize how much I consume, and so I love that digital reading allows for me to do that.

However, like Seechain said here:

there's a small percentage of works where authors make use of the hardware: [...] In those cases, the physical book is even more comfortable than the e-reader.

Some books are conceived of in a way where the (print) medium IS the message and they could not be interacted with in the same way if they were digital. In this case, I also opt for the physical book, but it's incredibly rare, and I exhaust every possibility of borrowing it before buying the book.