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

[shevek]

Since it came up in the discussion; if anyone needs help transferring their Kindle purchases to other formats or devices and deDRM, I can give advice in DMs some info online is contradictory and outdated.
I had around 25 ebooks I bought via Amazon but I wanted to delete my Amazon account earlier this year while keeping the books I paid for.

[vvinrg]

Oh really? I'm sorry, I guess I just assumed they did have DRM! Do a lot of other e-readers have DRM or are they usually as lax as kindle is? If they are that lax then maybe I'm just e-reader pilled now lol

dunno about others, but, to comply with the GPL, remarkables literally give you a shell into the machine and you can run custom software

[Tiffany]

I have a kindle paperwhite and I use it all the time. Do I prefer actual book? Yes, but I am also into convenience, and trying to limit myself from hording books. I still do buy physical books, but at least this way I don't have half of the house filled with them. This is also great when traveling, so I can travel light and carry on or one bag only. I don't use my kindle for manga though, only because it's hard to read that on there, because of the format and size.

I also don't care to read on my phone or tablet, phone because of bad eye sight, and tablet feels way too heavy after a short time of reading in my wrist/hands. Another thing is I can make the font larger and more readable for me. Also, it's so much easier to download fanfiction and put it on my kindle than it is for me to read it another way if I am not at home reading on my laptop. My kindle paperwhite is the 7th gen, and over 7 years old. I will replace it when it dies but not before lol.

I also found out that authors make more money on ebooks than they do physical copies, so that is something I keep in mine. I don't see physical books being replaced by e-readers ever though.

[Mo/Otto]

I know my sister has a Kindle (not sure which model but it's old) and she still whips it out sometimes. I'm way more used to having a physical book in my hands, though.

[Yaya]

I'm personally not a fan of e-readers. I love the physical experience of reading a book, but I have lots of friends who love their portability and capacity!

[sokil]

i just bought a 2019 kindle a few months ago for pretty cheap and it's been a game changer! i really do prefer to have physical books, but i don't have a whole lot of space for them and they can be a bit much sometimes to carry (i *always* brought a book to university because i have so much downtime and lots to read! but the amount of stuff i have to carry with me in my backpack gets heavy sometimes). having a kindle is a lot more convenient due to how light  it is. i tend to rip a lot of books from libgen and load them onto my kindle using calibre - i don't have a whole lot of money to spend on books, and it's extremely convenient. there's also plenty of books i haven't been able to find in print that i've found digitally, which is really nice; being able to have them so readily available on my kindle is cool. the ones i can't find digital copies of i'll either purchase, usually secondhand, or borrow for a library (PSA: do sign up for a library card - they're extremely beneficial and can get you loads of cool things!!!).

it's also been really useful for acquiring a collection of books in other languages. i'm currently learning ukrainian, and i haven't been able to find any ukrainian books in stores where i am! :( i'd love to buy physical books from ukrainian book shops, but the shipping is really expensive unfortunately. so i load a lot of ukrainian books onto my kindle that i otherwise couldn't acquire and am able to work on improving my reading skills.

[alexela64]

I have an open source program called Calibre installed on my computer!

me too although it's mostly for my Legally Obtained college textbooks
I really wanted an e-reader back in the day, but i've found the books app on my phone works well. Since it's easiest to open pdfs and epubs that way on iPhone (reason #84348932 ios sucks)
I find myself kind of hoping that e-readers (at least, free, digital ones -- not the 50$ ones) will surpass physical books sometimes. it's much more accessible and often less costly, allowing for the easier spread of information. I've used my phone's app to read a lot of academic articles, for example, because it lets me change the text size or spacing (i do NOT do well with reading big blocks of text).
On the other hand, I have a big physical library of books. Not really on purpose -- mostly because I had a phase in highschool where I wanted to be a book influencer on instagram and i really liked reading (pre gifted kid burnout lmao)
However, I often give these books to friends as gifts. I'm not the kind of person that rereads books too often, and if someone else will get more use out of it than me, I donate or gift it to someone.
So i don't know, I think there's definitely still a strong market for physical books, if the fact that my friends enjoy getting them as gifts is anything. But i don't place much personal importance on them.

[xXWebMasterXx_Gina]

I appreciate the concept of digital books; mainly for the possibility of free and open distribution of texts as well as the fact that a reader device would save me ALOT of physical space . However, I don't think I could ever actually use one!

I'm chalking it up to the difficulty of interfacing. I'm a computer person, I spend like 80% of my day on them, I have a very hard time using smaller devices like phones and tablets since they utilize touch screens and there's no feedback or physicality to navigating them. So then, would I have a better time reading on my computer? A little, but I'd still have trouble really getting into the text since the words feel so distant.

Now a physical book however, it's here and in my hands. I have to physically turn the pages and I can shift the book and myself however I need to get comfortable. It's a very simple device, but when you really start to get into reading from one, you just completely zone out from the real world. Harder to do that on a screen as much as I depend on them! 

[Wildcat]

Do you use one? Did you use one? What did you think of them and how do they fit into your reading experience?

Surprisingly, I do use one. It's a Kindle Paperwhite. I've been using e-readers on and off since I got my first one around 2011.

I think they're good for people who want to read a lot of books, but don't have the physical space for them. I don't like how Amazon has a monopoly on the market, and I wish that would change. The closest there is to this are e-ink tablets, but those are for a niche market like college students and people who work in sales and business in general.

I also use my Kindle to store completed fanfiction I love as well. It's entirely possible to put miscellaneous e-books on your Kindle with Calibre, which is an e-book manager. I design covers for them and format the fics to display properly on the Kindle, before I manually put them on there with the program. It's a fun process, and I wholly recommend it if you're an avid fanfiction reader.

[bliss]

I am a huge huge fan of my e-reader - I have a 2nd hand kobo (and power it with Calibre). It makes all the difference to how much I read. its trivial to access books whenever i want to try a new one, and it remembers what I'm reading and where I am in it - which is great cus I tend to have 100 books on the go at once.

I find it helps me with my internet problem as well, because it has some of the same tactile qualities as picking up a smartphone, and yet the way I read when I'm reading a book is a lot deeper and calmer than the way I read when the internet is all Right There. It's a great thing to replace your phone with in moments where one reaches for a phone.

and like, I kinda don't love paper books: they take up a lot of space which i could be using for unsettling ceramics.

I always have mine with me. The amount I read has exploded. I love mine so much.

[caracalled]

I am a huge huge fan of my e-reader - I have a 2nd hand kobo (and power it with Calibre). It makes all the difference to how much I read. its trivial to access books whenever i want to try a new one, and it remembers what I'm reading and where I am in it - which is great cus I tend to have 100 books on the go at once.

I find it helps me with my internet problem as well, because it has some of the same tactile qualities as picking up a smartphone, and yet the way I read when I'm reading a book is a lot deeper and calmer than the way I read when the internet is all Right There. It's a great thing to replace your phone with in moments where one reaches for a phone.

and like, I kinda don't love paper books: they take up a lot of space which i could be using for unsettling ceramics.

I always have mine with me. The amount I read has exploded. I love mine so much.

I NEED to see the unsettling ceramics that sounds awesome...

Aside from that, the internet thing is SO REAL!! I got my ereader so I read manga in the mornings after waking up instead of picking up my smartphone so I absolutely get you!

I do still like paper books because it's a lot cheaper, easier and faster for me to get (free) books at the library than online (even the Legally Obtained online ones since the download speed is unironically slower than just walking down the street to one of the two libraries I live near BWAHAHA)(i also get my steps in this way). This also kind of solves the problem of storing the books, since someone else essentially does that for me hehe
It is still a lot more convenient on the go though, you're absolutely right! I hate having to lug around big books on the go and an ereader is just. so much nicer god.

[Eunice]

I do, a Kindle paperwhite. For one thing, books are cheaper on kindle, and I can "borrow" some from Amazon. I have arthritis in my hands and I find modern books are often too difficult to hold. There's a tendency for publishers to save paper by printing the pages right into the inner margins and you have to virtually crack the book to read it.

But I heard something very sad yesterday. Aberystwyth has a prestigious university and had a large, extensive library. But no one uses it now. Students prefer to use the internet to find out things. So most of the lovely books have been given away or pulped and most of the library is empty. I felt heartbroken when I heard that. It was a lovely library. And Aber uni had a very good degree programme in library science.