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Part one is here: About digital reading: eReaders.
Reality checks:
eBooks don't cost less than paper books (yet). Early adopters have been willing to pay full price for digital books (or they've gone with pirated books). However, as more publishers and stores come online and more people buy eReaders, I hope that will change. Also, you can get a lot of special deals and discounts through the email lists for online eBook stores (I seem to get the best offers through Kobo, though they are partially owned by Chapters-Indigo, which isn't my favourite business to support).
Canadians (and other countries) get the short-end of the stick. Not all books are licensed in digital formats in all countries. I find some books aren't available to download in Canada. So far, it hasn't applied to any books I really want, so I haven't attempted any of the ways to hide your location.
Sometimes eBooks aren't well formatted. Sometimes when eBooks are made, a couple of words here and there will get smooshed together (likethis) or there are other minor formatting issues. I did find one annoying problem recently. My copy of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch appears to have all the footnotes at the beginning of the book, one per page for about twelve pages before the story starts. I intend to complain to the publisher about that one.
I've also had a couple of books that don't work right on my reader: the default font size will be too small, but when I increase the size, the page will run off the edge of my screen. So far, it has only happened with library books, and I'm not sure if it is a weakness of eBooks in general, a problem with a certain publisher, or if my less-popular reader brand (the Pandigital Novel) is non-standard in some way.
Romance novels dominate. There's a great argument that porn has driven technological advancement, particularly in VCRs and DVDs and, of course, the Internet. I think in eReaders, romance readers are the early adopters who have driven improvements and growth in the industry. It seems that they are voracious readers who frequently buy books, which makes digital formats perfect for them. Many of the early eBook-only publishers specialize in genres, especially romance. The only problem with this is that eBook libraries are dominated by romance books, digital bookstores offer the best specials on bundles of romance novels, and if you don't read romance, it can be challenging to sort through it all to find other offerings.
Digital libraries aren't infinite. Whenever I tell someone that I'm waiting for an eBook from the public library, their first reaction is to wonder why I have to wait for a digital book. But the library does have to pay for licenses for every digital book, so there aren't infinite copies and only one person can have a copy at once. My local "Library Without Walls" serves all of British Columbia. I am 19 out of 75 on the waiting list for a book with 13 copies.
It isn't the same, but that's not always bad. A lot of people criticize eBooks for not being paper books: you can't touch them the same way, you can't shop for them the same way, you can't own them the same way. But I've discovered new authors because they were available sooner on the digital library or I stumbled across them online. I'm happy not to have paper and resources used in the making and shipping of a physical book that I then have to find a place for in my cluttered bookshelves. I'm also becoming comfortable with the idea of buying something that I can't hold in my hands, like an MP3.
( Pro and con lists )
Overall, I would recommend an eReader to anyone who reads a lot, especially if they don't have a lot of space for books.
Reality checks:
eBooks don't cost less than paper books (yet). Early adopters have been willing to pay full price for digital books (or they've gone with pirated books). However, as more publishers and stores come online and more people buy eReaders, I hope that will change. Also, you can get a lot of special deals and discounts through the email lists for online eBook stores (I seem to get the best offers through Kobo, though they are partially owned by Chapters-Indigo, which isn't my favourite business to support).
Canadians (and other countries) get the short-end of the stick. Not all books are licensed in digital formats in all countries. I find some books aren't available to download in Canada. So far, it hasn't applied to any books I really want, so I haven't attempted any of the ways to hide your location.
Sometimes eBooks aren't well formatted. Sometimes when eBooks are made, a couple of words here and there will get smooshed together (likethis) or there are other minor formatting issues. I did find one annoying problem recently. My copy of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch appears to have all the footnotes at the beginning of the book, one per page for about twelve pages before the story starts. I intend to complain to the publisher about that one.
I've also had a couple of books that don't work right on my reader: the default font size will be too small, but when I increase the size, the page will run off the edge of my screen. So far, it has only happened with library books, and I'm not sure if it is a weakness of eBooks in general, a problem with a certain publisher, or if my less-popular reader brand (the Pandigital Novel) is non-standard in some way.
Romance novels dominate. There's a great argument that porn has driven technological advancement, particularly in VCRs and DVDs and, of course, the Internet. I think in eReaders, romance readers are the early adopters who have driven improvements and growth in the industry. It seems that they are voracious readers who frequently buy books, which makes digital formats perfect for them. Many of the early eBook-only publishers specialize in genres, especially romance. The only problem with this is that eBook libraries are dominated by romance books, digital bookstores offer the best specials on bundles of romance novels, and if you don't read romance, it can be challenging to sort through it all to find other offerings.
Digital libraries aren't infinite. Whenever I tell someone that I'm waiting for an eBook from the public library, their first reaction is to wonder why I have to wait for a digital book. But the library does have to pay for licenses for every digital book, so there aren't infinite copies and only one person can have a copy at once. My local "Library Without Walls" serves all of British Columbia. I am 19 out of 75 on the waiting list for a book with 13 copies.
It isn't the same, but that's not always bad. A lot of people criticize eBooks for not being paper books: you can't touch them the same way, you can't shop for them the same way, you can't own them the same way. But I've discovered new authors because they were available sooner on the digital library or I stumbled across them online. I'm happy not to have paper and resources used in the making and shipping of a physical book that I then have to find a place for in my cluttered bookshelves. I'm also becoming comfortable with the idea of buying something that I can't hold in my hands, like an MP3.
( Pro and con lists )
Overall, I would recommend an eReader to anyone who reads a lot, especially if they don't have a lot of space for books.
