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Kindle Owners: 99 Cent Amesomeness


dUSt

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I love ebooks. There are a lot of books I never would have thought to read, or really had a chance to read, if I had not found them all for free in the public domain. I do not think anyone truly believes that ereaders will make hardcopy books obsolete, but IMO they are a perfect complement.

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PhuturePriest

I love ebooks. There are a lot of books I never would have thought to read, or really had a chance to read, if I had not found them all for free in the public domain. I do not think anyone truly believes that ereaders will make hardcopy books obsolete, but IMO they are a perfect complement.

 

Barnes & Noble disagrees with the complementarity of ebooks: http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/end-of-the-book-for-barnes-noble/

Edited by The Phetus
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IgnatiusofLoyola

Barnes & Noble disagrees with the complementarity of ebooks: http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/end-of-the-book-for-barnes-noble/

 

Obviously B&N disagrees. They sell non-electronic books. (But, what about the Nook, their competing product to the Kindle? B&N is obviously covering itself both ways. If I were B&N, I'd hate Amazon, too.)

 

I will always prefer non-electronic books, for all kinds of reasons, but Kindles have their uses. A few examples:

 

--A Kindle allows you to choose your font size, so if your eyes don't work as well for reading as they once did, you can increase the font size. Before you get smug, Grasshopper, remember you will likely spend a greater proportion of your life (maybe even twice as long) as a person over 30 as you will as a person under 30, and most people find that their ability to read small print without help decreases much sooner than they expect--well, at least among people who read.

 

--Many of the books mentioned in dUSt's post aren't readily or cheaply available, depending on where you live. Sure, your local library MAY have them, but library hours and the size of their book collections are constantly being cut due to budget restrictions.

 

--My power went out for 6 hours the other night. I had flashlights, candles, even an battery-powered lamp. But, none of the lights I had were strong enough for comfortable reading. However, my Kindle is lighted for easy reading in the dark. (My home wifi runs on electricity, so my computer didn't work.)

 

--I spent several days in the hospital this summer, and rather than take along several books and magazines (that would have been hard to hold in any case because I was extremely weak and had tubes attached to my hands), I downloaded several books I wanted to read onto my Kindle before checking in, and my Kindle is as lightweight as a magazine.

 

--Kindle books take up much less room. Since I know I need to move to a smaller (perhaps much smaller) space, I have been consciously making most new book purchases for my Kindle. At its height, my personal book collection was about 2,000 books. I've weeded it down to about 1,500 books, but I still have a LOT of work to do. I've gotten rid of most of the books that were easy to part with. But, sooner or later I'm going to have to part with books I love. (I'm someone who likes to reread books, and I've worn out more than a few of my paperbacks.)

 

Etc Etc

 

What I found most interesting was that it was B&N that you mentioned in your post, rather than independent bookstores, which have suffered badly due to things such as the growth of chain bookstores, with their ability to offer bigger discounts and larger selections. For the true lover of (paper) books, nothing is as wonderful as browsing in an independent, used bookstore. You find amazing things there, including helpful staff. One good thing is that many independent bookstores have been able to stay in business by selling over the Internet, but the Internet can't replace the experience of shopping in an independent, used book store.

 

I doubt that paper books will go away during my lifetime, but I'm not so sure about yours, Grasshopper. Glad I won't be there. Despite that, electronic books have their uses, some of them excellent, and I share Nihil's "complementary" view. (Kudos to Nihil for spelling "complementary" correctly--not that I would have expected anything less from him.)

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ChristinaTherese

I like my Kindle for novels, particularly big ones that would be hard to carry around. But I also like paper books, especially ones that I'm likely to return to or flip around in looking for something. (Yeah, I get that search functions exist, but I don't wanna.)

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PhuturePriest

That's only because their Nook never overtook the Kindle.
 

 

Still, virtual books are killing off physical ones, and it's a shame. I buy physical books because not only do I like them more, but I want them to survive in a substantial way. I don't want Target's pathetic book selection to be my only choice of book store.

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LouisvilleFan

You can find any of these books at a good used bookstore for about the same price. My favorite find is an old pocket-sized copy of "Imitation" published sometime in the 1930's that cost all of $1.00.

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