Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for March 06, 2015

A book will also survive being dropped in the bathtub. On the other hand, e-readers can make carrying many tomes a light weighted task.

E-readers are great for traveling, I used to have to pack 4 or 5 books (I’m a fast reader), And I can play Angry Birds when I tire of reading!

You’ll still have a chance, Laura. Some books have not even been converted into e-texts.

For older readers, the ability to make the text larger is a real boon.

There is room in this world for both ereaders and physical books.

Hunter7

Soon tablets will be water proof like some smartphones.

I think bookstores have to specialize to survive. Combine a coffee shop / cafe. feature more books of the type the are not really ereader compatable. picture books and the like. I Mainlly the bookstore has to redefine itself and bring in a broader line. Like selection of pens and stationary supplies. I am to far from LA or SF to go to one of the really kewl japanese pen stores and staple / office depot selection is muh. So I order from jpens.com however if I had a physical store in SB or SLO man I could spent a hour or two finding the perfect writing instrument. Just a idea

There’s still some feeling of special class (for lack of a better word) about a physical book, though. And e-books, I’ve noticed, still have a bit of a reputation of being the “second-best” way of getting published, with an actual publication as an actual book being the sort of goal to shoot for for more writers still, and seen as sort of the “big leagues” still. So long as books still have that reputation, they will still get published, which means people will still buy them.

i like to read in bed before going to sleep, and studies show the subtle flickering of e-readers keeps many people awake. Until/unless that gets fixed, I’ll read a physical book in the evenings.

Did someone say horseless carriage?

a)each has there place – as a momentary diversion, ebooks make way more sense than paper books, but as something one wants to keep a treasure, there’s no replacement for a paper book.

b)2old, getting younger is exactly right – when traveling I can pack an entire library of ebooks with almost no weight or space penalty at all (like emusic has replaced cds and tapes)

c)i think books, like LPs will become the object of collectors, but never quite go away

unfortunately, none of this bodes well for stores that rely on the sales of paper books – they need to redefine their mission.

It’s good to see so many opinions about books/book stores! It really shows how important the printed word still is!

As far as I am concerned, “ebooks” suck! Remember though, we are no longer using candles and kerosene lamps to light our homes….Well, at least most of us!

Um, sell E-Readers as well as books?

Sorry to hear Laura.

I do both, real books and nook books, sometime you have to have a real book for things. Like books with pictures or diagrams, etc. ;)

One other advantage of e readers is the ability to get classic books with little expense. I put the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes on my Fire for a paltry .99 cents. Recently I purchased a book printed in 1950 that I thought I would never find again. Monongahela by Richard Bissell, a new copy hardback is $500, Kindle was 5.99. I would love to find a signed copy, but know I couldn’t afford it, so I will just enjoy rereading it many times.

Me too! Love them.

I HATE E READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have RUINED the written word, one of the most beautiful things in the world.

I like to keep my book open in several places at the time. Say if it is a mystery book and I arrive at the final chapter, I would continuously check with earlier chapters “aha, here was THIS clue that I missed!”. It was very difficult (to put it mildly) to do that on that Kindle we have at home.

But my husband says that reading a book in a foreign language with built-in dictionary is wonderful on e-reader – just one click and you can learn the meaning of the unknown word you just met.

An advantage over a real book over an ereader which has not been mentioned is platform!I have only once bought an electronic version of a book. I bought it on-line and the place where I got it included a free program that I could install on my computer to read it. Then my computer’s motherboard died and, while I still had both the ebook and the program to read it on my hard drive, I was no longer able to even open the book after I got a new computer and transfered the files and program to it.When I returned to where I had bought the book, they were unable to help me recover the ability to use the file because they had discontinued the sale of books in that format.Now if all ebooks were in the same format (the way music comes in the MP3 format) and could be used on any platform and easily transferred to other devices the way music can, then I might be more willing to buy an ebook. For now though, I will stick to real books.

Where e-Readers should take over (maybe they are), is in the textbook market. Textbooks are printed in small quantities, and are replaced regularly with updates so that they old ones become out of date. As a result they are/were outrageously expensive, but on an eReader, you’d only have to pay for the intellectually property, not the setup and small quantity print run, and small quantity distribution.

There’s still something comforting about holding a REAL book!