Do you have an e-book reader?

[Murky]

I read e-books on my laptop.

 

[Zelig]

I have a tablet, but never really got in the groove of using it for reading.

 

[civver_764]

My parents sent me a kindle fire for Christmas. It's actually really nice but I mainly use it for watching YouTube videos and such without having to get out of bed.

 

[IglooDame]

Just got a Nook for Christmas, and downloaded Dune to it a couple days ago. I have a preference for paper books, but then again once upon a time I had a preference for MSDOS over Windows, so I'm not really opposed to liking it; it'll just take time. The battery time measured in weeks isn't a bad thing, either.

 

[Murky]

One advantage that paper books have over e-books is that you can sell or donate them once you are finished reading them. They are made to last for a long time. No batteries required.

 

[IglooDame]

One advantage that paper books have over e-books is that you can sell or donate them once you are finished reading them. They are made to last for a long time. No batteries required.

And on the opposite side, one advantage that e-books have is that I can carry my entire library around in a device slightly smaller and lighter than a small hardcover book. No storage shelves required.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

There are a lot of people here who read e-books on the computer. One of the reasons I got the Nook was because I can't stand to read on a normal computer screen for so long. The Nook uses something called "E-ink" which is basically a more detailed etch-a-sketch, so your eye is looking at something physical rather than something projected. It's much easier to read for long periods of time.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'd maybe think about one if I had to travel a lot, but at the moment I'm ok with books. The only motivation I'd have is, like Cheezy says, to avoid having to read digital documents on a screen, but that's not a big enough hassle that I'd want to spent a hundred quid on it quite yet.

 

[NickyJ]

I love me some dead trees.

 

[LucyDuke]

There are a lot of people here who read e-books on the computer. One of the reasons I got the Nook was because I can't stand to read on a normal computer screen for so long. The Nook uses something called "E-ink" which is basically a more detailed etch-a-sketch, so your eye is looking at something physical rather than something projected. It's much easier to read for long periods of time.

I'm tired of holding the laptop. I don't mind the screen, it's just harder to curl up with and casually carry around.

 

[Cutlass]

Displays are already almost perfect, as readable as any real paper, specially the pearl display. The only problem (if you care about it) it is being grayscale only.

Personally i have had a Hanlin V3 for three years. It has become totally irreplaceable for me. Use it for 90% of my readings, not only books but for studies (forget about mountains of photocopies or spending huge amounts of printing ink). The Hanlin is already aging so just ordered a Onyx Boox M92 with bigger touchscreen much better to read technical papers, it is also able of taking notations and even browsing internet. So "real books" are mostly history for me. The only con for ebooks now is price, particularly the bigger ones.

It would depend on brightness and contrast. I have sensitive eyes. Something that is projecting a white light background at me is something I don't want to spend too much time reading off of.

 

[Cutlass]

One advantage that paper books have over e-books is that you can sell or donate them once you are finished reading them. They are made to last for a long time. No batteries required.

The other issue to be settled is, how easy is it with a reader to bookmark specific pages and sentences to return to check later? That doesn't matter with a novel, but could if you're studying something more seriously.

 

[galdre]

I prefer the dead tree variety of books - I stare at a screen enough as it is, I'm not going to read from one for hours on end on top of it

 

[Optical]

It would depend on brightness and contrast. I have sensitive eyes. Something that is projecting a white light background at me is something I don't want to spend too much time reading off of.

I don't think there'd be any problems with that, it's pretty much exactly like looking at a piece of paper.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

It would depend on brightness and contrast. I have sensitive eyes. Something that is projecting a white light background at me is something I don't want to spend too much time reading off of.

Me too it is not only anoying but dangerous. Precisely that is the point of e-ink. It has nothing to do with lcd technology, it has not backlight at all. It is a surface with millions of little capsules with a gel inside where black and white particles with different polarity are floating, when electronically stimulated the particles goes up or down so each capsule shows darker or whiter depending of the amount of white or black particles in the surface (which depends of the potential applied to each capsule). So lets say it is in fact a physical solid surface. Like a "magic" changing paper.

 

[Murky]

I'm thinking of getting one now so that it's easier on the eyes and trees. Which one is the best?

 

[galdre]

Me too it is not only anoying but dangerous. Precisely that is the point of e-ink. It has nothing to do with lcd technology, it has not backlight at all. It is a surface with millions of little capsules with a gel inside where black and white particles with different polarity are floating, when electronically stimulated the particles goes up or down so each capsule shows darker or whiter depending of the amount of white or black particles in the surface (which depends of the potential applied to each capsule). So lets say it is in fact a physical solid surface. Like a "magic" changing paper.

I hadn't heard of that, how cool

 

[Optical]

Which one is the best?

I can certainly recommend Kindle, but I haven't tried any of the others. Kindles are IMO very easy to use though.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

If you want it for reading books only then i would go for the cheapest small ones with 5-6" screens. There are a good bunch to chose. Most people has the Kindle so i suppose it must be good, never had one. Prices are around 100 €.

If you want read complex PDF with graphics or comics, take anotations and such then go for the big ones with 9.7" screens, touchscreen, wifi... there few good ones here mainly the Kindle DX, the Onyx M92 (dont go for M90 or M91 they are full of bugs) or Pocketbook 912, all over 300€. I ordered the M92 few days ago, it has to arrive yet though.

 

[JohannaK]

My dad bought a Kindle for my birthday, and although I looked at it with suspicion, I instantly loved it. I love classic books too, but it's really much more practical to carry 500 books in 500g than 2 books in 3kg.