Comments on: Is an eReader a Wise Purchase?

By: Gail

Gail — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:44:37 +0000

I can’t imagine curling up with a ..machine!? At Thanksgiving my son challenged me to write down every book I read. Since that point, I have read 20 books so far. Some were loaned to me by my son, some were library copies, some were books I had picked up cheap at a library sale (less than $2 a book), others were advanced reading copies I get sent to review. In any case, NONE of the books cost me more than $2. I can’t see spending $9.99 on a book that when done I can’t give away to someone else to read, or store nicely on our many bookshelves, or loan to my son, etc.

Although I do buy books, usually they are non-fiction books that I use for ideas and reference. Many times I might have several open at once. I don’t think e-readers can do that. I can’t see them in my life or for my reading habits at all. And then there is the other problem of us living in an area where we can’t easily download the books. It certainly wouldn’t be convenient to have to drive to another location just to download a book when I want one.

By: Todd

Todd — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:49:10 +0000

I have a Kindle and I am quite pleased. For my situation, I was traveling to Asia for about 6 weeks. Instead of packing many, many books, I just loaded up my Kindle. In times of every inch of your suitcase resulting in fees, due to my hectic travel schedule, I am very grateful for the saved space. The charge also lasts a really long time.

At first, I thought I would feel some sort of nostalgic loss of the physical book but then it hit me…I got over LPs I can get over heavy, space consuming books.

So far it has been a pretty good situation for me. Not everyone’s is the same but I love my Kindle.

By: Cindy M

Cindy M — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:08:15 +0000

No ereader for me. I have to spend at least 8 hours daily at home facing a screen on the job, so I do my best to avoid much time in front of a screen of ANY kind when not working. I gotta get outdoors. It just is not healthy, mentally or physically, in my opinion. I can see it’s certainly the wave of the future but a good thing? I don’t think so. There’s too much sitting in one’s own little isolated world as it is these days.

By: Just Me

Just Me — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:52:37 +0000

I could never buy one of those… I would miss that lovely smell that accompanies books! I love the way a book smells! Well, unless it gives off a moldy stale book but that never happens where I live here in sunny dry Phoenix, AZ!

By: Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:17:56 +0000

I carry around an old Dell Axim x50 that I bought used for $50. Gutenberg.org (sp?) has thousands of books for free. Even better, my library allows me to “check out” Adobe pdfs of new releases (the same ones you’re $$buying$$ on Amazon). Why buy a Kindle or other eReader AND electronic books when you can get basically the same thing for free?

Oh, and my old Dell Axim can run Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc… has WiFi, Bluetooth and a whole host of other features, making it essentially a portable computer without the keyboard.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:00:12 +0000

I love the idea of an ereader, for all of the convenience and environmental reasons you already listed. Unfortunately, I also decided that it wasn’t really financially feasible yet. I think the prices of ebooks are still a little (or a lot) high considering their smaller overhead and lack of brick and mortar stores. I also researched to see if I could replace my current book collection (500+ books) with ebooks and even if they were significantly less expensive, there are still many many titles unavailable. Plus, from an environmental and financial standpoint, the damage has been done. I could make a commitment to buy all future books in ebook format but right now, my finances are devoted to other things.

By: miclason

miclason — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:47:21 +0000

hmmm… I don’t see myself with one. For one thing, living in a country where you can get killed for a cellphone, I’d rather not carry that sort of thing in public, if I can avoid it. Secondly,I generally take books to places where I know I have long waits, like banks, or public buildings (to renew passport, license, ID cards, etc) and, electronic devices have to be shut off or even left at the door at many of those.

But, mostly, maybe I’m just old school, each of my books is a friend and, I love it that each of them look, feel and even smell differently.

By: Analise

Analise — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:13:46 +0000

I have a Kindle (global wireless) and I love it. Not only has it saved me money (even though I also use the library), it has features that a lot of folks don’t know about.

One of the best uses for me is to take along a variety of reading material when I travel. On a recent trip I read The Zookeeper’s Wife, The Help, and U is for Undertow. Plus I read my Lonely Planet Central America travel guide and referred to it frequently. I also used it to store all our travel documents in pdf format and learned how to use my Kindle to send email (using wireless feature). Wish I’d gotten it years ago!

For me, saving money was not the driving reason to get a Kindle, the convenience factor was. And with over 360,000 titles from which to choose, I now have the capability of taking along as many books as I want whenever I travel.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:00:55 +0000

I just got a nook for Christmas, for many of the reasons that you mentioned. I’m betting on the .epub format being the one that lasts (rather than Amazon’s proprietary formats, for example). I care a lot about making everything in my life digital, and this is a natural extension of that. I also spend a lot of time reading scientific papers, so it’s nice to have the e-reader for that as well (b/c the nook can read .pdf’s). But I do admit that I won’t be saving a ton of money, as I do use my local library pretty regularly. But for me the convenience, space-saving, and lifestyle change was worth it.