I was actually thinking about blogging on this fact sometime in the near future. I didn't think I would be getting an e-reader, but when my company decided to send me to the middle of nowhere, Canadian backwoods for four months in the winter, I didn't really have the room to pack all of the books I would need to keep me entertained. So I purchased a Nook, and boy did I get my money's worth out of it.

I still love the feel and smell of books, and the Nook cannot replace that, but with all of the traveling I do with my job, the Nook is just more practical. I have a lot of free books from the public domain, and in addition, I found collections of 50 classics for 3 dollars. So I spent 15 dollars, and now I have 250 classics on my Nook. I figured it was quite the deal and I wouldn't have to waste time loading them one by one.

For me it was a practicality issue, and I think a lot of people can say the same thing. I needed books while I was away for four months, but I didn't have the room to pack them. Now that I'm back, I've turned back to my real books, though that may just be to give my eyes a bit of a break from reading a screen. Some books I have only on my Nook, so I'll read them there until I have the time, money, and space to continue building my library.

Like Suzanne said, the e-reader can be nice, but it certainly does not fill up a library.

It's nice to have you back Seraphim!

Where did you find a collection of classics for $3.00?

Thank you so much! It's nice to be back in civilization. I found it on Barnes & Noble website. I'm not sure if it would be available for non-Nook users, but who knows. I searched classics, and they have 2 volumes of 50 basic classics, everything from Tolstoy to Austen to Jules Verne. They also had volumes of 50 children's classics (Alice in Wonderland, etc), romance classics (like Pride and Prejudice, etc), and mystery Classics. I wasn't very familiar with any of the mysteries, but for 3 dollars, I figured I could get acquainted with them. Each volume was $3.00 each. There were a few repeats in the 5 volumes overall, but well worth the $15.

I know the feeling. The efficiency of the movable-type presses and the cheaper books are nice but I still prefer the illuminated volumes handcrafted by monks. And, scrolls. Don't even get me started with scrolls.

IMHO, books are not the technology of the presentation. It's the content.

One of the big pluses for me is that I know longer have a book collection stacked in the house. I'm old, though, and moving 3,000 books is a real pain.

The simple answer is history tells us that physical books will quickly fall from favor.

eBooks will dethrone the printed book for many reasons. The best, yet most tragic reason is the internet. As intellectual property, eBook and paper content are identical, so why do people value physical over the electronic versions? Reproducing and distributing eBooks is very inexpensive compared to paper versions. The demand that eBooks be free or nearly so, is huge. I’ve seen that in the comments of members on BT.

Regardless of the medium, isn’t a book’s true value the words within? Committing thoughts to words takes exactly the same amount of effort regardless of the delivery medium to the reader. However, because of the demand for “free everything” when delivered electronically in our new electronic world, the physical book, like the vinyl record (which is superior to the MP3 version), will find ever-smaller circles coveting it.

Well, they just changed the pages thing on the kindle... so you can jump to your current page, but getting to a specific section is still a pain in the neck. Technically, kindle books do have "pages" now, but not all of them have updated... And there's no more "Sections x-y" thing either... so all of my books are on percentages.

My kindle's going to be very convenient for travel, but still, I'm buying just as many books (although I'm trying to stick only to hardcovers- I go through paperbacks fast) as I used to, if not more. I just got a bunch of cheap (as in less than a dollar) print books, and even with shipping, it's still cheaper than buying the books for my kindle. ($12!? are they crazy?!!?11) usually if it's something i like but not enough to buy I'll get it. (ex-Freedom, Dust of 100 Dogs, etc.)


And my british lit teacher did point out that some people (like herself) have vision problems and reading on a computer/electronic device is difficult. (I told her to try the kindle, but I don't think she heard me. Pretty sure she has hearing problems too.)

I bought a Kindle and loved it for three or four weeks. Then my cell phone went out and I replaced it with an iPhone. And discovered that I could do on the iPhone everything I could do on the Kindle and it was easier. So now I do almost all my reading on the iPhone. I like...

- being able to sample books before making the commitment of buying
- being able to search the text of the book for words and phrases
- being able to highlight and annotate as I read (of course, I can highlight and write marginal notes in a paper book, but with the e-book, once I've finished I can get a list of my highlights and notes to stimulate further reading or reflection.)
- being able to mark spots in the book as I read without having to find a scrap of paper every time
- read in bed in the dark without needing a bed side light (couldn't do that with the Kindle)

I imagine there will continue to be strong opinion on both sides. I still read paper books sometimes, too, when a friend loans me one or something I'm interested in isn't available in e-book form.

I work in a bookstore and people are still very passionate about print books. But there are also a LOT of people who buy books because they can't afford a Kindle or Nook. Or they don't understand the technology, and are frightened by it. I think there is a generation coming that will only buy ebooks, but it's going to be a while.

I love my Kindle but can't ever see me giving up "real" books. And I love giving books as presents. It's lovely to hand someone something and watch them unwrap it - just as it is lovely to be on the receiving end. It's not the same if you are given a book token and to be honest, even though I'm not sure how to go about giving someone the gift of a "digital" book I don't think I would. Yes I would buy them a Kindle (have already bought two as gifts actually) but a digital book as a gift...I'm not sure I would give one.

i don't see it happening. i'll admit, i've thought about the idea of getting an eReader, but it's not the same in my opinion

i've been reading scince i was young. I gotta admit, i like looking at the book and seeing my bookmark gradually (or in a lot of cases, speedily) head to the back of the book as i read. i get kinda a sense of accomplishment. Plus i love the experience of going into a small bookstore or even a big one and looking around.

i do see some of the benefits, storage space, cheaper prices and a lot of them are free. but like it's been said before, there's a risk of damage to the machine, battery life, and such things. so to me, i don't think digital books will ever fully replace print books

It’s really hard to say. We’ve seen many methods of communication go by the wayside, although remnants of them seem to remain. For example, the telegraph was supposedly replaced by the telephone, but it remains a way to transfer money; the vinyl record has been mostly replaced by digital recordings, but there are still vinyl enthusiasts and records are still being produced; even hand printing was replaced by the printing press, but there are still books and other printed matter being drawn by calligraphers. There are even some authors who still use typewriters or write in longhand, so the computer has not completely replaced these early methods of composing and editing words.

If I were to guess, I would say that traditional books will remain so long as there are history buffs and artistically inclined consumers, but that these will eventually occupy only niche segments supported by collectors. I myself recently bought a Kindle, and I have to say that, despite my initial misgivings, I like it a lot. Still, I am currently reading a traditional book I purchased years ago, and am enjoying it just as much, so I will most likely continue to buy books printed on paper for a long time to come.

Resistance to technological change is an historical fact, because human beings tend to desire stability in their lives, and change of almost any kind is seen as destabilizing. Inevitably, however, change will come, no matter how hard we try to hold on to our old ways of doing things.

Do the ebooks make it as easy to flip back or ahead as you can do with a bound paper book? Lacking that feature would be one drawback I could see to an ebook, as I like to be able to quickly find a place a hundred pages back. Just wondering about that. A big advantage of the ebook that someone told me about was that he now has only one object on his bedside table, instead of a pile of books.

But I like my pile. It keeps me company and makes me feel smart.

I think they will. after all look at the way music and movies have gone. Books will not be long behind. Although I personally don't have an ereader yet myself.

I've read books on my iPad for convenience sake, but there is nothing like holding a book in your hands. After you get done reading it, you get to put either loan out the book or put it on you shelf, if it's special to you.

This being said, E-books outsold printed books last year.

I think, just like with music, print books will always be around, just fewer of them.