From a Rasmussen poll: “Forty-four percent (44%) [of American] voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress, but 37% disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.”
From Chris Andrews at Gutenberg.com: 20 Reasons Why 2009 Will Be The Year of the Ebook. The gist is that current Ebook readers are cheap enough and good enough to overcome previous objections, and that Ebooks themselves are freely and widely available. Jew’s response: No.
Cop steals donuts. Jew’s response: The AP stylebook says to spell it doughnut.
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2009 will not be the year of the Ebook. Chris Andrews talks up the positives, but he doesn’t mention that current Ebook readers still cost over $200. That barrier to entry is too high.
Plus, there’s the question of cost. I can buy a paperback book for, oh, $8 or $9. I can get it used at half price. Ebooks at Amazon.com cost $10. Sure you can get free ones from Project Gutenberg, but only for old out-of-copyright books that have been converted (complete with typos introduced by OCR software) by volunteers.
Then there’s the physical books themselves. Andrews says that the “practical advantages of ebooks will outweigh the emotional attachment to [physical] books.” Clearly he’s never met me. I love my books. My books are my friends. It broke my heart when I had to sell a few shelves full of paperbacks to make room for my wife’s books. Ebooks? Hah!
A few years ago James Patrick Kelly wrote a column about Ebooks for Asimov’s: On the Net: Ebooks Again? He talked about the surging interest in Ebooks and stated that we’re headed for a future where “ebooks inevitably dominate paper books.”
My comment back them (November 2004) was that Ebooks have some critical shortcomings:
So it’s been what, four years? Not much has changed. Ebooks still require an expensive reading device (but the devices have gotten better.) Publishing companies are still scared, and DRM is still the norm. Nothing of substance has changed.
I’m not a fan of the Ebook either. I want a real library, not a digital device that can die on me for using it too long. The good thing, however, is that as Ebooks do become popular, regular books will become cheaper as people try to get rid of them. I understood the move from VHS to DVD and even from 8mm to Digital Video (in camcorders), but the shift to Ebooks isn’t quite the same. Further, it’s not some emotional attachment to the real book, but rather a preferential one: It is easier for me to hold and look at a real book than an electronic one.
I’d be willing to give an ebook a try, but I have my doubts as well. Are the screens good enough to read when one is sitting in sunshine at the park? Will it withstand the slamming around in one’s backpack? Will it run off solar energy or does it eat batteries?
The Amazon Kindle has a screen made of electronic paper. I’ve never tried it, but supposedly you can read it in direct sunlight. It’s just like paper. It doesn’t run off solar power, but it can go for two weeks without recharging. I don’t know about its durability. It’s a $359 device so I wouldn’t let it rattle around inside a backpack.
It’s the $359 price that bothers me. If it were $59, I would buy one just to try it out. But $359 is too much.
The only thing that could possibly interest me about an Ebook is if it was being offered for free. But there are certain technologies I just don’t really care about – cellphones for instance. Plus, if I’m reading a book I want to be able to doggie ear the pages.
I want a real library, not a digital device that can die on me for using it too long.
I’ve been thinking about that. The people who use these Ebook readers seem to be people who travel a lot, and find it more convenient to carry one Ebook reader than a suitcase full of books. Or they are people who read on the train/bus and find it easier to hold the Ebook reader than a regular book.
Ebooks might also be good for avid readers who don’t care about building up their own personal libraries.