Farewell, paper...and a question about ereaders.

[holyschist]

I made a first crack at the massive paper backlog and recycled two grocery bags full...and in the process found an uncashed check (!) from last November. So that was nice. Hopefully the second crack will reduce the paper mounds further.

Like a lot of people in this comm, I also have a bit of a book problem. I'm doing better, but books still take up an awful lot of space for us. I could reduce the book space significantly if I replaced most of my fiction collection and part (probably not a very large part) of my nonfiction collection with ebooks...but while I own an ereader (a slightly older Sony), I don't use it much except while traveling. It's not the current generation of eInk, and I don't really like the gray-on-gray screen. It only charges while plugged into my computer, and only while my computer is open...which means not overnight. I forget to charge it. I forget to sync files.

I'm trying to decide whether it might be worth investing in a newer ereader, since the current generation of eInk seems to be much higher contrast, closer to paper (is this true?)...but then I'm not entirely sure that the ereader is my own block against using ebooks for pleasure reading. I do tend to flip around in books; I also read a lot in the bath. I find paper books more comfortable to hold. So maybe I'm hopeless and will never make a switch unless forced...

...but I could free up so much shelf space. Any thoughts?

Comments

[adair]

I have an e-reader - a 1st generation Nook. I like it very much; it takes books bought from Barnes and Noble and therefore with DRM, and also epub format from other sources. I find reading on it a bit different from paper; I seem to concentrate on what I read a bit more, and it's not easy to flip around on the book. The eInk is very easy for me to read; it's not quite like paper, but much more pleasing to the eye than a computer screen, and the e-book is very portable. You will need a case for it, and you probably should be able to read it in the case. I use it for reading novels, mostly. A lot of the non-fiction I read has footnotes and maps and extra bits, and those don't work well for me on a basic e-reader. I have not tried any of the tables yet. I have not yet taken it in the bath

However, having the e-reader does not do a lot for replacing my paper book collection. Much of what i have, and what I want, is not yet available in digitized form. Older science fiction, mysteries, novels, general non-fiction - this has largely not been converted by the publishers, and therefore the books still take up space on my shelves, and I still buy them, used or new. It is possible that eventually more books that I want to read will be available in the epub format I prefer, but that day is not this day. Gaining space through e-books is not really a possibility for much of my collection. If you tend to read recent fiction of various genres, published in the last 4 years, you might find your situation different.

[holyschist]

Yeah, I have a lot of paper books that aren't available digitally yet (or are available digitally but in incredibly badly proofread copies I'd have to put hours of work into, or are available digitally but I'm not willing to give up a paper copy). Still, I could condense the shelves a fair bit by just replacing Elizabeth Moon, Terry Pratchett, and a few other authors with digital copies, and I expect some of my nonfiction collection is available as reasonable ebooks. (OTOH, there's also the money factor: I already OWN the paper books).

But that's also a big reason I haven't fully switched over as many people have--so many of my favorites just aren't available digitally.