Get excited, it’s time for our annual e-book poll, which I have held every year since 2007: will you ever buy mostly e-books?
Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, I know this isn’t the most scientific of polls. Yes, the sample has changed from year to year. Yes, there are two polls from 2009 because I forgot one at the end of ’08. Entertainment purposes only!
Here are the past polls:
2007
2008 (technically beginning of ’09)
2009
And here is this year’s poll. Do you think there will come a time when you buy mostly e-books? Click through for the poll if you’re reading via e-mail or in a feed reader:
9% of us are swingvoters? Come on, guys, come to the print side…
Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!
(ahem)
Nathan, after the poll has been up for a sufficient amount of time, will you do a post comparing this year's results to other years, so we can see which way we're trending? Pretty please?
I tested my emdurance with a friend's Kindle vs. a paperback. I could read less than an hour (an average of 48.3 minutes) on the Kindle. I read an average of 6 hours (6.1) with paper.
Hmmmmm. Since I'm a reader (as well as an aspiring writer) looks like I won't be shelling out the money for an ereader soon.
It might be more convenient, but without the capacity to share books, etc. (as mentioned in previous posts by various contributors) it has no appeal for me.
For narrative fiction, all e-book. Got my NOOK in March and haven't bought a fiction title on paper since. If one fiction title isn't available in e-book, I'll read a different title.
For tech/reference books, paper for now. That small B/W screen doesn't cut it for graphic- and layout-heavy books where you need to flip back and forth.
To those who mentioned the library: many libraries in the US allow you to check out e-books. You can't read 'em on a Kindle, but you can on most other readers. (Insert raspberry to Simon & Schuster and Macmillan for not allowing their e-books to be loaned by libraries.)
Books CAN be shared on Kindle–better than any other e-reader, people just have to share the Amazon account–which works great with family and even best friends.
You definitely want the 3G and Wireless Kindle ($189 version). If you are somewhere where there is wireless it will connect up–like at home or at Starbucks–but if wireless isn't available you can connect to the internet and the Kindle Store using3G which is like a cell phone connection. I have downloaded books and free samples of books in airports, in the car while driving to Colorado, in bookstores and yes! on the beach.
I've also used the internet on my Kindle to look up restaurant recommendations or what movies are playing when I am traveling away from my computer.
Did I mention that once you buy the Kindle you pay no connection fee? I get 3G and Wireless for the life of my Kindle for free! An amazing thing. The iPad is $30 a month at least–every month.
By the way–there are five Kindles now in my family and we all share the 1000 books my husband and I have bought (on my one account on Amazon). My grandson has my 1st Kindle, my daughter has my husband's first, my best friend who has no money but reads voraciously has my second. I am on my third Kindle and Andy on his second. They just got faster and had more memory so I upgraded and gave the earlier ones to people I love.
By the way–my house is filled with wonderful Dead Tree Books I never read–I am allergic to their dust and mold. I've given 45 grocery bags of hardbacks to the local Friends of the Library.
Just noticed that the previous polls are hyperlinked – d'oh! Ignore that last comment.
The trend is interesting – a lot of the "maybe" people from before are moving to the e-reader side or the "still have no idea" side, but movement is definitely steadily drifting away from the print side. Boo.
I think it depends on whether "buying" means that you are spending money to get a book. I know that sounds redundant, so let me explain. I just got a Kindle two days ago and have been rapidly "purchasing" free out-of-print books as fast as I can download. I've "bought" more e-books than I have real books this year as a result of my downloading spree, but I don't think of it as the same as buying print books. For one thing, editions are extremely important in my profession, so I will always turn to the print version whenever I'm using it for work. But for fun? Whichever is cheapest: new, used, or e.
I have no idea. I have a nook and I have no protocol for whether I use it or whether I get a paper book. The fact is, most of my books are ones I get for free from my publisher or from other writers. That's just the reality of my college-budget life right now.
And I have trouble with e-books right for the simple reason that you can't flip through them. It's why reading an ebook version of a textbook doesn't make sense to me yet. I need to be able to keep my finger in two different spots and flip back and forth. I'm sure there's an ebook solution to this on the horizon.
E-books? I've just made the transition from scrolls! Now I'm replacing my lovely curly vellum with these flat cardboard and paper 'book' things.
Seriously, I do not know what I will buy in the future. It's enough of a challenge to decide what to buy right now. Meanwhile, may I remind my fellow commenters that e-books do not require e-readers, and print books do not require driving. I use an old-fashioned gadget called a 'laptop' for both.
Elizabeth, one sentence from each of 180 books? That would make an interesting mash-up!
Watcher55, click the NAME/URL option when commenting, and type 'Watcher55' in the box that opens.
BTW, I am encouraged by the number of commenters mentioning situations where they read e-books but could not read print books. Such 'additive' reading could grow overall book sales.
Stephanie Garber, you flip to the last page of a chapter before reading the chapter? HELL IS NOT HOT ENOUGH NOR ETERNITY LONG ENOUGH FOR SUCH A TRANSGRESSION!
Dave Ale, YEAH for stone tablets! They could be the next big retro thing. With a free chisel for making notes in the margins.
Mira, taking the book off the shelf and opening it isn't the real problem. The real problem is reaching the shelf from the armchair or bed. Sometimes, horror of horrors, I have to STAND UP!
I'm pretty sure I will. I suspect I will be getting an e-reader for Christmas, and after that I will probably only buy physical books if they're really pretty, cheaper for some reason, used, something I want to lend a lot, or I want to get a copy signed. Or maybe as an impulse buy when I visit a bookstore (I like browsing or shopping for others!). But I suspect with an e-reader I will abandon my dream of having a floor-to-ceiling library like in Beauty and the Beast. Actually, I kind of did last time I moved. Books are heavy!
I adore my iPad, have some e-books on it but for me nothing compares to the tactile experience of holding a really good book in your hands, getting so into it that you have to thumb through chapters ahead because you can't wait to get there and that old, broken in much-loved look a book gets after it's been read. Can't even talk about taking an e-reader into a bubble bath…BUT…it certainly saves carry-on space to have e-books on vacation. So for now I'm mostly playing Fruit Ninja on the iPad and reading old school. But I'm open to change…
I loan out my books to friends on a regular basis, so unless it becomes cost-prohibitive to buy paper copies, I don't foresee using e-readers anytime soon.
E-reading doesn't interest me. I enjoy going to my local independent bookstores and engaging with the booksellers. I enjoy going to Lifeline Bookfests and the University of Queensland's Alumni Bookfairs every two years and poring over the treasures. I enjoy going to second-hand bookshops and op shops and finding things I've been looking for for years. I enjoy having a personal library on shelves. I use a computer everyday and read a lot of short pieces online, so shutting my laptop and picking up a print book or magazine is a nice sensory change, as well as a relief for my eyes. I think e-books are fine and have no problem with them, but don't want them to replace print books, as the latter are such an important part of my own world, and our history generally.
Wow. Reading Comments here, I have learned a lot — as if i had taken a three-week course, I think. Currently —
DO NOT have a gadget budget,
and
DO HAVE many tangible Books which haven't yet read, so — I'm good.
But it's great to be allowed this deeper, multi-prismed (sp?) glimpse into how some other people experience the benefits and enjoyments of both e-books and "real" (?!) ones.
So many very interesting and engaging thoughts / ideas expressed here.
Terrific blog.
Terrific commenters.
I'm shocked and dismayed by this transition.
I have an i-pad and use it to check the web but I would NEVER read a book on it, under any circumstances. I like being able to peek ahead, check back on something, just navigate the text in the way a physical object with pages enables you to do.
I'm afraid that if paper books stop being available the way VHS movies and records did, I will actually stop reading. I cannot conceive of reading a book in that restrictive one-page-at-a-time format.
Also, I spend thousands of dollars a year on BOOKS; I wouldn't bother buying e-books.
Other than cookbooks, everything we read now is on Kindle. We actually gave our K2 to my 75-year-old mother. My wife, son,and I all read with the Kindle app on our iPhones.
the only time i don't by an e-book now is if it's not an option, i.e., the book is only available in hard copy. i'm usually reading 4 books at once, so my Kindle is so much better than lugging around 4 novels.
The last time I bought a DTB was in March. The same month I was gifted an ereader. I buy ebooks every week (a little too often) and I can't see myself needing to buy a DTB unless it's a picture book for my smallies. 😀
Not a fan of e-books…I will always love my paper books. 🙂 Also, the look of e-readers such as the Kindle don't really attract me all that much.
~TRA
https://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
…I believe it is inevitable…
I can't even imagine a world without tangible, thick, old-paper scented books. Has anyone taken the time to think about the effect ebooks will have on the furniture industry? What's that mom and pop shop down the road here in Topanga going to do when no one wants to buy a bookcase? Not to mention interior decorators. Homes will be left with a giant blank void in the corner of the room. What will it be filled with? Another flat-screen television? A silk-screened black and white rendering of Jimmy Page circa 1972? Horrible. Books belong in homes, not in computers. Computers die, technology becomes obsolete. Photographs, books, traditions can be passed down; they survive. Who's going to go into a "used book store" in twenty years and buy a Kindle crammed with children's books that adults read, stories about compulsive shopping, dogs, a quirky bridesmaid, or secret Vatican conspiracies? Imagine James Joyce on a Kindle. I feel sick.
I buy all e-books unless I have read an e-version and loved it. I will then go and buy the hardcover for my collection. I want to be able to show off my literary tastes, and that's an easy way to do it.
I'm not all that infatuated with e-readers. Yes, I understand the pro's of them but I still have concerns. Technology always has a way of out doing the last generation and rendering it obsolete. This has been case with many things, VCR's to DVD player and now blueray, Who's to say that e-readers won't be the same way. What if the next generation(s) are not compatible with the books you've already downloaded? What then, buy a new e-reader and purchase the books all over again? Thanks but no thanks, I'll stick with paper versions as long as I can.
For convenience, the environment, and a pleasant reading experience, I'm already kindled. –dalerobertweese
Nathan:
Wouldn't the poll be more effective if you asked "What percentage of books to e-readers will be your preference in the near future?" And then list the percentages: 1) 100% e-reader books. 2) 10% paper books to 90% e-reader books, for example, etc., on down to 100% paper books. I imagine myself buying an e-reader in the future, but I also have to admit to my old-fashioned notion that a book should be a rolled out, one-of-many alternative universes of a tree. The concept connects me to the wonders of ancient Egypt with its papyrus, or farther back to cuniform on clay tablets. When I hold a cloth/paper book I'm connected to learning and understanding down through the millenia. It's a connection through tangible, related materials, unlike holding the electronic readout version. Not that the e-friendly version isn't any good. Maybe 200 years in the future people will curl up with their e-readers in front of the old electronic fireplace, enjoying the historic nostalgia of it all. At this point in time as I stand in a bookstore amid all the colorful invitations to worlds of learning and adventure, am I excited about e-readers and e-fireplaces? Not yet.
P.S. Yes, I know papyrus is not made from a tree. But still… it is a small connection to the roots of humankind's learning. The e-reader will no doubt be a part of humankind's learning and entertainment history one day. This reminds me that in the future we may well be able to cozy up to reading using a virtual field of vision made possible via retinal implants. Well, you just never know these days…
I voted "never" again, but it didn't feel as strong as last year's.
I seem to like collecting classics as ebooks but am reluctant to buy newer ebooks. I almost took the plunge recently with a nonfiction book, but the formatting in my sample is AWFUL! I can read a few pages, then the sample suddenly stops and starts over again. Then that part stops, and I'm back to reading again where I left off originally.
Already there, and my reading experience has never been better.
So, I just bought my first e-reader, and I am welcoming my e-book overlords, but I don't think I will buy mostly e-books.
So far, I've loaded public domain classics, bought my favorite authors books, and checked out some digital ARCs.
I plan on reading ebooks that are priced reasonably, and interesting. I still plan on buying physical books. I'm still hoping they'll begin bundling hardcovers with a digital edition of the book. I can't justify $30 hardcovers, or $20 ebooks.
Still a cold dead hands supporter.
I want to collect classic books with leather covers and acid free paper just to have a weird hobby. If a book truly affects me and changes my world view I want it memorialized in the old fashioned form. Publishing doesn't reveal new stuff (world views)so maybe e-books are the cure and I'll become an obsessive reader again.
I think Nancy made a great suggestion for a future poll – I think the spread of ratios of what we're prepared to own would make the e-reader conversion from print look a lot less threatening.
I can't see our household ever going over a 80/20 ratio print to ebook.
I'm a paper book purist (and I've been working for a creative digital agency).
I think they'll sit side by side, but I think paper books will continue to edge out ebooks (despite all the comments that seem to say otherwise)!
Then again, I'm a bit of a grumpy curmudgeon sometimes, so maybe it's stubbornness.
I grew up back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people used fountain pens and second-hand Remingtons and things like that. But I got my Sony reader a few weeks ago. It's great for skiving in the coffee shop, taking chapters of my new novel to read at my writers' group or a selection of books to reader on that weekend away. Wouldn't be without it.
But's it's o good at all for casually-on-purpose leaving one's own books lying around for visitors to spot: "hey, did you wirte this then?"
I once heard (maybe it was on Oprah) that at the end of your life, it is the people you've met and the books that you have read that matters most. Call me romantic, but I have fallen in love with books; the dogeared, tangible ol' things. They are like good friends. They sit on my shelf and remind me of great times. The ones I haven't read; invite me, with their pretty covers and intriguing titles and their sheer weight, to come and discover the stories within. I get anxious by looking at them. I guess it is my fear that e-books are, and will be forgettable.
E-books weren't really on my radar at all until recently when my husband began talking about possibly getting one. I was shocked and dismayed. Replace my lovely paper books with their wonderful book smell for a piece of electronics? I'm not a person who deals with change well and so I immediately shut him down and forbade him to ever talk about it again, all with a look. (He knows by now not to go against THE LOOK.)
But as I began to branch out and read more blogs about writing lately (I'm an aspiring author myself) I slowly began to reconsider my opinion. This e-book thing is pretty big, not just a fad or something, huh? Grudgingly, I did come to accept that this is the future and eventually was even able to see the multiple up sides.
I think we'll finally be getting an e-reader for Christmas. Not a Kindle. My husband works for the library and insist we get one that enables borrowing from libraries. And then I won't be surprised if we go over to mostly e-books. It's cheaper and easier, after all.
Before this year I would have said no. I liked my physical books, ereaders just weren't durable enough – and then I became part of a book review website. The volume at which I read now cannot be contained by my small apartment – ebooks are the natural solution for everything I don't just want to read and read and read and read. So I got a sony daily, and I'm slowly but surely falling in love with it and ebooks. 🙂 What can I say? I'm a convert!
I like the convenience and ease of ereading. In my day job, I do most of my reading online anyway, so making the switch to an ebooks for entertainment reading is an easy migration for me.
I think there will always be a place for paper books, especially for those you want to pass down to family and friends. And, I am amazed at the amount of relatively cheap/free content out there.
All that said, that's why I decided to release my novel, Lie Merchants, as an ebook first and then consider moving over to paper.
http://www.LieMerchants.com
I like the convenience and ease of ereading. In my day job, I do most of my reading online anyway, so making the switch to an ebooks for entertainment reading is an easy migration for me.
I think there will always be a place for paper books, especially for those you want to pass down to family and friends. And, I am amazed at the amount of relatively cheap/free content out there.
All that said, that's why I decided to release my novel, Lie Merchants, as an ebook first and then consider moving over to paper.
http://www.LieMerchants.com
We're military stationed in Europe and can't download everything from Amazon because our computer URL lists us as Germany. Can bypass with a proxy url, but it gets sticky…so probably not until we're back in the states. For now, it's cheaper to buy the actual book and have it sent over.
Maybe "Mostly" but never "all". I like the feel of a book in my hand too much.
Someone mentioned stone tablets…you have to admit, they're more durable than paper ; )
I don't have an ereader, but if I can ever afford one, I understand that the data files are often cheaper than the hard copies. Though I think I'll still want to own my favorites in hard copy.
Think about what might happen if there ever was a world wide electronics crash. All those books in ereaders would be useless, unreachable. 😉 Hard copies? no technology required to read them (at least in the daytime). The sun makes it fairly easy. And if something happens to that light source, I don't think any of us will be worrying about books. 🙂
Last year I would have said "never", but I love my Kindle, and I'm going to buy a Kobo or Nook so I can borrow E-Books from the library. You can change the text size, which my eyes appreciate, and I'm making a lot of space in my house by getting rid of some of my classics. I can get them for free with Kindle. When I travel, I won't have to take a separate MP3 player for audio books. The Kindle plays them. I will always buy and read books from major publishers, though, unless it's something very local and very specialized.
Not until the rights for countries like Australia are a whole lot better than now. My Kindle has been more useless than useful, as so many of the (maintstream) books I would buy aren't available to Australia in Kindle (even though they are to the US). As a mug punter reader, I don't know for any given book if the ebook rights for Australia are still with the author, being sat on by a publisher, or what, and there is no clear/simple way to find out; so I can't write/email/agitate. I thought I was entering a brave new world; right now, I'm trapped in the vestibule, waiting for authors/agents/publishers/somebody to remember that Australia has people with ebook readers who might like to read more than out of copyright classics and Steig Larsson.
Buying a Kindle has been a waste of money (it would be the same for any e-reader); and I'm buying more print than I had planned to.
The Australian Consumer Assoc recetnly reviewed e-readers available here, but sadly ignored the elephant in the room of the limited content available.
If books weren't already available in Kindle form, I'd be less narked; but the formatting etc is done, the issue is the rights.
It would be great if e-book selling websites such as Amazon had a button you could ping to send the message that you would have bought this book in Kindle form if you could; that could be forwarded to publisher/rights holder etc, and indicate demand so perhaps someone would get their rear end in gear.
Ebooks for Australian readers are more frustration than anything. Sadly.
This year I finally hope to get one.Last year,I have made considerable savings to buy myself an e-book.
………..
Adam
http://www.plrprivatelabelrights.com
The eBook era has arrived. It will continue to gain an ever larger percentage. Personally, I think it's the best option.