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It’s funny that a couple of years ago I would never have wanted to read a book that wasn’t in paper. Now, my wife and I both read quite a bit through our Digital reading devices. In our case, we have yet to buy an official device like a Kindle, Nook, IPad, etc. Instead, we’ve downloaded the Kindle App to our smart phones and do a lot of our reading there. Since getting that App, I generally read two books at once, one in Digital form and one in Paperback.
Right now my unwritten rule is I continue to buy my favorite authors in paperback since I own their previous work in that form already. Older books that have not moved to a digital format are also bought in paperback since that is really my only option. However, most (but not all) new authors are bought in ebook form. At first, reading digitally took a little getting used to. After all, I like looking at the books on my shelves. However, the ease and portability of carrying entire books in your pocket is just too good to ignore. This point has especially been driven home since our daughter was born in December. She is definitely an arm baby and therefore, it can be quite difficult reading a paperback book with one hand while holding a baby with the other. A phone however, is no problem.
My wife has been flying through books at a pace of almost one every day or two lately. I don’t think that would be possible without her phone.
Then, there is price….many independently published authors like myself price their books between $.99 and $4.99 which is significantly less than those from major publishing houses. Traditional publishers have started to jump on the bandwagon and recently began running sales on some of their authors where they will drop the price of a book (usually the first in a series) for a short time.
I’m not ready to give up paperbacks yet, but I can see that in a few short years most of my purchases will be ebooks…if not sooner. Besides, there is already a movement to get rid of Mass Market paperbacks (the cheap ones) and replace them with larger trade paperbacks and limited edition hardbacks. Those are great in some cases. However, I can’t see paying $25 for hardbacks when I can buy several ebooks of comparable quality at the same price.
How do you feel about reading digital books?
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Being one of those people who seem to have an uncanny ability to flip to a specific part of a book at will, I don't see how I could give that up. There is some odd connection between brain and fingers that allows me to thumb through a book and land on the specific line or scene I want - to double check something a character said earlier or to remember who a particular character is. I'll just know that it's on one of the left pages about a quarter of the way down the page, for example. "Flipping" through an e-reader involves tediously sliding one page at a time or knowing the exact page number to enter - which I couldn't even tell you. I'm still old school.
Stay old school. Old school is cool.