An interesting eBook discussion at Brighthand

[dh]

Check out this editorial and discussion thread over at Brighthand http://www.brighthand.com/article/Will_Ebooks_Survive

Using the Barnes and Noble situation as as example, Steve Bush argues that eBooks are not looking good for the future.

Most of the people posting in the thread seem to disagree strongly with him. One thing that I hadn't realized before was that BN.com didn't sell eBooks in any format that could be read on Palm devices. Seems rather odd since POS represents the largest part of the potential market.

[absolutVenky]

Clearly the author lacks vision. As PDAs (or smartphones or whatever) become more mainstream more and more people will begin to appreciate ebooks. I think the author is only considering ebooks from a desktop perspective.

BTW for you Sherlock Holmes fans out there the University of Virginia ebook library has most of his works, including the 4 long stories.

[Jason Dunn]

Steve's my friend, but I think he's way off base with this one - the problem is the hardware (cost, size, affordability, battery life), not the idea that an electronic screen is a bad medium for a novel. Jeese, we do most of our text reading sitting in front of a computer now anyway...

[davidspalding]

some sites (baen, palm media, fictionwise) are doing a better job of overcoming consumer resistance to ebooks than others (bn.com, amazon.eom). obviously, steve just hasn't been properly convinced yet. ;)

[Kati Compton]

Jeese, we do most of our text reading sitting in front of a computer now anyway...

Yes, the greatest *quanity* of reading is on a computer. But if I need to read an academic paper closely, I print it out. For some reason, I find it easier to concentrate. I've never been able to get the hang of reading books on my big desktop montor (I'd rather be on the couch). I'll have to try reading an eBook on my PDA whenI get the chance. But I do like the look&feel of "real" books... that would be hard to give up.

[Janak Parekh]

Yes, the greatest *quanity* of reading is on a computer. But if I need to read an academic paper closely, I print it out.
Academic papers are different, though. Often, they're in PDF format, which generally has poor on-screen readability. ebooks, on the other hand, are streams of text that are formatted by the reader in an eye-pleasing fashion. And curling up with a PDA is indeed much easier than curling up with a 17" LCD. :lol:

(That said, I've recently trained myself to read my academic papers online. And even on my PDA with RepliGo. :crazyeyes: I'm very happy at not having to deal with paper all over the place. I wouldn't expect anyone else to enjoy this, though, unlike ebooks, and I'm probably the only one who does it.)

--janak

[Talyn]

I also liked the "feel" of pBooks but quite frankly, my flight case is already stuffed and my Pocket PC goes with me anyway, so reading an eBook makes one less thing to cram into my case. I also noticed that my hands/fingers would cramp while reading books - not the case with eBooks so far. Then there's the whole lighting situation. You're pretty much just stuck with those little lights above your head in an airplane -- I find it much more convenient that my device has adjustable backlighting so I can leave the overhead light off, allowing my neighbors to sleep or whatever easier.

The first eBook took some serious adjustment, and I still can't stand reading an eBook on my desktop with any reader, but I'm quite accustomed now to reading on my Pocket PC with either PalmReader or uBook.

[KH]

The truth is that I reached the stage a couple of years ago that I simply prefer the experience of reading novels on my IPAQ. Three or four years ago I NEVER would have passed on the oportunity to purchase certain books the day they first became available, even in hardback format. But I have such an electronic backlog these days that I rarely buy a physical book from even from my favorite authors. I will however pay full hardback price for the ebook version!

I think that reading novels on my desktp stinks - and my laptop is only marginally better. But the Pocket PC experience is very comfortable, and the device is SO much smaller and lighter than even the most thin of paperbacks.

Having said all of that, any book with tables and charts just doesn't seem to work. There really is a missing link here...