Musing Monday...A Quick Answer..A Little Rant

It's Monday, so let's see what this week's question from Miz B  at Should Be Reading is this week...

This week’s musing asks…
Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?

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Well, as with so many things, it depends.
So, let me answer the question and then spin off into my own, distantly related point. Because I can. ;-)

If I am reading at home, with no great time restraint, except the many, many things that I should be doing besides reading, not that that ever stops me, I will usually stop at a new chapter. But at other times, like if I am reading at night or on the weekends at work, sometimes 'real life' intrudes. The phone rings, some annoying alarm goes off, something happens that I must deal with. Yes, so unfair, I know!

But as I mused about this, I realized the other big factor that determines if I stop at a new chapter or not is whether I am reading a 'real' book or an e-book. With a real book, I am more likely to stop at a chapter. Maybe because I find it easier to page ahead and see how much further I have to read until I hit that point. But I don't find that as easy in an e-book. Sure, I can flip ahead or even go to the contents and jump ahead and see how far that is, but to tell you the truth, I tend to get lost when I try that.

I use a Kindle app and a Nook app on my iPad and phone, and a regular Nook as well, and they use different ways to show the 'page' you are on. One is a percentage, one is a 'page' number, but the same page may actually cover several flicks of the finger...I don't know, but it is all a bit confusing. So much more often, I will just stop and of course, as one of the pluses of e-books, the next time you open it, you will be right back on the page where you left off. As I have said, when I stopped ranting about e-books, there are some pluses and minuses to e-books, and that is a plus.

Yes, I read e-books, and as I said, in fact I have several ways to do so, but I am not totally sold.

Pluses..

• Can download a new book, anywhere, in minutes.
• Convenient. With a smartphone, you always have a book in your pocket.
• Lighter and easier to hold, especially with a BIG book.
• Can change size of font, good if you have sight issues.
• So tidy. No piles of books staring at you, waiting to be read.

Negatives..

• Often almost expensive as a real book...for reasons I totally do not understand. Except they can.
• For that price, you 'own' nothing really. Except the right to download a file
• You can not give the book away, sell it or loan it, except in a very limited way. As they allow you.
• You can not buy a much cheaper used copy as you can with real books
• You forget what the heck you have on your e-reader, since you never see them
• No pretty cover to see every time you pick up and open a book.
• E-books can never give you the pleasure of wandering in a bookstore.

Just a few highlights of the high and low points of e-books and I am sure many of you have your own. Please, feel free to add your own in the comments. Certainly, e-books are part of our present and our future to a greater or lesser degree, however we feel about it. And while I have given up my ranting about the subject, I do still have my issues and concerns...do you?

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