Monday, May 14, 2012

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?



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?



23 comments:

  1. I agree with you regarding the pages, or should I say the %, of the Kindle. I also wish it had page numbers. And as far as today's question, I have a similar answer. Have a great week!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. My answer about reading to the end or not, is more or less like yours but shorter.. hee, hee..... About the e-readers, I love them but agree that I can't give them away. Just in the last two weeks I have given away eleven of my books I've already read. I will miss that feature, a real book can be enjoyed by more than just me. But, I love my e-readers now that I am using them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I use the Nook app on my iPad and when I am done with a book I can see, in fact I can look at my library any time I want, what I might like to read next

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, but if you leave the cover closed, or don't push tat library button, you never 'see' them..out of sight, out of mind!

      Delete
  4. I forget about my eReader all the time. I know it's been at least a year since I've read an eBook. I think I might use them more if they were significantly cheaper than a print book. As long as they're not it'll be print books for me since I can loan them out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Several reasons I like my e reader: lots of freebies enables me to try authors I would most likely never have heard of, much lighter than a paperback or hardcover ( a big plus for someone with RA), ability to change font as these old eyes need bigger print now. My cons are about the same as yours - not as easy to see what's in there as just looking at the bookcase and being able to flip to the back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. true, true...even if a lot of those freebies are free for a reason..lol

      Delete
  6. I love my Kindle and do use it a lot. Probably 60% of the books I read are e-books. That being said, I agree with your cons. All of them. Recently, I've had more and more frustration with the fact that I can only loan a very few of them and even then, can only loan once. I have two friends who are in a mystery book group with me. One of them was travelling for a bit and I loaned her a few e-books. She came home and liked the books, but I couldn't loan them to the other friend. It was a big pain. I think you ought to be able to loan more than once.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a kindle and I love it. But you're right it doesn't beat the feel of a book or the look of that brand new cover. It's just there's nothing like a book, but unfortunately I just don't have the space for any more books. Here's my Musing
    Check out my Giveaway
    Cathy @ Addicted To Books

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love my Nook. I read almost 80% on my Nook these days. The only physical books I read are those sent to me for review. The thing I love about my Nook is that all my books are in one place. No more searching thousands of books to find a specific book. Plus, I need space and the physical books just took up too much of it.

    I do agree about the price of ebooks though. I really don't understand why they price them as the same as print books (or sometimes even more!). It makes no sense to me, but I guess we live in a money hungry world.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I agree falling asleep and having the book fall to the floor is the worst!!

    I have a Kindle Fire and LOVE it but it will never compare to a 'real' book!!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog! New follower via GFC!

    Valerie @ Intriguing Reads

    ReplyDelete
  10. Definitely agree with your answer. Real life does intrude and I've learned to stop and remember what page I'm on. Ebooks do help because they keep track of your page. Unfortunately, I don't have an e-reader, so I'm often using my laptop or my phone. Because a few of my books are PDFs, Adobe doesn't save your page. Once you close out, you have to remember what page you are on, and the same applies when switching from my laptop to my phone (which I do often on breaks at work), so it's even worse than reading a real book, because i have to think back to what page I am on.
    I haven't gotten an ereader because I just can't do that. I suppose if I received one as a gift, I'd love it, but to make the leap on my own is just too difficult. I have so many books on my bookshelf that I love to admire, and the files on my computer just aren't the same. And I'm a huge fan of the nooks, but amazon seems to run better deals on free ebooks, so that makes it difficult to decide which reader to get.
    Love the rant! Here's my MM; http://meganm922.blogspot.com/2012/05/musing-mondays_14.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well, an e-reader is better than reading on the computer, even with it's issues. Now Nook vs. Kindle..well I have both..lol..but actually read e-books mostly on my iPad. yes, I love my e-toys..what can I say.

      Delete
  11. I would not really disagree with your list of pros and cons actually. For chunkster books, I always go with the e-book. Other times, I go with whatever version is cheapest.

    And I tend to stop the same way -- end of the chapter for a real book (unless it is very far away) and anywhere in an e-book.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great post! I am one of those that the negatives outweighs the positives for me and the e-reader. I have one only because my mom gave me her old one when she got the nook color. I have had it for 9 months, and I have only read three books on it! I love real books much better, and I really don't like the fact that when you spend so much on an e-book, there is nothing tangible for you to grab. It doesn't feel very...real, like I don't really have it. And I love bookstores too much to be able to skim through only a virtual bookstore. It breaks my heart that print books are getting less popular. Here's my MM: http://whatsontheshelf.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/musing-monday-9/

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm with you on my love of e-reader/gadgets! But I prefer reading on them to paper books now.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ahh! I totally for got about e-books and I'm an avid e-reader. Yes, if I'm on my Nook it is much easier to stop anywhere because of how they show you where you left off. Here is my MM: A Great Escape

    ReplyDelete
  15. E-books I tend to wait to the end of the chapter unless it's late and I'm falling asleep.
    ARDs (antique reading devices aka books) depends on how long the chapter is or how heavy the book. Most of these tend to be library books and usually chunksters - over 500 pages so my wrists get a little sore and I will stop when I can't hold the book anymore. Paperbacks that depends on how long my thumbs can hold out!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi! Thanks for dropping by my blog!

    Insightful and funny as usual. Thanks for sharing! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I hadn't thought about this question as in depth as you did, but totally agree with everything you said. I love my Kindle, but books will always be my favorite way to read.

    ReplyDelete

please speak up, I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!