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Going Over to the Dark Side

November 30, 2010 - Amy Phelps
I have done it. I have done the one thing I have sworn never to do. I bought an ereader. This must truly be a sign of the apocalypse. First coworker Terry Estep had one and let me look it over. It wasn't so bad. The screen didn't hurt my eyes. Though all I could smell was plastic and not the yummy goodness of a book. Then Terry informed me we could loan books back and forth. So I could borrow some of his books! That was a plus, too. Then another coworker who is a big reader got one too. Another person I could borrow books from! And then I read that you could also borrow books from the library. My book borrowing options were opening up. And since eventually I have a feeling book reviewers are going to have to get an ereader or be faced with reading their review copies on the computer, I went ahead and did it. I got an ereader.

The eink screen really is close to reading on paper. Notice is said "close" and not "just like." Because when I sat down to read a book on it, I had a moment when my brain just didn't want to do it. "This isn't reading, this is work, you're doing work on a computer, arrghh!!!"

I did adapt though, and soon I was into the story and forgot about how I was reading the subject matter. But I still found that though I'm naturally a fast reader, I read faster in paper than on the ereader. And yet, here is the thing. Ebooks aren't THAT much cheaper than book. Some of them I saw were only $1 cheaper. And with bookstore sales or used book sales, there's not that much incentive for me to go with the ebook format over the paper one. And while there are some titles that I want that are available in ebook format, there are many that are not.

When I want to read the book, I'm gonna read the book, I'm not going to sit around and hope that someday, maybe, it will make its way onto the ereader. The bottom line is the ereader is sitting on my bookshelf at home. There are two paperbacks sitting on my desk right now. Granted, they are books I have to review, and as the review copies change over to the eformat, I have a feeling more of my reading will be done on the ereader instead of in paper form. But is the ereader going to replace paper books for me?

No. I still don't want to read my kids books on the ereader. I don't want to have to fight with my kids over who gets the ereader to read what they want, nor am I going out and buying them each an ereader. I'll still want to read old favorite titles and new ones that just aren't available in eformat. It's not replacing paper books for me.

 
 

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