# Books or Kindle?



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi friends,

How do you read?

Book, or tablet?


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

....books.......
but only if they're


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm mostly kindle at this point.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

For ever... Books. 

There is nothing like the smell of an old book or the physical experience of handling one.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Book, but because I don't have a tablet!. Personally, I don't care if it is book, tablet, or whatever, I'm not a romantic.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Book.

I'm entertained at the thought of propping a tablet up on the piano to play from, but don't think my eyes would cope.

Interesting if they could get a large size version which did page turns because it could following your playing on the score.

The thought of using you tube at the keyboard is also interesting.

Great Poll!


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Kieran said:


> Hi friends,
> 
> How do you read?
> 
> Book, or tablet?


Books, books, books!

A Kindle would surely be more practical, given the limitations of shelf space, but books remain my preferred reading format.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

I would never want to give up books but I do do a lot of reading on my iPhone kindle app or iBooks.
I can flip it put whenever I want. At work, in the supermarket queue etc. and I can also read it in bed with the light out.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

I like books, and would prefer to prefer books...

However the kindle is much more practical, and it is much cheaper to buy books once you actually have the thing. A lot of the books I read on it now are free because they are so old anyway. Also it is so much more portable.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

aleazk said:


> Book, but because I don't have a tablet!. Personally, I don't care if it is book, tablet, or whatever, I'm not a romantic.


I'm very romantic but I express that by going for the content in whichever form I get it (personality before looks, heh heh). Some titles are not available on tablet yet. If I see a book in excellent condition and really cheap I'm not saying no.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

MagneticGhost said:


> I can also read it in bed with the light out.


I like that, too.


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

Books or tablets. Gold or stone tablets. Staunch advocate of the Audiobook, too.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

The Kindle Paperwhite is really an excellent device. Now, this one is not a tablet, just a book reader. But, the backlighting is a great advancement. When the light is set correctly it is very easy on the eyes. Plus, you can adjust the font size to make it even easier. I much prefer to read on the Kindle than to read paper. 

I haven't purchased a real book since the first Kindle came out.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

My reading is approximately 70-30 fiction — non-fiction, but my practice remains the same. If the reading strongly pleases me I set the book aside for ~5 years, then read it again. I'm pretty sure that books are more apt to be found after that interval.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Mesa said:


> Books or tablets. Gold or stone tablets. Staunch advocate of the Audiobook, too.


That's the option I missed! Audio books. My uncle uses them exclusively now, which is curious to me. Something about how the written word on the page looks...


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

Indeed, ideal for travel/bed use. Narrators do have an enormous impact on focus/enjoyability, for example, there's a marvellous Three Men in a Boat from Hugh Laurie, which i imagine is far more fun than actually reading the book, and then there's a free version of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations i have, narrated by a proper outback aussie type. I like the accent, but it isn't the greatest for taking on board information. "Everything we heeeyar is opinyun, fella, not fact. Everything ya see is perspictiv, not the trouth. Treat ya sheila nice, like!"


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

The only "books" I _read_ are collections of music scores for organ .

I do plan on getting a tablet one of these days and it will contain my 'virtual library' of classical organ music, which presently resides on a portable drive.

Kh ♫


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Taggart said:


> Book.
> 
> I'm entertained at the thought of propping a tablet up on the piano to play from, but don't think my eyes would cope.
> 
> Interesting if they could get a large size version which did page turns because it could following your playing on the score.


Cheers Taggart! It worked! 

Interestingly, in this month's BBC magazine, Angela Hewitt mentions that in place of a page turner, she uses her iPad, but she has foot pedals to change the page. So instead of the requisite feet-buttons below, she has two extra pedals for, presumably, going forward or back on the score...


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Ondine said:


> For ever... Books.
> 
> There is nothing like the smell of an old book or the physical experience of handling one.


Then you're like me, Ondine - the smell of the page and the sensation of turning one. I suppose it's what I grew up with, though I can see the attraction of Kindles and tablets etc, for space purposes. But recently I rejoined the local library too, but only for the books...


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)




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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Mesa said:


> Books or tablets. Gold or stone tablets. Staunch advocate of the Audiobook, too.


Come down from that mountain!



Kieran said:


> That's the option I missed! Audio books. My uncle uses them exclusively now, which is curious to me. Something about how the written word on the page looks...


Wouldn't be a poll about how do you _read_ then.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Taggart said:


> Wouldn't be a poll about how do you _read_ then.


Truth! 

Is this the original Kindle?


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Not quite Uhuru used something similar with read write capabilities many years previously:


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Books. Like it is the case with second-hand LPs and CD, quality literature prices have reached a very modest level here, the exception being of course the most recent releases & novels.


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2013)

I love physical books as well, and thought I would never warm to reading things electronically. But I got a Kindle a few years back, and now I read most everything on it. I have a Kindle and a Kindle Fire - I prefer the Kindle if all I am doing is reading, as the Pearlink is so much easier on the eyes - just about the same as reading a book. I have no time finding my books, as I have quite a few stored. I tend to be very obsessive compulsive when it comes to the organizing of my books. I have them sorted by fiction/non-fiction, and then alphabetical by author. On my Kindle, I have them organized into genres, or if it is a series, I have them collected together in a folder (e.g. I have all the Song of Fire and Ice books by George R. R. Martin together in one folder).

I will say the one drawback is when there are maps in the book. With a physical book, you can easily flip back to the map and reference it while reading. It isn't that easy with a Kindle.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

DrMike said:


> I have a Kindle and a Kindle Fire - I prefer the Kindle if all I am doing is reading


Thanks DrMike! What's the difference between a Kindle and Kindle Fire?


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Books books books. I am a notorious Luddite (my friends make fun of me for having had the same cell phone for 6.5 years and not having the internet in my pocket), and when you give me gadgets, I usually just accidentally break them. (Except my cell phone, which is a durable little brick with an antenna.)


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2013)

Kieran said:


> Thanks DrMike! What's the difference between a Kindle and Kindle Fire?


The Kindle is purely an eReader. All you can do with it is read books (although some also allow you to play MP3 format music, and may have very rudimentary web browsers. The Kindle Fire is technically a tablet computer, but more like a cross between an eReader and a Tablet. It cannot do all the things that something like an iPad could do, but you can read books, listen to music, watch movies, and download numerous apps. I don't like it as much for reading because it does have more of a computer screen, and so it will fatigue your eyes over time, just as reading on a computer screen would, whereas the normal Kindle has the Pearlink or Paperwhite technology, and it really is just like reading a book - less eye fatigue.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks DrMike!


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

Books books books. For their physical look, smell and feel - I can't cope with not having physical pages to turn.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Books. I don't like reading from a screen. Also, id like a big library to show off.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Kieran said:


> Then you're like me, Ondine - the smell of the page and the sensation of turning one. I suppose it's what I grew up with, though I can see the attraction of Kindles and tablets etc, for space purposes. But recently I rejoined the local library too, but only for the books...


Yes. I can recognize the advantages of a Tablet or a Kindle. This new technology is really impressive but, trying not to be romantic, lets think for a moment the we have our tablet with many books and it get lost or it breaks or whatever... it can be a very painful loss.

Do you think tablets and kindles will do with books what CD's did with LP's?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I use the Kindle whenever I can. It can hold several hundred books easily, sorted into named collections. Whenever I call up a book, it comes pre-opened to the last page I was reading previously. The screen is excellent (I have the old unlighted model) and I only have to recharge it every couple of weeks. It is much thinner and lighter than even a single paperback.

A must-have is a third-party program to manage its content. The program I use, the free Calibre, does an excellent job of automatically maintaining the Kindle library on the hard drive, including books deleted from the Kindle after reading. So if the Kindle dies, the library remains available and intact. It also converts e-books from other formats to the Kindle's MOBI format before uploading them.

The Kindle is not very satisfactory for books with important graphic illustrations or pictures, however.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Ondine said:


> Yes. I can recognize the advantages of a Tablet or a Kindle. This new technology is really impressive but, trying not to be romantic, lets think for a moment the we have our tablet with many books and it get lost or it breaks or whatever... it can be a very painful loss.
> 
> Do you think tablets and kindles will do with books what CD's did with LP's?


Yes. And I think it'll lead to an equal amount of illegal downloads too. I know a guy who downloads the NYT top 10 books every month, for free. This will be a concern.

But it might also have a huge effect on how books are written, etc. The medium may affect how the message is transmitted. I have no problem with this, because language evolves and everything changes and new great things are welcome all the time. I ain't _that_ much of a Luddite!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Kieran said:


> But it might also have a huge effect on how books are written, etc. The medium may affect how the message is transmitted. I have no problem with this, because language evolves and everything changes and new great things are welcome all the time...


I think it already has. We've always had a number of speciality publishing houses doing small runs either for a local market or for a specialised market. Now that Kindle is getting going, many of these are emerging on to a wider stage. It is also a lot easier to self publish and if a "book" sells, even in Kindle form, it may attract mainstream attention.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Ondine said:


> This new technology is really impressive but, trying not to be romantic, lets think for a moment the we have our tablet with many books and it get lost or it breaks or whatever... it can be a very painful loss.


Are you saying that it would be painful to lose all the books or just the device? Because if you break or lose the device itself, any of the books you purchased through Amazon would still be available to you. When and if you replace the lost device, you just download everything again.


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## UltraRunner (Jun 14, 2013)

I use both...

I adore books, the feel, the smell, the browsing through bookshelf shops...finding books you didn't know existed, but you have to purchase there and then...

I also have a basic Kindle, which is great for carrying to coffee shops, chucking in the car, taking on holiday etc. - it will never replace my need for books, but it's a handy tool.


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## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

BOOKS. I like the feel of them in my hands. Also they are easier to sell, if I want to. Sorry, old fashioned. No, just make that old.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Ravndal said:


> Books. I don't like reading from a screen. Also, id like a big library to show off.


I have a library with some hundreds of books. Yeah, certainly it's good to show off... but a pain in the *** if you are moving!.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

I have two Android tablets. This is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. Watching Wimbleton after-match interviews.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I'm usually pretty enthusiastic about new technology and I like to have the latest greatest gadgets, but when it comes to "ebooks", I really prefer physical books in almost every situation.


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## korenbloem (Nov 5, 2012)

Ereader ftw. I own a sony ereader, and havent read through an hole physical book ever since.


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