Interesting re: ebooks vs. paperbooks

[booknerd]

So GoodReads asked Audrey Niffenegger "Do you think the experience of reading one of your books in paper form versus e-form is really different?"

Audrey Niffenegger: "No, I hope not. The container is supposed to become invisible when you're reading a novel. You're not supposed to sit there thinking, "Wow, I really like this typeface." Ideally the container vanishes. You shouldn't be thinking about your iPad or whatever the whole time you're doing it. You should be mindlessly flipping pages or screens and thinking about the book. If you're thinking about the device, it's not a well-designed device, whether it's a book or an electronic thing. I don't particularly care how people consume novels. That's people's personal preference now. I think we have a long way to go in terms of e-book design, in order to make it easy, stress-free, and transparent. There are still things that people need to be thinking about design-wise."

Thoughts?

[booknerd]

I received my Kindle as a gift. I felt awful because while I was grateful, I wasn't excited like she expected me to be. I love seeing my books on my bookcases and rearranging them, etc.

So the first books I read on the Kindle were the Harry Potter books, my favorite in the world. At first it was hard to get used to the e-ink pages and I didn't like how grey the screen was (now they have the paperwhite, which I'd love!). But by the end of book one it was no different than reading the hardcovers, except that it was more convenient on my Kindle. It was easier to carry a Kindle than OOTP for sure lol.

I like reading on my Kindle and always load it with several books for vacations. The only strange thing is if I enjoy it on the Kindle, I have to buy the paper/hardback copy of the book for my bookcases.

[charlatti]

I don't read ebooks, but I don't agree that a reader should ignore the container. I think a beautifully designed book can really add something to the experience of reading it. That's probably one of the reasons I resist ebooks -- I love the look and feel of actually turning pages. The book I'm reading right now has a gorgeous blue on the fore-edge and a really lovely typeface for the page numbers. It just adds something to the reading.

Likewise, an ugly typeface or design can make the experience quite unpleasant, so I'd agree that if you're noticing it in a bad way, then it's not well designed.

[booknerd]

I agree with you charlatti. And you said it beautifully lol. I love a pretty book and have actually bought one or two simply for that reason. I think that's also why I haven't completely switched to ebooks and mainly use my Kindle for vacations or reading big books that I don't want to carry around with me.

[duckduck]

Books can be beautiful as objects, and I do love them for that reason. There have been a few books that I've particularly enjoyed as physical entities while reading them (library hardbacks with dust jackets that are really well-Kapco'd are usually my favorites). But I do get what she's saying about the container disappearing. The book or the e-reader shouldn't be distracting you from the text for good reasons or for bad.

I have the Nook Simple Touch and before that had the original Nook. I actually like the grey background because it reminds me of the cheap mass-market books I used to buy with my allowance from K-Mart.

[aurora]

Though it's impractical, I do love having shelves of paper books. That said, I don't actually feel like I have a harder or less enjoyable time reading the electronic versions of books, and my Kindle is extremely convenient for all the traveling I do. My philosophy is to keep tabs on what Kindle books I can get from the library or from Amazon's monthly $3.99 and under sales and then to pick up most of the other books I read in paper form. If Amazon allowed lending as a rule (more than just once on some books) I'd be a lot more likely to buy Kindle versions in general, but I disagree with the philosophy that you have to pay $10 and more for a book you can't share with a friend.

[MrsAxilla]

May 4, 2013 12:36:13 GMT -5 aurora said:

Though it's impractical, I do love having shelves of paper books.  

I love having my entire library at my finger tips!  I actually love having shelves of books, too.  Lately those have been more resource-type books than fiction.  I appear quite serious based on my home office!  All the fluffy books are on my kindle.  

[apelila]

I have tried multiple times to read ebooks on my iPad, or on an app on my phone. I just can't get into it! I'd love to be able to read in bed while my husband sleeps, without having to keep the light on, and I don't know what it is, but I really DO get so distracted. 
I savor the feel of actual pages so much, I guess, that when I don't have that to bind me (forgive the pun! Or not, hehe) I just mentally wander off. 

[booknerd]

I love the feel of books too. And even though it was such a pain in the butt to move about 600 books to our new apartment when we moved, it was totally worth it and I love seeing them and rearranging them. I think that is what keeps me from using my Kindle more often.

[Myrrhine]

I have a kindle, but I don't think the experience of reading e and paper books is identical. I want to own physical copies of every book I love, but I like the kindle for other things. I really love being able to check out a couple chapters before buying. And when I am curious about a book I can't get from the library, I can buy an e-copy and enjoy the story that way.

[GilliC]

In high school I chose books by their binding.    I loved a loosely bound trade paperback, and there was on in the store where I worked that had such a satiny matte cover.  I read the synopsis and never bought it because I really didn't think I'd like the story, but how I longed to read something else in that book!

While I agree that in some cases the book is part of the experience, I think it's something of an exception.  Most of the time the packaging is decided by the publisher rather than the author.  And when it comes to hundred-year-old classics, obviously the current typeface and binding choices have nothing to do with the author's intentions, so the medium in which you read it really shouldn't matter.

[daydreamer]

I like both, but I can't imagine how anyone can ignore the container. It provides information just like the words themselves. This discussion reminds me of an article I read last month that discusses our relationship with paper books vs. ebooks.

www.salon.com/2013/04/14/do_e_readers_inhibit_reading_comprehension_partner/

I think the headline is a bit dramatic and that it's likely to be the changeover that is causing a problem rather than something inherent to ebooks. I personally have noticed that my mind is much lazier with reasoning out word meaning on ebooks because I can just highlight the word to get the exact meaning - and there's no need to actually remember it! This is more a general problem with not having to remember things you can look up rather specifically an ebook problem.

[GilliC]

Admittedly I skimmed the article because I'm at work, but I'm not sure I agree with a lot of it.

I do miss being able to flip back and forth between pages, but that's a software problem, not a problem with the digital medium. In fact, the online Kindle reader has a back button, and I love it! I can't wait to see them port that to the Kindle app, because I will use it all the time! (Right now I just drop a bookmark before I go to another section, so that it's easier to flip back, but it's a nuisance I could do without.)

I have a very visual memory, so the example of knowing that something happened at the bottom of the left corner of a page is very familiar. However, I fail to understand how that's a benefit. I have a distinct memory of sitting in a biology exam, knowing that the answer I was looking for was in the middle of a particular page in my textbook, but I had no idea what the answer was. Yes, it would be easy for me to look it up, but in a digital version, I could just search for a relevant keyword. In fact, I've found myself searching in novels for references to characters, because I had moments of "Wait! Didn't someone mention this person in connection with another event?" In a physical book, it takes too long to scan through hundreds of pages to find the right one.

Re: margin notes and highlighting, I do it so much more in e-books, because it's not permanent. Other than textbooks, I cannot bring myself to put ink in a book. When I really wanted to make notes about a book for my IRL book club, I actually wrote the notes on Post-Its and stuck them into the book, because I couldn't bring myself to write in it. And there's not always much space in the margin to write out a complete thought.

I'm not sure how the younger generation will respond to the instant definitions, but I've actually been learning new words I didn't really know before. I still infer a definition, but I learn a lot from the nuances of the full definitions. The last example was "djinn." I could guess that it was a supernatural creature like a sprite, but from reading the definition I learned that it was a being that could take human or animal form and the word comes from the middle east and likely comes from the same root as genie. Plus, I think I learn better in context. I've found from reading text in foreign languages that if I can translate words quickly, I'm more likely to remember them, because I can remember the circumstance in which it was used. If I have to go drag out my dictionary, I'm much more likely to forget them shortly after, because in my head I associate the definition with the dictionary rather than with the original text.

[duckduck]

I love being able to instantly look up a word's definition on my Nook. I still try to puzzle out the meaning from context first, but I like to confirm my guesses. For me the ebook feature is just a matter of convenience; I used to do the same thing with a paper dictionary.

And, yeah, I became a librarian. LOL I'm not sure what else my parents expected when they plopped an entire set of Britannicas in the kitchen and answered most of my questions with "look it up".

[rootbeerfloat]

I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I love the convenience of my Kindle.

But I read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore earlier this week, and it reminded me of this threat. I think book lovers will enjoy the book (book nerds meet tech geeks).