Kindle Future

[KRCox]

I’m all for this new trend toward eReaders and eBooks. I own a Kindle eReader and I think it’s the bee’s knees. The wind will never turn my pages again! I’ll never lose my place because I dropped my book and have to wade through page after page to try and find my spot. Ever carry a text book in your backpack or bag? Ever carry 5? Yeah, not fun. Oh, and, this is especially awesome, when I read a word I don’t entirely understand, no longer do I need to flip through my 5000 page dictionary with size 2 font to look it up; I just click down to the word and it finds it for me, and WHAM, understanding.
 
Really the only thing I’m going to miss about hardcopies is the smell of aged ink and paper.
 
I once purchased 400 hardcover books from a second hand store and brought them home in a jumble. There were too many! However, I couldn’t leave them that way; they needed to be organized.
 
So I decided to do it by decade.
 
At first I looked inside the cover to find the publishing date, but each time I opened one of the dusty old things, that wonderful buttery mustiness wafted into my nostrils. I breathed deeply of a 1970s and then after that a 1950s and there was a definite difference!
 
So from that point on I decided to see if I could organize by decade by smell, and after a couple dozen books, I was able to. I could smell the decade. How cool is that eh?
 
I think my favorite decade is the 1970s. Good stuff. Then again, the 50s are pretty good too as I recall.

[raaurora]

yeah, I'm with you.  I got myself one for Christmas and am very glad I did.  Somebody told me they did not like their kindle because they like the feel of turning the pages.  WTHeck does that even mean?  Seems silly.  In addition to the reasons you've listed I like not cluttering up the place with books I'll never read again, or missing out on a favorite author because the library only carries 2 or 3 of his/her's titles.

[Me and My Kindle]

I've heard of people who purchase a print copy of the ebooks that they've read -- just so they have them around as conversation pieces. So I really liked your idea of buying the print copies from a second-hand store. That would actually make it cost-effective for me to purchase a whole "print" library of all my ebooks. (I've been reading a lot of free ebooks -- like classic novels from the 19th century -- and there's probably some used paperback versions available on the cheap!)

Once I actually started a collection of cheap paperbacks I'd found in used bookstores with hysterically outdated covers.  Sometimes it'd be a work of literature -- like Irskine Caldwell's "Tobacco Road" -- but the marketer's couldn't resist putting a sexy/romantic cover on the front! I imagined having all these crazy covers on display -- and that'll probably be even more interesting if our future is dominated by ebooks. "Yes, youngsters," I'll say, "there was a time when you had to have a large, color illustration -- in print -- that signified the contents of every book...."

[VondaZ]

Really the only thing I’m going to miss about hardcopies is the smell of aged ink and paper.

Unfortunately, not all smells are good. I recently purchased a hard cover book that was not available on Kindle from an Amazon Marketplace seller. When I received it, I immediately noticed the smell of cigarette smoke. Over time, that smell is dissipating, but as I read, I occasionally catch a whiff of it again. Keep thinking this would never be a problem with a Kindle book. I would have looked into returning it, but I didn't pay that much for it, so I decided it wasn't worth it the effort.

[mooshie78]

I've never had an attachment to paper books.  Most I had got donated to libraries or Goodwill in past movies as I seldom re-read.  One of my main draws to e-books was not having to hassle with that anymore.

Only thing I prefer paper and paper books for are academic books, text books, scholarly journal articles as I need to be able to highlight things and jot notes in the margin as quickly as possible, and to be able to quickly flip through them in the class room when teaching etc.

But I'm 100% on to e-books for all my leisure reading as physical books were just a burden for me there.

[mrscottishman]

Unfortunately, not all smells are good. I recently purchased a hard cover book that was not available on Kindle from an Amazon Marketplace seller. When I received it, I immediately noticed the smell of cigarette smoke. Over time, that smell is dissipating, but as I read, I occasionally catch a whiff of it again. Keep thinking this would never be a problem with a Kindle book. I would have looked into returning it, but I didn't pay that much for it, so I decided it wasn't worth it the effort.

Oh, I have run up on that and I am rather sensitive to cigarette smoke. I use a box fan and move a ruler or two through the pages from time to time to separate them. It helps pretty quickly, but may take weeks to get rid of most or nearly all of the smell. I usually have read the book before I finish the process. I think of it as washing it with air. My wife has put a book in a bag where she first sprayed the bag with febreeze, but I don't know how it came out. (I should check on that) she febreezes everything and if I sat still I think she would febreeze me.

Few things are as disappointing as ordering a used book and finding it too musty or smoky to enjoy.

Sympathetic Scott

[Alison]

The only thing I'll miss is reading in the bath!

[Belita]

The only thing I'll miss is reading in the bath!

Get one of the covers, or use a ziplock bag and it's no problem! I have a KlearKase and love it for that and reading at the beach.

[Alison]

Get one of the covers, or use a ziplock bag and it's no problem! I have a KlearKase and love it for that and reading at the beach.

Thanks for the tip 

[kindlegrl81]

I actually find reading in the bath to be easier with the kindle; I don't have to worry about getting my fingers wet and turning pages anymore. I use my k2 guardian case now but before I got that a ziplock worked great.

As for the old book smell, I'm allergic to dust so that old book smell has a tendency to cause breathing and skin issues.  I love that I don't have to worry about replacing my well loved books every 10 years or so anymore.

I know other people love DTBs but I don't see me willing picking up another one anytime soon.