To adore books but feel Meh! about E-readers?

[Snugglepalace]

I love books, have a real passion for them. I read a lot and for me there is no greater pleasure than settling down with a new book, cracking the spine and sniffing the lovely woody scented pages!
My Kindle just didn't have the same appeal so much so that I have sold it.
And I just love book shops, could spend an eternity in them, browsing, flicking through all kinds of genre. I know they have their place, but you just can't do this with E-readers and I just can't get the same joy with them.
Am I alone in my thinking?

[PurpleDaisies]

I feel exactly the same way. We're rapidly running out of space for books but I just can't love the kindle. It's not the same as holding a proper book.

[pipsqueak25]

with you totally on this one, there is something special about settling down with a good thriller [for me anyway] on holiday or chilling out, you don't get that with an e reader. i like the smell of new paper and in likes of w h smith [oo matron]

[ItMustBeBedtimeSurely]

I like my kindle but I find anything I read on it instantly forgettable. It's very wierd, I don't know why it happens, bit I will literally go to buy a book and realise I bought and read it a year ago on my kindle. This had happened several times, and never with a physical book. So now I just use it for kindle daily deal books or holiday reading.

[CryingShame]

I love 2nd hand books - the smell of them, the old illustrations, how cheap they are in book shops.

I wouldn't have bought a kindle but my DSis bought me one for Christmas. It's meant that I can get free ebooks in a foreign language, which would otherwise have been expensive to import, and I've got some books for DS saved onto it so I can whip it out of my bag on holiday if we're delayed at the airport or something and kill an hour with him, but I'm not sure I'd have bought it under my own steam.

[littlepeas]

I completely agree, for all the reasons you state, plus you don't get a book to keep at the end of it!

[StewieGMum]

I love my kindle for traveling but I only ever read proper books at home. I adore bookshops and second hand stores. My dream job would be to open a bookstore and spend all day reading.

[HobbitTankard]

My Kindle was a delicate flower and broke after gently sliding from my knee on to a carpeted floor. Never will buy one again.

Prefer books except on longer holidays where the storage on a tablet is useful.

I like to leaf through books and get frustrated with navigating e books. Tablets are ideal for articles but if I want to get to grips with a text it has to be on bound pages I find!

[TheProblemOfSusan]

I don't have a problem with ebooks in theory, but I don't use them in my personal life because I do have a massive problem with the digital rights management software that renders library ebooks impossible to use effectively. And I have huge issues with licensing book content instead of owning it. Amazon et al can just whizz stuff off your kindle at will (eg if they decide it's controversial or they fall out with the publisher). Fuck that.

Also, I think there's been studies that back up itmustbebedtime's experience of not properly taking in an ebook cf a print book.

[mollie123]

the problem I find with e-readers is that they do not display enough on a page IYSWIM - either the font has to be miniscule or their ' page' is read too quickly and it is a constant flick over to the next one.
Maybe I read too fast but I like a real book which has a left and right hand page that I can get through in seconds - but then I am a big fan of real books.

[Elphame]

My kindle broke - I haven't bothered to buy another one. Given the choice i bought the paper version if at all possible.

[Yankeedoodledickhead]

Completely with you. I love books, the smell, the feel, ugh heaven! I can't get rid of them either. I have to keep them. Every available space has books in, my husband thinks I'm nuts but I keep them for my children.

My gran had a cupboard when I was a little girl that she called 'the library' and I always borrowed books from it when I stayed the night. I loved it.

I buy them in secret too because he sighs when I buy more knowing we don't have much space left for them!!

I'd like to be Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail and own a beautiful little book store where I can get lost all day. I'd love that.

I can't get on with reading anything on a screen. It just doesn't feel right!

[LucilleBluth]

I like a mixture. Throw away books on Kindle, keeper books on paper. I think global warming is going to be a bigger concern in the near future and an e reader must be more eco friendly....I'm guessing?

[MatildaTheCat]

There's room in life for both. I belong to a book club and many of us felt the same. We all own one now. They are great for holidays, reading after lights out and slipping into your handbag.

I'm much more a kindle person than books now but will never give away my vast stash of much loved paperbacks.

[FeliciaJollygoodfellow]

I love my kindle more than anything else I own, I read three to four books a week and regularly have two on the go.

Not having a physical tome to read doesn't dampen my enjoyment one little bit - in fact, when you're trying to read War and Peace it's far easier with a slim and light kindle than the actual book.

I do love books by the way and have many, and still buy and read them, but I just don't have the space.

[SherlockPotter]

I sold my Kindle after a month... I get why some people prefer them but they aren't for me!

[JangleBangle]

You need to read "The Narrow Bed" by Sophie Hannah. I don't want to say more as I would spoil it!
I am the same, love my paper books, new and old. They each have an identity which they lose on a Kindle. I bought a Kindle for a long hospital stay and hated it. It felt so soulless.

[CaptainCallisto]

I held out as long as I could before getting a kindle, but bearing in mind we had to sell/give away nearly 300 books after our last house move as we no longer had space, it seemed silly not to get one.

DH and I made the agreement that any series we had started as a proper book would be finished that way, but any new ones would be e-books.

It's meant that I can read a new 15 book series without worrying about where to put them, and feeling guilty, but it's not the same. I'm a frequent re-reader though so I'm still getting my paper fix with them.

[Libitina]

When you're reading a good story, you forget you're holding a book. The same goes for reading a good story on the Kindle, you forget you're not holding a book.

[Scrumptiouscrumpets]

I agree. I just love physical books. looking at the cover, the font, flicking through the pages gives me real pleasure. With a real book I also feel I can take it all in at once - get an impression of the whole book just by taking it in my hand. No need to click to see how many pages it has for example.

I've heard it's harder to concentrate and take in written content from a screen and this is definitely true for me. I find it hard to concentrate reading from a screen.
That said, I do think we have enough books and I am regularly giving away the ones I'm not going to read again. This is also the reason why I've started going to the library, which I didn't do beforehand.

[mum2Bomg]

Totally agree - books rock!

[liz70]

No, I love reading books on the Kindle or Kobo apps on my 7" tablet. I have it in a case that opens out like a "book". I love that I can select night mode, whack my blue light filter up to 90% and read in bed next to DH, lights out, without disturbing him.
I've read some bloody good new/newish books on it, and I'm heartened by the high standard of contemporary literature available.

I use my tablet for loads of stuff though, reading, internet, music, videos, also I have knitting and crochet patterns stored on it, as well as tunes for me to practise badly my treble recorder. My tablet is my baby.

[SoupDragon]

I do love books.

However, the fact I have a whole bookshop in my bag with my Kindle is just heaven.

[SoupDragon]

Oh, and if I find myself stuck somewhere without my kindle, I can read my current book on my phone. As I am never without my phone, I am never without a book to read.