Please don't loose book reading to online -

[oopsadaisyme]

This has probably been mentioned numerous times before, but books are so lovely, to kids, to us -

I love being able to turn off the tv and read to the kids, and when their asleep pick up a book and in quiet read a brilliant story from pages I can turn - even the feel of a book I love - marking a page, everything!

How awful it would be to put this all online, or am I wrong?

And I also love how I can read what I want within seconds or buying it on Amazon. None of that waiting for a week to receive the shipment.

I have both. I love the kindle for portability and also the fact that I can read late into the night without irritating DH :)

I cannot use it for cookery books or textbooks though, it just won't work for me, so for these I prefer paper. I could never get rid of the physical books I have, too many happy memories of reading them.

I have to carry bumph,documents,laptop,etc fir work so slipping a kindle in bag is great

This is fast becoming a Kindle adoration thread

I know

Sorry cote, no- I was talking about physical goods, not e-products. E.g. Lego, playmobil, CDs, physical books etc are all cheaper on amazon than anywhere else (if you want to sell your item on amazon, you have to agree to sell it cheaper there than anywhere else, those are their T&C).

And their HR practices are unconscienable.

Not everything is cheaper on Amazon.

Kindle books' prices are lower than print books because of the obvious savings involved - no transportation, no storage, no inventory costs etc. They would have been much lower if publishing companies percentages were not involved.

They would be much lower if they didn't attract VAT, like a physical book.

Yes, I never understood that. Why are ebooks subject to VAT whereas print books are not?

Since I got my kindle I haven't read a 'real book'. I think it's because I can change the size of the typeface so I don't need to read it three feet away (my glasses are for distance only).

My friend lent me a 'real' book last year and it is still sitting by the bed, waiting for a time that I feel the urge to peer at the pages to try and read them yes, I know I need bifocals, I'm making an appointment to visit opticians next week.

Isn't it normal that goods are cheaper online, though? No shop to rent & associated costs, much less inventory, more efficient delivery etc.

Yes, it feels very like the vinyl vs CD vs mp3 debate, doesn't it? Some people will say nothing will beat vinyl because it's the traditional medium for music recording. Hopefully vinyl will be around for a long time, and hopefully paper books will be too.

In terms of a fair price, the publishers will still have editorial and advertising costs and so on. It's harder to define what's the cost of the labour involved in the production of a book?

I don't care which media I use to read, e-reader or paper. I have thousands of books on shelves, in boxes, in piles against walls; I also have a Kindle.

As I am physically disabled, the Kindle is great as it is light. With a book, I have to wait for the paperback as I am not strong enough to hold the hardback and to keep it open - now I could get a new title on Kindle as soon as it's out, if I want to.

Before I got the Kindle, I thought I would hate it. Love paper books for all sorts of reasons. However, I think I was being a bit of a Luddite (and I do love gadgets and tech. I am living in Science Fiction Land these days! When I was growing up we didn't even have cash cards....)

I love books and have hundreds but you sound like a Luddite.

I was against the kindle at first but the immediacy and cheapness is a big bonus. I read more on kindle as it costs less and it's easier to find books you're looking for.

There's room for both.

I do love a bookshop amble though

I imagine the VAT thing is simply a case of the laws not catching up with technology coupled with a reluctance to lose the tax revenue.

Tribpot, there is a difference between cd etc and mp3. My bro had a recording studio and he said mp3s are so compressed to make them small files that you do lose a lot of detail from them. He was replacing his truly vast vinyl collection with cds though, so presumably they are OK

Ive got 350 books on my kindle. How many trees would haver to be chopped to produce print runs of 350 books?

OP, may I ask if you are dyslexic?

I love my kindle. Rarely read paper books now. BUt I'd be sad if book shops closed down. Mainly for kids I think. I find dd needs to browse books in Waterstones to feel inspired to choose something.

Jux

I'm dyslexic and I can't get on with kindles and such, for reading.
I find the scrolling puts me off the text and as I'm slow with reading and comprehension anyway, I have to go back and start again.
I'm ok with something brief on the same page, such as a recipe, but otherwise me and screens don't go well together.
I even have the odd problem on here.
Give me my paper books any day.

Kindles don't scroll though.

I even have the odd problem on here.

TBH, I'm not sure that's always down to dyslexia :)

There's room for real books and there's room for electronic reading devices. No one needs to get snooty about what someone else chooses. At the end of the day it is the words that matter, not how you read them.

neffi

I totally agree, my dc are trying their best to get me to read from kindle and I'm determined to do it , it worries me that as paper books become less popular, they may become expensive and a rarity.

There certainly isn't any need to get snooty at all, one isn't better than the other, some people may have a preference, but that's all it is.

That's really interesting about dyslexia and screens. I have two friends who are both seriously dyslexic and it does take them a long time to read from a screen, much longer than to read on paper. One has a programme which will 'read' whatever she needs to her but it's such a pain scanning the pages and cleaning them up that after a short time she gave up on it, just printed out everything - heavy on paper, but needs must sometimes.

Have there been any therapeutic studies or aids developed regarding this, do you know? They used to have special reading specs for children with dyslexia (worked for some, not for others). I would have thought there could be screens which had that sort of effect or something? (Am I being rude? I do apologise if I am.)