The eBook Backlash 418
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that people who read ebooks on tablets like the iPad are beginning to realize that while a book in print is straightforward and immersive, a tablet is more like a 21st-century cacophony than a traditional solitary activity offering a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks. 'The tablet is like a temptress,' says James McQuivey. 'It's constantly saying, "You could be on YouTube now." Or it's sending constant alerts that pop up, saying you just got an e-mail. Reading itself is trying to compete.' There are also signs that publishers are cooling on tablets for e-reading. A recent survey by Forrester Research showed that 31 percent of publishers believed iPads and similar tablets were the ideal e-reading platform; one year ago, 46 percent thought so. Then there's Jonathan Franzen, regarded as one of America's greatest living novelists, who says consumers have been conned into thinking they need the latest technology and that e-books can never have the magic of the printed page. 'I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn't change.'"
That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
Keep your tablets and Fire, thank you very much. I like the fact that a basic Kindle allows for NO distractions while you're reading. Even the ad-supported model will only show ads during menu screens, never while you're reading. The e-ink looks a lot crisper than anything on a conventional tablet too. And a single 3-hour charge can last for weeks. I imagine the basic Nook has a similar setup too.
The only advantage I can see with a tablet is for reading comic books or other books with lots of large, color-intensive graphics. Otherwise, you'd be a lot better off just spending the $80 for an actual dedicated e-reader. The text won't give you a headache, there are no distractions, and you won't be constantly recharging it.
Newsflash! (Score:5, Insightful)
Self discipline is dead.
Tablet... Is Not An Ebook Reader... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's it.
Don't use iPad for reading.
It's a serious tablet design flaw! (Score:3, Insightful)
If _only_ tablets and eReaders came with more self control, I'd read more!
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
I completely agree with you. One thing you left out that I think people who have really not compared the experience on both types of devices is that e-ink really is a vastly better way to read lots of text. I can read much faster and more comfortably on my Kindle than on the iPad. The quality fonts etc is very good on both but there is something to be said for reading on a display that is not backlit. Especially if you try to read out doors.
I like both forms, but printed is still best (Score:5, Insightful)
Printed is still the form I enjoy the most. First off I never fear losing a physical book, the value is low enough I don't care. Get e-readers down in that value and I might think the same.
Then again probably not. For some reason I feel more relaxed with a paper book. For me there is still that put down, pickup, which just works better that way.
I do enjoy reading on the Kindle much more than the Fire! or iPad. Mostly because I can take it outside and still read it.
I would love to see publishers include a scratch off code or receipt activated code with books to get the ebook version. Kind of similar to how you can get the portable version of a movie.
Use the right tool! (Score:5, Insightful)
Reading books: Use a REAL e-book reader with an e-ink screen.
E-books are still the future, people new to them just have to learn to read them on a proper reader, like the Sony PRS-T1, Kindle, Nook etc.
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope the next generation develops some sort of immunity to distraction because, whoops, here I am on slashdot again.
Arrogance (Score:5, Insightful)
How i love terms like
serious readers
It is the reader, that has become faulty. Our good product is not appreciated and understood by him. He doesn't use it according to specs.
Wake up guys! This is still the customer we are talking about ;-).
Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
The Slashdot headline & summary is a little misleading. The article isn't about an ebook backlash, it's about people reading ebooks on tablets and the ease of distraction. It's no surprise people are getting distracted trying to read a book using ebook reader software running on a tablet that's meant for checking Facebook, email, watching videos and the like. Ebooks can be read on computers, tablets, and smart phones. I read ebooks using Aldiko on my Android phone for a couple years before I finally bought a Kindle Touch, and my Kindle is approximately as likely to distract me from my reading as a paperback. The phone has always been a successful platform on which to read ebooks, but I never expected the notifications, messages, etc that are a big part of the reason I own a smart phone to go away (and let my level of distraction be on my own head).
E-books are not made by readers. (Score:5, Insightful)
The only problem with e-books and e-readers is that they're clearly not made by readers.
Books, the good ones at least and most of the bad ones too, pay attention to typography. Paragraph-optimized justification, hyphenation, hanging punctuation, ligatures, etc. All these little things that you take for granted with a dead-tree book, but without them it's a significantly poorer experience.
You find books with left-aligned text, an ugly and jagged right edge carving out a large chunk of empty space on the right. Or worse, you get one that is justified. This is bottom-of-the-barrel justification, without hyphenation and very commonly leaving huge spaces between words [int64.org].
I've owned a Nook since launch day. I've read a large number of books on it, and I love it. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. I shouldn't need to import my ebooks into Adobe InDesign to make a PDF with proper typography.
Re:Newsflash! (Score:4, Insightful)
Self discipline is dead.
I'd disagree in that the hidden assumption of the cruddy article is reading is a virtue and puritan style self denial of the much more fun alternatives is the only reason anyone reads anything. F that bad idea. I'm a big boy and no one tells me what to do in my spare time and if I wanna look at boring youtube videos I do so, and if I wanna read, I read, because I want to. I just finished Stross's laundry series and most recently Halting State. No I'm not being paid to astroturf and yes those were entertaining kind of light hard science fiction and I didn't read them out of some desire for hair shirt denigration but because I greatly enjoyed them.
If I'm reading and I want to stop reading, I'm a big boy, I can just stop, I don't need some far fetched explanation of how its all the devices fault that the email app zapped out of cyberspace like a bad ST:TNG episode and pulled me away while wearing a Sherlock Holmes costume. Its very much like people who blame the gun after one gang member shoots another, instead of blaming the person who intentionally pulled the trigger. Lame.
Once you operate and excise the lameness from the article, there's sadly not much left to it. Whoops.
How long will the books stay around? (Score:5, Insightful)
What bothers me about e-readers is the impermanence of the content. If the service goes away, will the content go away? That's happened many times with on-line music. Remember Wal-Mart Music? PlaysForSure? MTV Urge? Zune? If the service goes down, can you move your content to a new device? This is really tough with devices that talk to nothing but the service. Can you back up your e-reader? Maybe, sort of, sometimes. [barnesandnoble.com]
Even if the content is on the reader, will the service push an update that makes the reader dependent on the service? That's happened with games. There have been updates that made e-books go away. [nytimes.com]
And don't even think about leaving your books to your kids.
Re:I like both forms, but printed is still best (Score:5, Insightful)
There are many reasons I prefer a printed book to eReader or tablet forms.
The first and most obvious is durability. If it gets wet, you just dry it out. It doesn't mind being tossed on a shelf or a desk (even violently). It's ok with being caught out in the rain if an unexpected downpour comes up.
The second is portability. Books don't mind being crushed in a backpack. They can be used in almost ANY lighting conditions equally well. They can be safely mailed or lent to friends without worrying about whether they're going to "break" it.
The third is loanability. It's easy to borrow or loan a book. You just hand it to the person, and hope they bring it back. DRM one-reader systems? Not so much.
My remaining reasons are intangibles, like the pleasure of perusing shelves fully of books to see what someone likes to read, to find something you want to borrow, to have that visceral knowledge that "this is a person who likes to read and educate themselves" when you walk into a room and see boxes or shelves full of books.
Reference materials are much better suited to online or eBook distribution because they need to be updated to correct any errors or omissions, and to add new information as it comes up. But for recreational reading, a paperback or hardcover that tells a tale doesn't need to be maintained.
I can understand that if you already have a tablet or reader that you're carting around, they have the advantage of being able to contain your entire library of books, and that's a HUGE benefit to students and researchers. But when it comes to entertainment reading, I don't have multiple volumes on the go at one time -- I'm reading A book, from start to finish, and enjoying every minute of it.
Perhaps the most important feature of a printed book is the fact that I OWN it. There is no chance of the publisher or author coming knocking at my door and saying "we changed our mind -- we want your book back" as has ALREADY happened with the eReader market. Even if I bought my book from an "illegal vendor" of some kind, it's still MY BOOK. There can be no "takedown notice" for it.
And that last point is the most important of all, because it means that in the future when some asshole demands that the book be taken off the market and censored, I'll still have my copy.
This is why I prefer the iPad: (Score:5, Insightful)
Because this whole "distraction" thing is complete and utter nonsense. If I want to read, I read. If I want to do something else, I do it. Nothing "distracts" me. The tablet is not a "temptress", lol. It's a machine, and it does what *I* tell it to, not the other way around.
And then there's that poignant call: "a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience" As an owner of thousands of books, let me tell you what that "permanence" is... it's a spine that will crack when you open the book years later. It's the incredibly lousy, acid infused paper that has yellowed, and smelled-up, and eventually caused to crumble, the pages of many of my otherwise treasured reads. It's being unable to find the title because someone has put it back funny, or not put it back at all. Or folded the pages. Or spilled spaghetti sauce on it. Or their lovely child has ripped out the conclusion to chapter three. Or ask a college kid or graduate about the "sense of permanence" that is the reality of a backpack filled with heavy texts. Not exactly a pleasant experience, or a lovely fashion accessory. And it cuts down the amount of actual cool stuff you can carry.
Whereas the e-book experience... the litany is long and distinguished: You don't lose 'em; you don't misplace them; they don't age; you can read them in the dark (well, unless you went with e-ink, but then you can read in the sun if you're so inclined... me, I think reading in the sun is insane, but that's just me.) There are hot dictionaries, hot notes, hot highlights, sharing of same so you can see if what you think is interesting is what everyone else thinks is interesting. There is linkage to summary and statistical info on the book; YOU control the font size, and trust me, as an older guy compared to most of the rest of you puppies, that's a big deal; you can dim the thing and read late at night without disturbing your SO (you'll get girlfriends... really, you will. Patience.) You can read silently, page turns are noiseless. You can read with music, if that's pleasing to you. You can't lose your place -- an e-reader keeps track of what page you were on for every book you're reading, no matter how many that might be. As of recently, they've come up with a way to lend the book and you can't lose it, it simply "snaps" back into your library after the lend is up... you can self-publish without having to have an agent (that's me!), an editor, a publishing house, a marketing plan, and years of fruitless trying; you can carry your whole library with you, and I'm talking a LOT of books, so not only is all your fun reading with you, now you can always have your programming references and textbooks and so forth with you too... that part is just getting off the ground, but it was of direct help to me when I began to learn infrared photography and Apple's Cocoa so I'm personally sensitized to how great it is; and now, with the whole "its backed up in the cloud", you can't even lose your books if you drop your reader down the face of the Hoover dam. From the space shuttle. And the actual reality of that "distraction" is that your reader, if you so choose, can do a myriad of other useful and fun things for you.
But that was a funny article from a luddite. :)
Again speaking as someone involved with the publishing industry (I own a literary agency and I'm a published author, also the offspring of same), let me tell you why the publishers aren't so hot on e-books. The writer has ideas and stories, but surprisingly often, isn't all that great at telling them. The agency has agents on staff who can help -- a lot -- with that, and also (historically speaking) know which publishers are looking, and what they are looking for. An old boys network in the classic sense. Publishers can get the writer into print. And, if the writer is a GREAT writer, they might even throw in a little publicity work. But great writers don't really need publicity. If there's a new Ursula Le Guin or Michael Moorcock or Alan Dean Foster novel and you li
Re:This is why I prefer the iPad: (Score:2, Insightful)
I wonder in what shape your iPad will be in, say, 10 years time :) Spill some spaghetti sauce on it as well, in the name of science.
Buggy whips (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, let's ask the buggy whip makers if cars are a good idea. And I'll bet the candle guys have an opinion on electric lights, too. Meanwhile, here in the 21st century, I like having ALL of my tech books from O'Reilly, Pragmatic Programmers, etc. on my iPad for easy reference (and searching).
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the same reason why TV is much less appealing for me on a workday.
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
Ebooks on dedicated readers vs. general purpose devices: Shockingly, a 'book' that keeps throwing notifications in your face may not be the best for your sense of focus. Luckily, the e-ink brigade now has quality offerings under $100, with fairly fast refresh and crazy-long battery life.
Publishers 'cooling': There's a shock. Publishers, because they simply couldn't accept the thought that this might be the end, held a cargo-cult belief that something had to save them, and if tablets were the flavor of the month, it must be tablets! Wake up and smell the reality, chaps. It has been plausibly suggested that the ease of purchase and transport makes owners of dedicated ereaders somewhat heavier readers than they were previously. However, the self-selected "Yeah, I like reading enough to buy a reader device" market is rapidly saturating, since they've gotten so cheap, leaving them to knife-fight with Angry Birds and Facebook for the attention spans of the rest of the population...
Some novelist waxing nostalgic: Books die. A lot. There are a few very lucky winners, lovingly maintained by archivists and preservationists of various stripes; but the attrition is massive. Texts survive because they are easy to copy. Assuming DRM insanity doesn't get us all, ebooks are even more booklike that books. Sure, your reader widget will probably be in the landfill in five years; but electronic texts can be copied in the blink of an eye.
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand this at all. Many people spend a large portion of their day reading the web on a CRT or LCD. But somehow when it comes to reading a book on a CRT or LCD, all of a sudden "eye strain" is a problem.
Uh, yes. How often do you go to a web page and read a 100,000 word document from beginning to end without switching to another page, looking at images, or whatever?
I was reading PDFs for research on my CRT for over 12 hours yesterday and never felt a bit of eye strain.
I would guess you're not in your 50s and don't do that every day.
Move to an Amish paradise (Score:3, Insightful)
Distractions? If you don't like to read you'll find them anyway. TVs, smartphones, idle chat and daydreaming are always there when you're bored or uninterested in reading.
Even the Amish get interrupted while reading by a neighbor knocking at the door. They could realize some butter needs churning, a horse needs brushing or do some other chore that is nagging and put the book down. It seems you don't even need technology to be distracted.
This article just seems to be more lamenting about media products that aren't purchased in a tangible form. But rather than come out and say they're a bunch of "get off my lawn!" old codgers, who in their day walked uphill both ways in the snow to buy books, vinyl LPs and VHS tapes, they rant about how these newfangled e-readin' gadgets are too flashy and distractin'.
Plenty of people manage to watch on-demand movies with the lure of 100s of other channels they could be flipping to. Plenty of people manage to do their work on computers without watching YouTube all day. Likewise, it is possible to turn off WiFi and 3G on your tablet and just read your damn book. At least until your neighbor comes over and asks if they can borrow some butter...
Because I'm in control. (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, if you get distracted, that's a not a problem with the tablet: That's a problem with you. Notifications bothering you? Turn off the wifi, cellular... in the case of the iPad, just flip it into "airplane" mode. Can't stay off Facebook? Not an iPad problem. A "you" problem. Have to see tweets? That's 140 characters of you-fail. Don't go blaming technology because you fail to use it well. And don't clamor for it to change because you suck at coping. You change. Then you can benefit from judicious use of technology instead of letting it knock you around.
Hmmmm... this reminds of the old canard "There are no atheists in foxholes." That's not a flaw in atheism. That just demonstrates that foxholes are really fucked up. You dig? lol...
Re:This is why I prefer the iPad: (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think so. The power of a tablet is amazing; the flexibility is better -- and all you have to do to not be distracted is either turn off the connectivity (trivial) or learn to focus (perhaps not trivial, but eminently worthwhile.) A dedicated e-reader can't be held up to the sky and instantly tell you what you're looking at. it can't serve as a planetarium. It won't do a ton of things... and for the price, to me, it's simply not worth it. I'm not carrying both, and I'm also not going to forgo the power of a tablet. To do so would be shooting myself in the foot.
The best thing for people to do is to learn to focus. Concentration is a worthy and powerful tool. An inability to concentrate is not worthy of coddling; it seems similar to me of some fellow complaining that he's nervous around women, and being advised that a good solution is to only hang with men. No, the good solution is to get over it, because it's not a good thing. Same thing if you're easily distracted. Solve the problem -- don't coddle it.
The NY Times criticizing tablets for reading?? (Score:4, Insightful)
A modern-day dinosaur whistling past the graveyard...