Do you like electronic books? Or do you prefer the feel of a physical paperback?

I hate electronic books. Books for me are sensual things. Smelling them, feeling them, and seeing them on your shelf is part of the fun for me.

Still like the old paperback for my reading pleasure. When the time comes I’ll probably move forward with a kindle or whatever is “the thing” then. I don’t object to it per se but I’ve tried similar things and just don’t feel it’s the same experience and until that changes I can’t see a need to switch. Something about the feel of the pages and the layout just works for me. Also, just knowing I’m not staring at another screen helps me relax and get into the world and characters the author is creating. I admit I was a little surprised considering how quickly I dumped my daily paper or two for online news consumption but e-books just haven’t clicked for me yet.

Electronic books. i can listen while i am driving on the road. EB’s are cold, thats true, but when you do not have much time and are on the road a lot, EBs fill the bill.

paperback. nothing beats seeing your book collection grow and age. probably the best part is the aging part. the smell of old books = yum.

although ive never tried an ebook before, ive attempted reading stories on my computer before (john dies at the end), and it’s really hard to finish because i like to set myself in a super comfortable position before i begin seriously reading.

I have not used an ebook device yet, but don’t think I would want to. I love the non-technological aspect of books. I like to underline passages and make annotations in the books I read. I enjoy having a (physical) personal library, and looking over the books I’ve read in the past years. To me, an electronic book just seems too impersonal, and is not something I’d want to curl up near the fireplace with.

I gotta go with the paperback. I underline and mark passages I love. I quickly run thru past pages to reference things. There is a warmth to a real book, that Sony can’t provide.

There is nothing like a book in your hands :)

I would rather have a real book in my hands, but I have amazon kindle on my phone, and I find it convient while I ride the bus or while I’m waiting at appointments.

You can smell a real book when its new. You can get high off of duster when you clean your eBook.

Sensory Stimulation vs Dead Brain Cells.

I’ll go with the real book.

Add me to the list of real-book-fetishists – I refuse to buy a kindle. I’m sure it’s convenient in certain situations, but I can’t stand the idea of it. I feel ridiculously happy when I’ve got a book in my hands or I enter a library, and I’m just not willing to give that up.

Considering that many of my books are 8½“x11” hardcovers (RPG rulebooks) I have to say that the dead-tree editions are far superior to the PDF versions if for no reason other than legibility. Sure, a laptop can hold an entire library worth of them ina smaller, lighter package, but considering that I often go from section to section and book to book quickly, I find the actual book easier to deal with.

The question assumes that electronic books will forever remain .pdf versions of print books.

I’m hoping people actually do new things with the electronic medium. When writing moves from scrolls to codexes—books with binding and indexes—literature changed. I hope that authors start experimenting with what the new format offers.

Writing has already changed with the advent of the internet. Look at how much reading and writing each of us does every day on fluther. We are all used to reading new forms of literature—wikis, message boards and Q/A sites, blogs. I don’t think literature has to be limited to one medium, but you have to take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of the medium.

I vastly prefer real books, hardcovers in preference to paperbacks, but then I am an old fuddy-duddy. I do like audio books for when I am cleaning the house hate to do that, really hate it or driving.

I can see that a possible advantage to eBooks will be the ability to increase type size as one’s eyes age, so reading remains an easy pleasure. However, a huge disadvantage to eBooks is simply what do you do if you run out of batteries or are someplace where there is no electricity? With a real book, you just open it up and read, but an eBook would become a boat anchor.

I would hope that eBooks become yet another form of book, with the other forms continuing to exist.

@Qingu True, but for the moment an e-book is nothing more than a low-power electronic widget displaying a TXT file. At least a netbook full of PDFs can display color and has a larger screen than, say, a Kindle.
Until publishing adapts to the new medium, what we have now in the way of poratble media is either clinging to the old-school dead-tree or something that I personally am not happy with.

I’ve been a very avid reader all my life and there was a time when I thought that electronic books were an abomination. I’d have stacks of books all over the place waiting to be read.

I dared to be different and broke down and purchased an Amazon Kindle just last week and I confess that I’ve found it to be a rather excellent device in many different ways. Truth be told, I think it is going to take a little adjusting to going from an actual book to the electronic medium but I’m relatively happy so far with what I’ve seen and experienced with my Kindle. One current drawback is that some of my favorite authors don’t currently have some of their best books available on the Kindle so that means I won’t be completely giving up real books for the time being as I still want to read their material.

An additional benefit for me when I go on my upcoming deployment is that I can save packing space by not taking dozens of books with me when I can put large amounts of books on a Kindle.

My eyes can’t take electronic viewing. I can read a long time but reading the same source I get eye fatigue really fast.

I look around my room as I think about your question. There are books on every surface. It’s the feel and smell of them as has been said. And I can take one in my car, out in the backyard, camping, etc.

I like books, but I am in the midst of packing and moving and let me tell you, I wish the tons of books that we have collected over the years were all on the kindle, it would sure make moving a lot easier!

I actually don’t have a kindle yet, I gave my husband one for his birthday last year and he likes it so much I have never had a turn with it. I do listen to books on my iPod but I hate it when I get distracted by something and then find it difficult to go back a page or two. Seems like that would be easier on the kindle.

I use both. When I have the actual book available, I read that. In a pinch, I load the electronic version on to my Sony Reader and and read that. Why choose one when I can use whichever is convenient at the moment?

Most people can’t argue with the convenience of having 40–100 books on one device, especially when you’re traveling. Do you really feel like lugging 10+ books with you on vacation (or wherever else you’re going)? Reading devices are also quite useful for one-handed reading (you know this happens sometimes).

Im all about kindle baby!!!! No big book to lug around, no paper cuts, and I can read in any lighting (or no lighting) environment! 21st century reading :-)

I love my books and I love my kindle – there is no reasont to be anti-technology nor is there reason to be gadget-obsessed…use whatever you want whenever it suits you…

I love real books, and the faint, muffled sound of the bookworms munching away.
I have a large under-the-stairs bookcase which would look awful if I reverted to ebooks.