Thoughts on Electronic Books

I have a Kindle. Thought I'd hate it but turned out I like it just fine. You can find just about all the literary classics available (free) online, which is great if there's something you never got around to reading and want to take a belated look.

I just really like the smell of "real" books. But I do have to agree with Barry getting free classics is a plus.

They're a force for good, for authors and publishers (I'm the latter) alike. People just need to get their heads round fitting them into the production cycle and they become very easy to make. That said, printers may not like them... Major pros are that they let you carry round libraries in your hand - including most stuff out of copyright for free - and that bit by bit they will blur the line between book and interactive media resources until we wonder how people every learnt anything with just pen and paper. I also don't think they'll kill 'real' books. I love the physical artefact too. It might make us revalue them and what we do with them, but if anything that should just lead to the high volume stuff going digital and the high production stuff staying in print.

I'm sure that Kindles have major technological advantages over conventional books(it's obvious,) but I don't think more efficient technology is what the world needs. We have more technology than we could possibly know what to do with... because people don't read and think enough. The experience of walking through a bookstore or a library and skimming books(randomly or as presented to you by a shopkeeper,) running into other people, having a coffee, are all things that can't take place on a website. <]:- ) But my own books have long been available on Kindle... to very little avail.

As an incredibly nosy person, the worst thing about kindles is that I can't see what other people on the train and bus are reading. I could be sitting opposite somebody reading my all time favourite book and never know. And, if I ever get published, I'll never be able to tell if anyone's reading my book. The whole train could be full of my readers and I wouldn't know.

Kindel schmindel..no nein nee non niente basta... Seriously, how can anyone enjoy reading a 'book' from a screen. It just isn't natural. Ok I am little bias, I work in a library (academic), where there are of course multimedia possibilities to garner data and do research, but still, for me personally I much prefer to look up a 'book' for someone,and physically hand it to them. To see their face when I have managed to find the one volume still in print..or an original language book of poems which someone needed for an essay. My campaign is called wordsmithpq@hotmail.co.uk And if you, like me, want to save the printed and illustrated touchable volumes, write to me and show that you care by pledging your promise never to be pursuaded to purchase a Kindle or anything like it.. the more voices the more reason for publishers and printers to keep at least half of the library and bookshop stock in paper and hard back copies. And think on this...you can't give part of your bookstore on Kindle to the Oxfam bookshop...now that is not entirely fair to Oxfam is it? One of the reasons so many public libraries are threatened with closure is because of all the access to fingertip knowledge and leisure reading.Remember when it is too late that bye gone means bye gone.. Nonetheless I will to my dying day defend books with all my might. And at home we don't do wallpaper we do 'books'..and when the electricity goes down and people can't upload their ipods, phones, computers and Kindles, I will open my door and invite you in, hand you a book and candle and a nice cup of tea...see who is the keeper of words then shall we?..:)

I have done what pastiche247 has done and downloaded software for Kindle and Adobe for free on my PC. Useful to have Classic literature and easy to add more books free or purchased for a very small amount. I have built quite a catalogue starting with my own e-books which can be bought for as little as $0.99 https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/luigipagano and I am pleased with the result.

I love my Kindle, but if I read something on it I really want to own I buy an unvirtual copy. My own books are available cheap on Kindle, too.

I'd rather lick piss off nettles.

*laughing at TheShyAssasins comment* I wasn't fascinated with the electronics either until... After years of thoroughly abusing my eyes I couldn't read print without the mondo magnifying glass from hell! Books on tape annoyed me because people are under the impression it is fine to interrupt you. The comp ( and it's built in mondo magnifier )re-opened the world of reading to me. Sooooooooooo :)

Just a cheeky note to say that Unbelievable is available to pre-order in both e-book and hardback form! Please support me! http://unbound.co.uk/books/10 Jennifer (p.s. fan of the 'physical' book too, but the future might well be digitised. A balance of the two seems healthy!)

My piss is available to lick off nettles.