This month we were
asked about our favorite summer read. That's tough one.
Of course my first
answer is "The Hansen Series" by… ME! Six books out so far with three
more coming before Christmas - it's a great time to meet these big, blond, buff
and beautiful heroes with eyes the color of seawater and the blood of their
Viking ancestors flowing through their veins. Can you feel it?
But, before any of us
hit the beach, or the bedroom, to slip under the water (or the covers) of a
transporting story, we need to decide what device we are going to read that
book on.
For many readers, the
traditional method still serves best. A paper book can be read in bright
sunlight and is unperturbed by sand. Even water - in small amounts - won’t
bring your experience to a halt.
But, what if you read fast? And at ten o'clock one
evening you reach the end of "A Woman of Choice"? How will you see Sydney's reaction to
Nicolas's closing revelation? If you're reading a paper book, you'll hope you already
bought the next installment. If you didn't, you'll have to wait days to find
out.
If you were
reading on an e-reader, you could purchase the next book in a matter of moments
(for a fraction of the paper book price) and keep going without missing a beat.
And that brings us to which e-reader should you get?
The industry
leader is Kindle by Amazon. You have your choice:
1. A basic
non-backlit version (which looks like an Etch-A-Sketch with it's pearl gray
background and dark charcoal text) that can be read in full sunlight.
2. The more
expensive Kindle Fire, a backlit screen with full color and some of the
abilities of a tablet, such as Android's Galaxy or Apple's iPad. Backlit
screens can NOT be seen in sunlight.
Not a fan of
Amazon? Microsoft recently invested $300 million dollars in Kindle's rival,
Barnes & Noble's Nook. Nook also has a basic black-and-gray version, plus a
backlit color version (which also mimics a tablet). This is great news for
readers because competition drives any successful market!
Some people want to
read on their iPads. That's fine, but they should remember that backlit screens
cannot be seen in sunlight. In addition, the light emitted by the iPad can mess
up sleep rhythms when used to read at bedtime.
Smart phones are a
surprising device for reading. I am a self-confessed Kindle-holic, but when I
find myself waiting anywhere - doctor's office, for a friend to join me at
coffee, for a movie to begin - I pull out my smart phone, open my Kindle app,
and pick up where I left off reading the night before. Yes, the devices sync
with each other. Ain't it a great world?
With April's Department
of Justice's lawsuit against five major publishers for agreeing to price-fix
their eBooks, pricing of eBooks should return to a more reasonable level. What
the vast majority of fiction readers do now is churn through the lower-priced eBooks,
and buy print copies when they love an author and want a sort of souvenir of
their reading experience.
Ebooks are not
the future of publishing, they became the "now" a year ago. And with two
good reasons: price and availability.
Now all you
need to decide is, which device(s) will work best for you?
Happy reading!
4 comments:
Kris, I read from my smart phone and my Kindle Touch, but I also still read print books. If bored and not book I'll read labels on cans and cereal boxes. It doesn't matter to me the device as along as I have something to read.
Interesting post, Kris. I bought a Kobo a year ago and have read a few books on it with many more to go. I'm still working on my TBR paper pile. Once my stack is much smaller, I plan on doing more reading on my Kobo.
I really do not like searching for anything on the internet so the biggest drawback for me with e-readers is the whole searching for a book I want to read.
Finding a new author used to be so much easier! Just stroll down the bookstore aisle looking at titles and covers, looking for a new name, picking up a book from every 3rd author...I had several strategies.
And while there are still book stores (B&N to name one), they do not have the selection of books they had 12 - 18 months ago.
The only time I read on my nook is when I'm walking on the treadmill or riding the bike at the gym. I like holding a book in my hands. Like Judith, I prefer choosing my books in person. There's nothing quite like walking down the aisle and picking up a book seeing who published it and what year. Sitting at the coffee shop and reading the first chapter to see if it is really what I want to buy or not. Plus, what the heck do you do with the e-books when you're done with them? I can't loan them to a friend or my mom or sister? I can't donate them to the "Women's Center".
I love reading on my Kindle Fire. i had a Kobo knock-off that took forever to do anything, but the Fire is a pleasure to use.
I still enjoy paper books as well,and LOVE book stores. But the Fire has some advantages for me.
It's wonderful for traveling - I'm on vacation now and have more than enough books on my TBR Kindle Shelf for the whole two weeks - but they don't weigh anything! And those heavy hardcovers? A thing of the past, for which my hands are thankful.
Good post, Kris!
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