e.readers - do you want them?

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JeremyintheCzechRep
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e.readers - do you want them?

Post by JeremyintheCzechRep » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:48 pm

I am a graded reader writer and I've published 14 books in English, French and German. I am now interested in the possibilities offered by e.books. But my question is, do you (teachers/students) want to read them? Personally, I don't fancy the idea of sitting in front of a computer screen reading a 'book'. I llike books, I like to curl up in bed with one (book) at night. Is it a generation thing? Perhaps younger people are happy to sit in front of a computer and read - particularly if they do more than just read - with e.books you can have so much more than just text.
Let me know what you think.
Jeremy
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu

ZhuSha
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e-reader

Post by ZhuSha » Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:24 am

I think the best we get from the e-books is that we can read a large quantity of pages within a short tome without paying too much money. However, if I really want to enjoy a good book, I can't bear sitting in front of the computers and reading slowly. For one thing, my poor eyes will shout to me; for another thing, the beautiful feeling about books will totally disappear. So, it depends. It’s just like the comparison between letter-writing and email. However, I hope and firmly believe that internet is not the God! :roll:

JeremyintheCzechRep
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I agree

Post by JeremyintheCzechRep » Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:53 am

Thanks Zhusha, you say 'without paying too much money'. Have you ever paid for an e.book? There are many books being offered for free - it won't be easy to get people to pay for them. Having said that, I've just produced my first e.book: http://www.ebook.com/eBooks/Foreign_Lan ... th_Jokes/1
Any comments on it are very welcome. The first 13 pages are free so you can get a flavour of the book without buying it.

ZhuSha
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Congratulations!

Post by ZhuSha » Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:05 am

I'm very happy to read your new book and my second foreign language is just French, however, I’m afraid that I cannot understand it because I’m just a beginner. :cry: anyway, it's a good way to get your book more and more familiar with more people. Congratulations! and I said “without paying too much money”, in fact, I mean the money I have to pay to surf on the internet. I’m sorry that I haven’t made it clear . :oops:

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matbury
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Post by matbury » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:22 pm

I think a lot of people do a lot of reading on computers already - think of email, news, specialist information, etc. - but I think all those examples have one thing in common. They tend to be very short. I don't think this is accidental. Consider this:

Print resolution is usually upwards of 300 DPI (dots per inch), while screen resolutions are usually closer to 75 DPI. Lower resolutions are harder on the eye and make it more tiring to read, therefore reducing the length of time that people find reading comfortable. I'll quite happily spend hours pouring over books but screens are tiring to work with and I need frequent breaks.

I'm a Flash developer, by the way, which means spending a lot of time reading text on computer screens!

I think there is a place for eBooks but more for practical publications than for leisure and reading for enjoyment.

Does this help?

:)

JeremyintheCzechRep
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Post by JeremyintheCzechRep » Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:10 pm

It certainly does. I would hate to think that e.books could replace normal books. I do think there is a niche that they can fill - and we are only just beginning to find out how big that niche can be.

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