Originally Posted by
Anika Hanson:
“
Originally Posted by Gavin-:
“Try to have a look at one before you buy to see if you like the typeface it uses, how much text fits on the screen at once”
These things can be altered by the user.”
Not as much as I would like. The Kindle only has one serif typeface and I don't think it's very attractive. The only way to get other book-like typefaces would be jailbreaking, which looks too complicated for me. Font sizes are also subject to personal opinion: I find font size 2 slightly too small, but font size 3 slightly too large.
This is why I suggest people should take a look at a Kindle before they buy one, to see if they'll be happy with the typeface and font sizes. I did not, and if I had, I may have chosen the Sony instead.
Originally Posted by
James T:
“Can anyone explain to me the point of eReaders? Why do I need to pay 100 odd quid for a gadget that allows me to buy and read books, when I can do that already?!
”
Obviously if you don't read many books per year you may not see a return on your £111 investment. As long as you're a fairly active reader, there are a few advantages to an e-reader:
- It's smaller and lighter to hold than a book. No need to get fatigued by the weight of hardbacks, or use both hands to hold a book open.
- No need to worry about books taking up shelf space, which is at a premium in the average home.
- Download a book as soon as you want it, rather than waiting 4 days for it to arrive by post, or going all the way to a high street bookshop only to find they don't have it in stock.
- Although ebooks are more expensive than they should be, they still work out
slightly cheaper. People may moan that a Kindle download is £5.99, but that usually means the physical paperback is £4.99+£2.74 P&P, and at least £7.99 from a high street shop.
- Sundry extras on the e-reader, like a web browser, PDF support, newspaper and magazine digital subscriptions, audiobook playback, etc.
Now some things that make real books better, and can never be replicated by e-readers:
- The smell of binding glue in new hardbacks. Mmmm. Yes, I'm a book sniffer.
- Flipping through a book's pages to find something you remember on a page (especially useful in reference books).
- To read a footnote just glance down (compared to e-readers that require you to move the cursor to the asterisk, click on it, then click "back" to return to the book).
- Lending a book to a friend is as easy as handing it over.
- You can trust that the printing/typesetting is as professional as possible, compared to ebooks that can be full of OCR errors and bad formatting.
- The knowledge that the book will last forever if kept in good condition... your access will not be blocked in the future due to changing formats!