But, for those of us who love to read, the introduction of the e-reader has been an amazing feat of technology. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 29% of us own an e-reader or a tablet. Thanks to holiday gift-giving, that number is an 11% increase over December, 2011's 18%.
Some of us are no strangers to e-readers. Marty, Sherry, and Joan H. have exhausted their first e-readers and are enjoying their second. Others of us are new to the e-reading scene, adding to the Pew stats just last month. For those of us with one foot in the hard-copy world, this is a new adventure-and a welcome one.
Jo, Marty, Sherry, and Barb R. all agree that portability is wonderful. Having lugged the hard copy of Dances with Dragons in her carry on just last fall, Peggy has to admit that an e-reader would have simplified her life.
The new e-readers offer so much, including the addition of email and web access as well as the main perk of a treasure trove of reading material. Jo even uses her e-reader on trips when she wants to pass some time playing games-no need for the Nintendo!Barb is happy about her trips to the beach with a chair, towel and e-reader instead of a huge bag of books for her husband and herself. She comments that the e-reader is great because of the easy reading in sunlight and the flexibility of print size.
The new e-readers offer so much, including the addition of email and web access as well as the main perk of a treasure trove of reading material. Jo even uses her e-reader on trips when she wants to pass some time playing games-no need for the Nintendo!Barb is happy about her trips to the beach with a chair, towel and e-reader instead of a huge bag of books for her husband and herself. She comments that the e-reader is great because of the easy reading in sunlight and the flexibility of print size.
On her holiday vacation, Sherry found that, of 11 beachgoing reading enthusiasts, 10 were using e-readers with only one holding a hard-copy title.
Another plus for the e-reader is that the book lover can borrow books from the library. The only downside to that, according to Marty, is that the wait time can be a problem. Lots of library patrons are signing up to borrow the e-versions of their library's collection.
Are hard-copy books a thing of the past? Amazon did sell 105 e-books for every 100 hard-back and paperback books over the holidays. Still, even with that increase, only 14% of all fiction and non-fiction titles purchased in the past two years were e-books (Claire Cain Miller & Julie Bosman, New York Times, May 19, 2011).
There are many e-readers on the market, but the best known are the Amazon Kindle series and the Barnes & Noble Nook. Peggy just received the Kindle Fire this past month from her generous children and loves the color, the email access, the web surfing capabilities, and the cloud storage. So far she's going through the 5-star free library at Marty's suggestion and has not been disappointed.
No e-reader at your fingertips yet? If you want to determine which product is right for you, go to the site listed below. the Configurator is free and will help you by asking questions related to your personal needs. Questions range from screen size to weight, memory, your limit for expense, free book downloads, and other capabilities. When you answer the questions, the various e-readers (including the i-pad tablet) appear with a sliding bar to indicate which one meets your needs. Find the Configurator at
http://www.toptenreviews.com/configurator/ebook-reader-review/
You can find Brian Heater's reviews of various e-readers at http://www.engadget.com/. He does an extensive review of Amazon's Kindle Fire versus Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablets as well as comparisons of other products. Find his reviews at http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/21/barnes-and-noble-nook-tablet-review.
A final consideration that Barb R. mentioned is this: The Green Factor. That's right. We all recycle, but this is a new way of reducing our carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of one book is 8.84 lbs. in carbon dioxide terms. In 2006, the carbon footprint of the book industry in the US was 12.4 million metric tons ("2008 Environmental Trends & Climate Impacts: Findings from the US Book Industry").
If you're sharing books with children, by all means use the beautifully illustrated, colorful hard copies so that children can touch, manipulate, and discover the world of reading.
http://www.toptenreviews.com/configurator/ebook-reader-review/
You can find Brian Heater's reviews of various e-readers at http://www.engadget.com/. He does an extensive review of Amazon's Kindle Fire versus Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablets as well as comparisons of other products. Find his reviews at http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/21/barnes-and-noble-nook-tablet-review.
A final consideration that Barb R. mentioned is this: The Green Factor. That's right. We all recycle, but this is a new way of reducing our carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of one book is 8.84 lbs. in carbon dioxide terms. In 2006, the carbon footprint of the book industry in the US was 12.4 million metric tons ("2008 Environmental Trends & Climate Impacts: Findings from the US Book Industry").
If you're sharing books with children, by all means use the beautifully illustrated, colorful hard copies so that children can touch, manipulate, and discover the world of reading.
But for our own reading enjoyment, the e-reader is a great invention..
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