I became an evangelist. I walked around showing everybody this wave of the future. Not the first time I did such a thing. I had satellite TV when all there was available was the 12 foot dish which cost $3000 in 1989 dollars. I had the first Roomba vacuum within a week of it being available on the market. That was before it knew how to take itself back to the charging station. Neither was as wonderful as the ebook.
Then the eBook died. Gemstar went under and stopped having content available. It's a great device but, without content, well, it went into the old technology pile of the house. I assume it was because not nearly enough of you bought one.
Today, I got the email. eBook is back. It's here for $99 and you can buy content. I was so excited, I called my husband and then I wrote this entry. I know exactly where the eBook lays. I hope the charger is nearby. I am not as careful about saving chargers for museum value. I hope today I can turn it on, plug it into a modem and start downloading books to read deep into the night, like a kid with a flashlight under the covers.
This time, buy one. If not for yourself, it's the gift for that person that is so hard to buy for. If not for yourself, then do it for me and all the other ebook readers that need you to join us.
Article comments
1 - fershugginah
and unlike the Gemstar device, books for that one are available free (from blackmask and other places--it's the EB-1150).
Welcome.
2 - blanco
i leave you my page i am an author.
thanks
3 - Temple Stark
When I get old enough, I will probably do just that then.
I didn't know they did all that - the change in font size. I imagine that's a lifesaver for a lot of people.
4 - Tom Johnson
It's a neat idea, but until they get every title available, or at least a significant amount of them, AND put a reasonable price on the downloads, ebooks just aren't going to fly. There's no way I'm going to pay nearly $7, for example, for Stephen King's The Talisman, a book I can get at Borders for the same price. If we aren't getting any actual media - no paper, no printing costs, etc. - then the price should be significantly lower. (Which, for the record, is the same problem I have with prices of digital music products, too.) It's too bad, because it would be a great thing to have - were I to be able to get ANY book I wanted on it. No early adopter, I - too much sacrifice involved. I'll wait until this format has worked out all the annoying kinks.
5 - Lisa McKay
As someone who is totally in love with the sight, smell and sound of paper, I have never been intrigued by the idea of eBooks. While the practicality of the idea isn't lost on me (traveling with one eBook as opposed to several paper books, for example), the loss of the tactile experience that is, for me, part of the pleasure of reading would be too high a price to pay for the convenience.
6 - Mark Saleski
yea...what she said.
7 - Eric Olsen
yeah, paper is sexy
8 - Justene
It';s a different tactile experience but for me, reading has always been an intellectual experience and less tactile. Here's an analogy:
When I first started using a PC to draft, there were times when I needed pen and paper - particularly if I was "telling a story" in the statement of facts or if I was neck-deep in an analysis that was threatening to become circular. Over the years, I rarely want pen and paper. I will occasionally takes notes that way but the keyboard is the new tactile experience.
The ebook is like that. I am unclear why those who have adopted other technology sound so Luddite when it comes to books.
I don't think the next generation will have that trouble. I get requests from my kids' friends about borrowing the ebook for a while.
9 - Temple Stark
Well, yeah. but as an alternative you can definitely see the attraction.
For example, I wouldn't want to bring a computer into the bathroom with me. ...
10 - Eric Olsen
yeah, remember the Microsoft outhouse experiment?
11 - Eric Olsen
btw, thanks Justene, very nice post
12 - Justene
Ebook in the bathroom has never been a problem. Laptop would not work.
13 - Lisa McKay
I am unclear why those who have adopted other technology sound so Luddite when it comes to books.
It's interesting that you said that, Justene, because I had the exact same thought as I re-read my own comment before posting it. Even when I was a kid , I was entranced by the physical aspects of books. I've always been an avid reader, and I still find that reading is often more than just the mere comprehending of the words on the page. If I have a nice-looking, nicely-bound book, it pleases me when I see it on my coffee table or my night stand. It pleases me again when I open it up to read it and I feel nice paper in my hands, and again when I look at crisp black type on a clean white page. I stare at a computer screen all day at work, and often for a few hours again at home, so I guess when I read, I like the experience to be essentially different.
14 - Stephen
I guess I fall into the paper camp, and yea, I don't know why that is.... except I do, actually. The concept of "format" is not meta-ready. Example: compact discs usurped vinyl, and few blinked. Books, thankfully, are not the same. They are art in and of themelves. The typeface. The paper. The cover art. The weight of the book. The endpages. The smell. New books, used books or library books. I love it all. That all goes away with one mechanism and an endless directory of files. Blech. Sorry, ebook, I'm not coming aboard until I'm forced to choose due to medical reasons.
Has anyone gotten an author to sign a memory card?
15 - Justene
Nice books are nice on the table but for reading, I have always preferred a paperback. Big crisp pages sticking together and drying out my hands. I always wondered why they never fixed that.
I gave up newspapers altogether years ago. Ugh.
16 - Linda
I prefer a real book(this would be a boon for students as far as textbooks go). I do greive the death of trees, however. They should make all books out of recycled materials. When electric cars and tractors are commonplace, they will probably make polyester paper to keep those heavily invested in petroleum stock rich. The book will not die...
17 - Peter D.
My wife had the same feeling about holding paper books, tactile experience, etc etc, and said flatly that she would never read an ebook. She picked my ebw-1150 up one day and she has not touched a paper book since. Most people who express this opinion about paper books have simply never tried a good ebook reader like the ebw-1150. Within the first 10 minutes you are immersed in the book and don't really realize what you are reading it on. In addition, she has carpal tunnel syndrom and because you can turn a page by clicking a button, it's much more comfortable, you don't need to use 2 hands to hold it like a book. I watch her read sometimes, she runs her fingers around the buttons as she reads--there's your tactile experience. She loves the fact that the backlight can be adjusted to any ambient lighting condition and says it causes her far less eyestrain than a physical book. All her favorite books by authors like Mary Higgins Clark are available so that part is also not an issue for her, but there are some authors like Tom Clancy who do not allow their books to be put in e-form yet so I would like to see that. Still, there are so many good books available for this platform already, it would take me a lifetime to read them all as it is. We've ordered a second ebw-1150 now becuase we find ourselves fighting to use the one we have.
18 - Temple Stark
Linda - goood one on Textbooks. Lots of school money saved - errors quickly fixed.
Lots of expense and paper saved, too. I think that's what they call a win-win.
Still, I fear that would limit "Real" book reading.
19 - Devin Willis
Interesting idea!!
Devin Willis
20 - Devin Willis
E-books can never replace our good old paperbacks
Devin willis
21 - Paul
I feel its always nice to lay back and open a good book for an hour or to myself ... an ebook is a whole new experience. I do read ebooks ... I've found many great subject and will continue to do so. But a good old hard cover will always be nice from time to time ... :-)
22 - Marco
For young generation habit to old hard cover is not strong, even today, let alone what will be in 10 years. Seems that full-scale reading revolution (paper vs. digital books) do begins in universities. I have shortly described this situation in one of my recent articles.