General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: U.S. Sues Apple, Publishers Over E-Book Pricing [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)What exactly is a long attention span? I often go to bed at 11pm and read my Kindle until 5 or 6am before finally deciding to sleep.
I normally do not search a book for a formula but I do search a novel to find who an obscure character is. I would be willing to bet you $10,000 dollars (although I am not Mitt Romney) that I can find that information far faster than you can searching through a dead tree book. I don't happen to have $10,000 dollars laying around, but since I would win that's irrelevant.
For example how long do you believe that it would take you to find out who Perth is in the novel Moby Dick? On my Kindle it took 15 seconds to find the 36 times his name appears and that includes the time that I used in going to the menu, picking the search function and typing his name in the box. (Perth was "the begrimed, blistered old blacksmith" on the Pequod.)
I will agree that e-readers offer less "aesthetic and tactile qualities of a beautiful full format art book or an early edition work of literature." They are also lighter and more convenient and I don't have to worry about damaging the spine of the book or damaging a page by accident.
Am I a walking advertisement for e-books? Yes.The best advertisement for any product is a happy customer. I qualify, however I am retired and my endorsement of e-books will gain me no profit.
If some old fart like me who is 65 years old finds some significant advantage to a very new piece of new technology and endorses it with enthusiasm, then maybe a much younger person might be wise to consider trying it.
You say that you have used different formats and you find advantages to each. That's fair as people differ. For my use I'll chose my Kindle or Kindle Fire for 99.9 percent of my reading.
I would also chose my cell phone over the black rotary dial phone that was the only choice when I was growing up.