Digital books exploded into the mainstream a number of years ago. They are everywhere. I have seen eBook devices for sale in many poor countries I have visited and in developed countries like the UK, digital book sakes have long since overtaken printed book sales.
I would definitely consider myself a technophile; or as Eddie Izzard would say, I have technojoy. Since I was a child I was always interested in games, gadgets and devices that required batteries. I was not one of the first to own an eBook reader. In fact, I did not buy my Kindle until early 2011. I did, however, quickly fall in love with the medium.
The Joy of Digital Books
I bought the Kindle for my trip to Vietnam with my friends Sam and Kevin from WP Squared. It was a lifesaver. For years I had carried three or four printed books with me on each of my trips to Asia. Not only did they take up a lot of room and add a lot of weight to my bag, I also ended up selling them after a few weeks after I had read them. I remember once spending around £45 on new books at the airport before a trip, only to find myself selling them two weeks later for around £5. In their place, I had swapped my brand new books for photocopied books with pages missing.
So for anyone who loves to travel, digital books are a life saver. In Vietnam I was downloading new books on buses frequently, and we used the 3G on the Kindle on a few occasions to find information about hotels and destinations. My girlfriend borrowed (read: stole!) my kindle last Summer so on our long trip around South America in 2012/2013, I used my iPad to read books. It’s actually a great little device to read books on as battery lasts a long time when reading books, and it is easy to quickly swap to another app when reading a book in order to take some notes.
To this day, I continue to buy and download digital books on a regular basis. I do not see that ever-changing.
Reading Printed Books
As an author, I have never forgotten about the printed book market. There is undoubtedly less shops selling printed books, however there is still a huge market for them.
I have tried to adopt a minimalist approach to “things” over the last few years. After ripping all my music from my CD’s, I gave all my music to my brother. Likewise, I gave him all the DVD’s I owned after realising that they did nothing but take up space in my house.
When I was travelling South America, I thought about selling all my printed books when I returned to the UK. A bookshelf takes pride in my bedroom, though since all the books I have read over the last two years have been on a Kindle or iPad, I started to feel that my bookshelf was nothing more than a showpiece.
My opinion on this has done a u-turn since touching down in Scotland last Monday. I have rediscovered lots books that I had not read, in years; including old poker books and classics such as Stephen King’s On Writing. It may sound strange, but I had forgotten how great it was to lie back and read from a normal printed book. Over the last week I have gotten into the habit of reading from a traditional book before going to sleep. It feels good to get back to basics.
There Will Always Be a Market for Printed Books
On Friday I got a new Windows phone delivered. One of the first apps I installed was the official Kindle app. I tried to download some of the books I have purchased through Amazon, but I could not. The message stated:
License Limit Reached
You have exceeded the limit on the number of devices that read this item. You may deregister any device no longer in use and delete the content, which will allow you to download this item. You may also purchase another copy from the Kindle store.
Just to clarify, I primarily read digital books on two devices:
- Kindle
- iPad
My kindle was registered in my Amazon account:
In addition to my iPad, it turns out that I had more devices registered to me on Amazon, including my old phones and the Kindle for Pc reading application.
Once I had deregistered my old phones, I was able to successfully download my purchased books to my new phone.
I love the way that the Amazon digital book store works. It is great that I can sync books across my main devices, even if there is a limitation on the number of devices I can use. This issue did, however, remind me that when you buy a digital product, you are not getting something tangible in your hand.
As someone who travels a lot, digital books are the most practical solution for me. They allow me to read my whole book collection wherever I am in the world (I am still amazed by that!). I am therefore going to continue to buy digital books as they allow me to read my books anywhere (Amazon whispersync is amazing). The Kindle Paperwhite 3G is on my shopping list, which will no doubt encourage me to read even more digital books.
The last week has certainly brought back my love for printed books. If I buy any printed books, it is unlikely that I will read them outside my home, however my reading experience will be better when I am at home.
The prices of printed books vary too. Sometimes it is much cheaper to buy a digital book, whilst other times a printed book will cost just the same as a digital book. This will sometimes influence your decision on what version of a book to purchase. Here is one thing I have noticed: The prices of second-hand printed books on eBay are very cheap. Some are more than half the cost of a digital book. If you are looking to absorb yourself in a topic, I encourage you to check out online auctions such as eBay and second-hand book shops. You may be surprised at the bargains you can find.
So my advice to you all is to embrace the digital revolution and buy a device that lets you read digitally, such as an eBook reader or tablet. It will allow you to read books on the move, such as on your journey to work. Just do me a favour and do not forget about printed books. It seems like a cliché, but there really is nothing that compares to reading from a printed book.
Kevin
Alright Andy,
Yeah we hopefully we can arrange a drink soon :)
When I first got a kindle, I was devouring books. I stopped reading as much when I switched to reading on the iPad. This was not because the iPad wasn’t good for reading. It just had too many distractions for me as I also used it for movies, podcasts, music and games.
What Kindle have you got? Have you got one of the newer ones with the button at the bottom?
I used to buy DVD’s because of the cover…though I chose some real stinkers. I even bought Adam Sandler’s first film Going Overboard because it was cheap. That has to be one of the worst films ever made.
I think the time of flipping through friend’s CD collections is over. Bizarrely, since moving over to the digital world, I listen to less music. This could be because of my age, rather than the format.
Kevin
Kevin,
I have to say I like the article and it is a topic that could be debated for hours over drinks – hopefully quite soon :) My own opinion is that nothing beats the real thing but for reasons of practicality digital formats are an absolute must. I travel a lot with my work and so was talked in to buying a Kindle. My wife actually bought me one as a present and I can’t believe how quickly I grew to loving it. I am not even a huge reader but after uploading over 250 books to it, I have surprised myself by how many novels I have read since first using it. Just like all digital formats, it gives you so many options with such a vast library on the one device. I had always wanted to read the literary classics and I’m finally making a dent in them when I doubt I would have otherwise.
On the flip side though, even as a guy who admits to wasting too much time watching film and TV, there is something great about having a book in your hand and utterly magical about bookshops. For me the same can be said of DVD and CD collections. I now have more films on my hard drive than I do in my DVD collection. I am close to doing the same with music. For me it is very sad as nothing beats going through these collections.
I suppose with music, you don’t really go to a music store and pick up a CD and purchase it based on the cover or the synopsis but I have done so many times with books and DVDs. They might say never judge a book by its cover but I have done so on many occasions and discovered a number of gems, my favourite being the now best selling City of Thieves. I liked the title, the image on the cover, the synopsis made me think worth a try and to my great delight I unearthed a brilliant read. I would never have opted for this book electronically unless it was by recommendation.
I’m going on a bit now so for me you can’t beat the real deal but for ease of trave,l etc the digital format has now become a way of life.
Andy
I’ll probably never buy another printed book at an airport again as it means carrying it around for weeks or months (I used to buy books there frequently). It’s great reading printed books at home. :)
Kevin
PS: Right now I am lying on a Greek beach reading Dale Carnegie’s best seller “How to stop worrying and start living”, As printed version. Great read, by the way :)
Yeah… two hearts are beating in my chest: I love printed books, simply because highlighting and note taking feels differently (better) to me. But there’s a clear advantage regarding the sheer amount of books (and info/knowledge) one can transport at any given time with digital books which then is always at hand.
Regards from Greece,
David
Yeah the kindle devices are fairly limited outside of reading. I believe that eBook readers are still the best way to read books, though they are terrible for reading PDFs. I am sure you could find an electronic shop to test eReaders, but if are going to multi-task, you are better using a tablet.
Tablets are actually pretty good for reading. I did not think I would get used to it, but I read dozens of books during my travels in South America through my iPad. What tablet are you swaying towards at the moment?
Kevin
Kevin,
Wow, appreciate your reply!
I am not sure why but I cannot stand Kindle and similar e-ink devices… I prefer the colorful display, and books that come to life… we cannot get that with the latest Kindle device I’ve put my hands on… maybe things have changed since then.
And I do lots more on my iPhone instead of just reading PDFs… email, Facebook and calendar are my favorite tasks, not to mention checking the newspaper and financial related apps
Cheers!
Hi John,
I have only owned an iPad, however I have used lots of other tablet devices. My housemate has a Google Nexus (Android) and that is pretty good.
You can get some amazing bargains on the Blackberry playbook. That is sufficient if you just want to read eBooks, browse the web and watch YouTube videos. The reason it is cheap is because BlackBerry has effectively abandoned it, plus it never really got any support from app developers. This means there are very few apps, and the apps that are available are expensive. Still, for a basic tablet for browsing the web, it’s good value for money (I read that some shops in the UK were selling the 64GB version brand new for only £34.99…which is $53.79 US).
Android devices are the most flexible. They also give the best value for money. Most have micro-SD card slots, which makes it easier to transfer files, watch movies etc. Plus you don’t have to do anything like jail-breaking just to get functionality such as internet sharing.
The iPad is the most expensive, but in my opinion it is still the best due to the number of dedicated tablet apps available for it (many Android apps are simply scaled up). The older versions of the iPad are quite affordable too…as is the iPad mini.
You may also want to look at the Microsoft surface…though reviews on that have been mixed.
If you are only looking for a reading device, you should get an eBook reader that uses e-ink. Great battery life, great price and better for reading :)
Kevin
hey Kevin,
I use to read PDFs on iPhone, and although the text is smaller than on a tablet for example, I’m satisfied with my info consuming approach… I will probably get a table later this year or early next year…
Which tablet do you recommend (besides iPad), and why?