Reading actual books is MUCH more fun than reading ebooks

[Chuffalump]

You can't read them in the bath (or the shower*). You can't really lend them to people very easily. You don't find large denomination notes tucked into them by previous owners as bookmarks. You don't find odd letters and enigmatic lists that puzzle you for days left by previous owners with less money to throw around. You don't find marginalia. You can't prop up shonky table legs with them. You can't press flowers in them. You can't stand on top of piles of them when you can't reach a high shelf.

*Trust me, you can read books in the shower.

If I wanted to be extra pedantic (and I do). You can read an ereader in the bath. I frequently do. As well as using the kindle app on my phone in the bath too. Of course there is the risk of dropping it and I keep one hand dry for pushing the buttons and the condensation probably isn't good for the internals.......

Reading a book in the shower though....... now that's impressive.

PS I do prefer actual paper books. Especially in the bath as they can actually be dried out over the radiator.

[oceanworld]

I haven't read an ebook yet, but my love for an actual book is there. Nothing can replace that hardcover book. Sure an ebook is easy to hold ton of books and I guess easy to read, but can you actually smell the ebook?

[Santaria]

I cannot for the life of me imagine why I would bother buying an ebook reader. The physical book works pretty good!

[glutton]

I cannot for the life of me imagine why I would bother buying an ebook reader.

To read awesome indy works not available in print.

Like mine.

[Chuffalump]

To read awesome indy works not available in print.

Like mine.

Or to take 100 books with you when you travel without the need for an extra suitcase.

[JunkMonkey]

Travel.

And another one to add to my list!

You can't tear an eBook in half and share with a friend as I have done. On holiday once I found myself half way through a rather large paperback and my girlfriend had nothing to read - so I tore the book in half and gave the bit I'd already read.

[ArtNJ]

Can you bring a paper book into the bathroom at your workplace? Are you going to remember to lug it around so that you have it when you are waiting in line at the doctor's office, car wash, bank or any of the 10 million other places we wait? Is it worth going upstairs to get the book during the 5 minutes the disk from Netflix insists on showing you unskippable previews for other movies? What if some days you dont need to bring a bag to work, do you take one special for your book so that you can read on the train, bus or (in my case) ferry?

Hey, if you like the smell of paper books, there is a charm factor or w/e that is great. But I think its somewhat odd for true reading junkies to categorically reject reading on their phones. I guess you folks find the notion of spending 5 or 10 minutes with a book to be odd, its not the way you read. But, if you tried it, and it was so easy to spend 5 or 10 minutes with your book, it might well grow on ya.

[Santaria]

I see what you mean about not having to waste two minutes of waiting in boredom, but in my busy life with a job and two kids, those moments rarely happen and sometimes when they do happen they are welcome. I rarely have time to read at work, I brought a book today and read about half a page. I just can't see it fitting into my already full life.

Who still watches discs from netflix anyway?

[JunkMonkey]

<Curmudgeon mode> Modern new fangled technology... All right for all you ten year-olds with your i-kindles and walkie-talkie telephones... To some of us old farts Netflix is State of the Craft, slicing sharp side stuff. Netflix pah! Watching films on films on VHS is MUCH better than watching films on discs ( ...for a very small subset of films. i.e. Videodrome - I didn't want to touch a VHS tape for days after watching that. But most cheap and nasty sleazy horror films of the 70s and 80s look better on VHS, honest. They're sleazier.)

[NickeeCoco]

And another one to add to my list!

You can't tear an eBook in half and share with a friend as I have done. On holiday once I found myself half way through a rather large paperback and my girlfriend had nothing to read - so I tore the book in half and gave the bit I'd already read.

On the other hand, paper books weigh a lot, and if you're going anywhere that requires flying, you need all the weight allowance you can get. When I went on vacation this year, I was able to bring over a hundred books with me. Some of these books were over a thousand pages each. I only read six of them, but I had more if I needed them. I did this with an eReader. Also, I was able to stick it in a clear, sealable bag, which made it water proof, so I could float around in our pool and read at the villa.

I cannot for the life of me imagine why I would bother buying an ebook reader. The physical book works pretty good!

You haven't run out of space, yet, have you? When I read a book, I want to own it. I don't want to have to worry about late charges. While I can read a book quickly, getting to the library isn't always easy for me. I now have six, six shelved book stands that are double deep and have books stacked on top of other books. I've got nine large plastic totes filled to the brim with books in my basement. Unless I want my house to look like a hoarder's, I can't be buying every (physical) book I want to read. Hence the eBook. I can have thousands, and not have to worry. I still buy hard covers of works by my favourite authors, but the rest get the eBook treatment. We're building a wall of shelves in the computer room soon. I'll have four, seven foot long shelves in here, which will add book space, but I'm hoping they will replace the shelving units I have in the living room so the living room doesn't look as cluttered. We're trying to streamline the house and its decor. I wish I had enough moolah to build an addition and turn the addition into a library, but I doubt that's going to happen any time soon.

For me, it's a practicality issue.

[oceanworld]

Reading an actual book come on; the touch, smell, anticipation of what is going to happen next when turning the page. You can't get that with an ebook, it might be easier but nothing beats an actual book.

[JunkMonkey]

On the other hand eBooks are harder to hit with random incursions of water into your house. Due to a plumbing accident (not mine) half a ton of water fell into our kitchen last night hitting some of the cookbooks. Thankfully it missed the first edition Elizabeth Davids and the Edwardian books (scary reads) but my Yo Sushi! Cookbook is never going to be the same again and I think my much-loved French Provincial Cooking is not going to survive the drying process.

Ooooh! Sweary Words!

[AdrianaCo]

Reading an actual book come on; the touch, smell, anticipation of what is going to happen next when turning the page. You can't get that with an ebook, it might be easier but nothing beats an actual book.

I completely agree with you. I love actual books than ebooks and I consider myself as a bookworm. EBooks are a technology whose time has come. But don't be so quick to give up the printed page.

[Loerwyn]

Don't click the link, peeps.

[JunkMonkey]

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Reading an actual book come on; the touch, smell, anticipation of what is going to happen next when turning the page. You can't get that with an ebook, it might be easier but nothing beats an actual book.

So, eBooks are the literary version of Fleshlights?