# As soon as a decent e-reader is created paper books are dead. Get over it bookworms!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-soon-as-a-decent-e-reader-is-created-paper-books-are-dead-get-over-it-bookworms/391042>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 6, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-soon-as-a-decent-e-reader-is-created-paper-books-are-dead-get-over-it-bookworms/391042 "2007-02-06T04:12:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-soon-as-a-decent-e-reader-is-created-paper-books-are-dead-get-over-it-bookworms/391042/121 "2007-02-10T15:11:12Z")

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[QUOTE=Spoons]  
…But rather than read from the works that are on my shelf, with the attendant sounds of a book’s page turning and the occupational hazard of deciphering differing type styles, sizes, and layouts, I download a Project Gutenberg work, reformat it in MSWord so that I can easily read it (the font I’m used to in a size I’m used to and no paragraph splits across a page, for example) and print a copy that I can confidently read from. …  
[/QUOTE]

Well now, this makes me realize who the first real market for e-books is going to be: those who need large print. Former bookstore clerk here.

Some need large print on the page to be able to read it do due limitations on their vision. So certain popular books are reprinted in large print editions. Of course, the selection is limited.

Also, to prevent the alternate editions from having to be unmarketably large, they are very often abridged.

An e-reader that had UI to resize the text would catch on with some of the elderly…

…[if enough people still read.](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/books/08READ.html?ei=5090&en=0478807a580f2a85&ex=1247025600&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=)

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-soon-as-a-decent-e-reader-is-created-paper-books-are-dead-get-over-it-bookworms/391042/122 "2007-02-10T15:31:56Z")

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[QUOTE=Stillwell Angel]  
But…I only read one book at a time. …  
[/QUOTE]

Don’t you read other types of printed material? Dictionaries, phone books, encyclopedias, magazines, cookbooks, academic/professional journals, old textbooks, etc… I think even you would benefit from having all those on a single book-sized device.

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**Author:** ![Stillwell\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stillwell\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stillwell_Angel)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-soon-as-a-decent-e-reader-is-created-paper-books-are-dead-get-over-it-bookworms/391042/123 "2007-02-10T15:47:03Z")

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[QUOTE=scr4]  
Don’t you read other types of printed material? Dictionaries, phone books, encyclopedias, magazines, cookbooks, academic/professional journals, old textbooks, etc… I think even you would benefit from having all those on a single book-sized device.  
[/QUOTE]

Those types of things would be fine in e-format. But those aren’t what I think of when I think “reading” and “books”.

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