As far as reading pure text goes, paper books are limited by their form factor to be a certain size so that the book is of a reasonable thickness. But such a large size requires frequent eye movement which can cause significant eyestrain. In reality, a much smaller sized reading area is much more comfortable for reading large amounts of text. This is why newspapers and academic journals typically split text into columns for easier reading. I personally find it much easier to read on a relatively narrow screen.
Not quite. There is an optimum line width for a given font size. In other words, an optimum number of characters per line. Too few, and the eye has to strain because it has to shift from line to line too often. Too many, and the distance the eye has to travel from the end of one line to the start of the next is too far, making it hard to find your place.
There’s also an optimum number of lines per page - you want to be able to see enough of the page that you can see paragraph breaks and you don’t have to flip from page to page too often.
There is also no doubt a physical limit to how big the entire text is, but a typical paperback isn’t anywhere near it.
The big advantages to the paper display is the lack of a refresh, the seamless quality of the characters, the improved contrast, and the long battery life. Everyone who has seen the Sony Reader has marvelled at how readable it was.
Reading ebooks on a PDA is convenient, and by now you may have gotten used to it and don’t mind the small screen and small amount of printed text available per page. But it’s certainly not an optimum text display device. Personally, I can’t stand to read e-books on my PDA. I just find the tiny screen and short lines way too limiting.
Quick question: I seem to recall that the Sony Reader’s estimated price was going to be about twice that of a mid-to-low range PDA. I can’t find the estimated price on the Sony page you’d linked, though. Anyone have some figures I can play with?
Preliminary prices I’m seeing are between $299 and $399 USD.
Cites:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051229_155542.htm?campaign_id=techn_Dec29&link_position=link15
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/handhelds/0,39029444,39195579,00.htm
And I’m sure the books will be in some stupid DRM format. It’s Sony, after all.
Apparently, it will read standard text files, PDFs, and a blurb about offline blog and news reading suggests it will use RSS.
What’s got me excited about it is that I can put Project Gutenberg texts on it and finally catch up with some of the classics I haven’t read, for free. I’ve tried reading them on a PC or a PDA, but I’ve never liked the experience due to display issues. But if I can read them on something that makes them feel like a real book, that would be very cool. And no DRM involved.
I use Mobipocket Pro to convert .txt files to .prc files that I can read on my PDA. I know there was a later version of Mobipocket that took this functionality away-- not sure if it’s back in the current version or not. Sometimes, because of the line breaks in the .txt files, the line breaks on the PDA are funky. When the Gutenberg file has an .html version, that actually reads better on the PDA.
Yep - different versions with various features. Lots of things you can do - I have Pocket Quicken on mine so I can enter purchases etc. on the fly to sync to my main copy of Quicken. I’ve usually got a dozen or more ebooks loaded so I’m never without something to read. I have a few games. Address and appointment books. Miscellaneous memos. It can do some work with Word and EXcel documents. Some have web-surfing / email capability. Some can handle MP3 files and audiobooks. I wouldn’t be without mine.
Back to the original topic: as noted, I use mine a fair bit for ebooks - the only time I buy dead-tree books anymore is at holidays etc. A lot of the classics are available free. Ereader.com has a very good selection of current books. The quibble I have with them is their prices really aren’t much cheaper than dead-tree versions. And if you’ve got a blockbuster that’s out in hardback only, you’ll pay hardback prices for an ebook. Which I guess I can understand - if it were paperback price, even fewer people would buy hardback.
Certainly I love reading paper books, and I get lots from the library. But it’s nice to always have reading material at hand!
Re ebooks
Actually, AIUI, the one publisher who’s got what I consider reasonable ebook prices is finding that their ebook policy is bringing in more readers and end consumers. Between Baen’s Free Library, the Grantville Gazette ebook magazine (which is now being “reprinted” as a dead tree edition) and now the upcoming Universe ebook magazine, it seems that pricing ebooks lower than dead tree editions has economic benefits for the publishers, and the authors. I don’t have a firm quote but the impression I’ve had hanging out at their webboard is that authors actually recieve more royalties from their ebook sales than from dead tree sales. I can’t imagine that would happen unless the publisher is likewise making more off the sale, too.
(And as I said, upthread, formatting a book for modern publishing makes producing an ebook version a trivial exercise, so the publisher is getting more profit from the ebook, too. Remember, publishing houses don’t sell to customers, but to book wholesalers, or maybe book stores and book store chains. So far less of the price of the hardcover is actually going to the producer of the product than with an ebook. All of which ignores that for the most part it seems that ebook sales are either instead of paperback sales, or in addition to one or more dead tree sales.)
What publisher are you referring to? I’d like to check out their stuff.
And sort-of ontopic, what sites do fellow Dopers find are good sources for purchased ebooks? Ereader I’m familiar with (used to be Peanut press, then Palm Digital Media when Palm bought 'em, not sure who owns them now), and Amazon has some - but Amazon target Microsoft primarily (you have to use Adobe to read Amazon ebooks on a Palm). Baen I know has some, presumably only their own stuff though.
Baen Books. A fantasy/SF publisher. A lot of good stuff, and some dreck. (Sturgeon’s Law is still alive and well.)
They have a selection of their back catalog available for free, here in the Free Library. If you want some recommendations, try David Drake’s With the Lightnings. It’s space opera a pastiche of Victorian society, sorta; well-written, and with a librarian as a main character.
Their for sale site is Webscriptions.
I also like Fictionwise. One thing that they have is a Micropay system. You can deposit whatever amount you want in your account, and then if you see something you want to buy, you don’t have to go through the convolutions of having to use a credit card every single time. They say you can even transfer funds via PayPay, but I haven’t personally tried that yet.
They have a pretty good science fiction/fantasy section. Around awards time (like now), they have a good selection of Nebula-nominated fiction available for free. They have unencrypted files available in a number of different formats, and they also sell encrypted books in eReader and Mobipocket and some other stuff I don’t use, so I don’t remember what it is.