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Comment by jrcii | Hacker News Reader

ebooks to me are a solution in search of a problem. I like how books look, how they smell, the feel of turning the pages, being able to dogear a page to keep my place, loaning them out, seeing them on my bookshelf. I also form memories of where information physically is in a reference book that I may want to refer back to.

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>ebooks to me are a solution in search of a problem.

Especially since they haven't implemented all the features that would make them handier than books:

a) Copying excerpts (most DRM readers either forbid this or make it a time consuming BS process)

b) Adding notes (ditto)

d) Easy access to all your bookmarks and notes across your whole book collection.

e) Proper, book quality typography and layout (not markup BS that looks like a webpage), with overrides/re-layouts for larger font-size etc only as an additional option not as the main way to read.

>ebooks to me are a solution in search of a problem.

Ebooks make it easy to read anywhere and anytime you have spare time without lugging physical books around

Well, that's the parents case though, as that wasn't really much of a problem people had.

"Oh this random place I happen to be is a perfect place to read, if only I had my library with me to pick a book".

If people know they'll be traveling, they pack a few books to have with them (or buy at the airport). If they're commuting (e.g. to work on a train or long bus ride) then they bring along the book they are reading at that point in time. But usually they just read at their house/study/office.

As for casual reading, there's always tons of stuff on the web.

>As for casual reading, there's always tons of stuff on the web.

For me, ebooks make it possible to replace much of the casual reading I do on the web with books. I've been happy with the change and I read significantly more books.

This was very much a problem I had. As a person who prefers to read books over stuff on the web, I enjoy the fact that as long as I have my phone (always) I can knock out a chapter virtually anywhere.

Since moving to ebooks my book consumption has increased 4x. I've replaced random phone scrolling during downtimes with books and it has been fantastic.

I'm to the point now where I actually prefer reading books on my phone even when a larger display device is nearby.

As a student, they are invaluable for textbooks. I hate lugging them around to the classes that might need them, or to collaborate with others. I throw many of my textbooks onto my old iPad, and I see many people on my campus with some sort of tablet (surfaces seem to be gaining in popularity) and some sort of relevant text on them.

If you live in another country, you already have a problem. Books are not universally avalable and are many times banned or censured.

ebooks make it easier to turn this around. Digital media is reliable, easy to transport and distribute.

Unless Amazon cooperates with the regime in the future to censor the ebook too, most publishers won't but a major distributor like Amazon might if doing so allows them a large government contract with said regimes, or entrance to the market like Google's Chinese censorship.

I love ebooks for technical documentation.

I don't want piles of dead trees with outdated information taking up space.

Plus with ebooks I find right away the information I am looking for.

For other types of books, yes paper rules.

I'm the opposite. I like technical books on paper, and I often print out RFCs I actively use. On the other hand, I think e-books are amazing for novels. They usually don't feature pictures, equations, tables or other weird stuff, and e-book readers are super-convenient for commute.

The problem as defined by me: traveling all the time. With an ereader, I can bring my 291 books and read whichever one I like.

I agree with the ease of use of the paper version though.

The killer app for eBooks is portability. I would not read nearly as many books if I had to read the paper version.

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