Justin Bolland wrote at Pizza SEO:
Don’t tell me to get a Kindle or an iPad. Dude, I work on a damn computer. For hours on end, every day. I don’t want to carry one of these demon boxes around with me like a demon child suckling my blood out through my fucking eyeballs, you read me?
I know it’s a pretty simple/obvious statement but… still. That hits home. The best reason to read books and magazines on paper is because they are not on computers.
I don’t own a tablet or Kindle or anything like that yet, but I’ve been wanting something along those lines for quite some time. And I do have an iPod Touch that I use for reading. I also own a lot of books, magazines, and comics. And I’ve been moving them around with me for years. I long for the day when everything’s on a nice simple device, backed up to the cloud, and easily searchable.
But ever since my interview with Ashley Crawford, I’ve been spending more time reading actual physical books and magazines. I’d spent the last several years trying to kick my print habit and go all digital, but I’ve gone back on the pulp – and, I’ll admit, loving it. However, until I read Justin’s post, I still figured I’d pick up an Android tablet or something eventually.
And I still may. I did spend the better part of today reading off of screens, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to get away from screen reading. But I’ve got to say, at least at this point in space-time, print is looking better than ever.
July 14, 2010 at 5:04 pm
The insane amount of out of print and rare occult text I can fit in my pocket and carry with me anywhere I go via eDocsToGo on the iphone makes me disagree, good sir. Books have charm, this has practicality.
July 14, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I think the distinction between the Kindle/Nook and something like an iPad is that the e-ink screens really do feel like reading a book. They’re much kinder to the eyes and they have, for me anyway, the same heft as a book. They’re bookish, where as the iPad or a similar tablet adventure is not, at all.
I was surprised that I liked the Kindle, as I am fervently pro-book. The e-readers do not fully replicate the experience of, for example, cracking open the just-released novel by a favorite author that you had to buy hardcover because damnit you need to know.
That particular event aside, the e-readers are decent facsimiles of the experience, imo.
July 14, 2010 at 5:24 pm
I agree with that assessment when it comes to tablets, but the Kindle (or Nook) is optically like reading a book. The print from the e-ink is spectacular. And although I love the tactical nature of manipulating a print book or magazine (there is something more physically “real” about it in our current mental paradigm), the practically of a huge book collection versus one digital device has me constantly donating my print books to used book stores, while getting replacement copies in digital form.
August 11, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Hear, hear. After working all day on the computer, I want something easier on my eyes.