Reading Books Electronically

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by on September 8, 2010  •  Permalink
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I have been reading books for the past year and a half via mobile phone on the subway. I also read regular books but I have finished more of them electronically.

My app of choice has been the kindle on iphone and android. Most people do not realize you can get many of the benefits of the kindle on another device simply by using the app.

I also use Aldiko for android for ebooks I have purchased.

The best part about reading a book electronically is that you can easily bookmark and come back to things later. Searching across a book on these apps is almost nonexistent but they all claim to have more robust search coming soon.

The other benefit is synchronizing purchases across devices.

Many people say the drawback to eBooks is the inability to share them with others. I have not found this to be a problem, and have found it actually stimulates book sales.

Recently a friend of mine polled a bunch of us via email saying he was going on a long trip and to please recommend books to BUY on his kindle. He did not ask to borrow the expensive hardcovers and paperbacks but rather purchase them himself.  This seems like a common practice that I hope continues.

Once the price of eBooks drops below that of printed books for logistics and printings reasons I think the scales will fully tip.
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Posted by Eric Friedman on September 8, 2010

http://www.ericgfriedman.com/2010/09/08/reading-books-electronically/

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  • adsigel

    Odd that you consider the best part about e-reading to be bookmarking, which doesn’t take advantage of the digital medium and is easily done in any paperback.

    I have read a couple ebooks now using the iBooks app for the iPhone and iPad. The first immediate advantage to me was that it was far easier to hold the iPhone on a crowded subway train than a 500 page hardcover book (I was reading an old copy of Barbarians at the Gate and switched to ebook about 100 pages in).

    I personally haven’t used the built-in dictionary or annotation features yet but I see big potential in the textbook market for these. I have long believed that college students make the perfect targets for ebook marketing. Most majors require the purchase of hundreds of dollars of heavy hardbound text books every semester–why not buy a Kindle/Nook/iPad and get all your books on a device that’s less than an inch think, weighs nothing, and lets you take notes directly on top of the text? I wish this technology was around when I was in college.

    I also think there should/will be a market for ebook sharing/swapping in the future. Some company will come up with an elegant and legal solution that lets someone deauthorize an ebook and transfer ownership to another owner. I find the Nook ebook sharing feature limited, but a step in the right direction.

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    I think that book sharing remains a big nut to be cracked. I actually like
    the idea of an “expiring book” which could be a book you lend me
    electronically that has a fuse of say 30 days. If you or I need more time
    it could email us. This is obviously subject to the same problems that DRM
    present and would be cracked immediately, but this same problem exists for
    books currently.

  • adsigel

    What about ebook rentals? More so than music and TV shows, people view books as a one-and-done media experience, so why pay a premium to own? What about $4.99 to rent a book for X weeks before expiration?

    This of course is in direct contrast to my education textbook idea where all the added value comes from ownership.

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    I would do this. I signed up for Audible awhile back and cancelled my
    subscription after the 30 day trial as it was too much pressure. I would
    like to see an eBook rental market though.

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  • http://analyticasystemsinc.com/blog/ John R. Sedivy

    Your article’s timely as I just finished reading my first e-book this past month. It wasn’t really by choice – I was previewing a book for an author and the only thing available was a PDF. I psyched myself up to do it (in the past I preferred hardcovers), but when all was said and done I enjoyed and am coming to prefer the experience. Since then I am reading a physical copy of another book, where I find myself missing the flexibility of the electronic format.

    Besides ease of use I liked being able to copy and past from the book itself into a Pages document with my notes for later reference. I also really liked being able to search throughout the book – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read something but couldn’t remember exactly where I’ve found it. Given that this particular book was over 500 pages – the search feature really shined here.

    Of course my experience was different from yours in that I was using my MacBook with a PDF file, but I may make it over to my iPhone or dedicated reading device soon now that I’ve tried a non-physical/hardcover book.

  • http://analyticasystemsinc.com/blog/ John R. Sedivy

    You both make some great points here – electronic textbooks would have made life much, much easier – even pre-college. The potential for reduced cost and not having to carry around thick, heavy textbooks would have definitely been appealing.

    Electronic book rentals seem like a great idea, the only drawback I can see is that once I read something I like to have it available for later reference. This is becoming even more true now that I blog on a consistent basis. Perhaps a good work-around might be to rent members a secure area in the “cloud” and have access to all previous read books online?

    Many possibilities here and I believe we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg with electronic books – which will emerge as the mass market adopts the format(s).

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    That is interesting because I have tried to read long things via PDF on my
    laptop and can’t do it.

  • http://analyticasystemsinc.com/blog/ John R. Sedivy

    I thought the same thing would happen with me but for some reason it didn’t. Even more interesting is that prior to I had a strong aversion to electronic books, and as I mentioned earlier I would only read hardcovers – something about holding a solid, high-quality book in my hands while reading seemed to enhance the experience. Since this was my first e-book I don’t know if it’s a trend yet.

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    Its funny how this behavior (reading a physical book) is just ingrained for
    us, but the next generation will not even think twice about it.

  • http://bit.ly/b3dtHS Katie @ SM Workshop

    I didn’t know kindle had an iphone app, I’m going to have to check that one out! I’m glad I came across your blog today, I’ll definitely be back.

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    Its great – use it daily on my Android device as well. I would not
    be surprised if the app had more distribution outside the kindle

  • http://twitter.com/ajayk329 Ajay K

    I just like the fact that no matter how big the book is it will always be able to fit in my pocket. reading in night view is a huge plus too. eases the eyes

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    Is it better to read by book or ebook I wonder?

  • http://www.marketing.fm Anonymous

    Been reading on my nexus one on the train and its literally perfect.