Avid readers: Do you prefer actual books or the e-reader/nook..etc?

Some thoughts:

Books are inexpensive to produce. They can easily be passed on and shared through garage sales, used books stores, sites like Half.com and eBay, just giving it to your friend/family member to read and by donating it to your local library's book sale or to GoodWill. There are some books like obsolete encyclopedias or almanacs that have little to no value, but most books in the mass market (fiction) can be passed on. Books can sit on a shelf or in a box for days, weeks, months, years or even centuries and be rediscovered. There is almost no reason to throw out a good one. Even books that are beat to @#@#% can hold memories for us.

Electronic devices need petroleum for their plastic. These devices need metals for components, which means the Earth has to be mined somewhere. And, an electronic device will be obsolete a lot faster than that paperback book. You need batteries and electricity for your electronic device. Batteries need chemicals and metal All you need to use a regular book is enough light and your hands. Books can be made from trees which can be easily and quickly grown in tree farms. And, most paperback books can be recycled.

I think other people have written about the aspects of holding a book as opposed to looking at a little screen. And, I don't buy into the stupid commercials where someone is on the beach using an electronic reader. I think $150 is a lot of money. And, I wouldn't take that device to the beach where, if I dropped it, it had a good chance of getting ruined by the sand, water or just plain breaking. If I drop my book, I just brush it off and take it with me. (And, that little water stain reminds me of the trip to the beach.)

Have you ever heard of an electronic book signing? Books with author's signatures can have monetary and sentimental value. You can write a message in a book for someone special and give that book to someone as a gift.

I think there will be uses for the tablets. They could be better than text books. That could save school systems and college students a lot of money. They are probably the perfect replacement for newspapers. But, size matters in this case, I think. There is something to the size of a newspaper that makes them popular. Similarly, I would say that a paper map is overwhelmingly better than a GPS unit's map for backcountry hiking. There's just no comparison there. If your batteries fizzle when you are out in the middle of nowhere, you could be toast or coyote lunch.

Those are just some thoughts. I don't hate the electronic readers. I do hate the pushy hype that comes with them. I own a laptop; so, I sort of own one. But, my laptop can do so much more than a reader.

I think both electronic readers and books will survive. I think we have to use our good brains (which reading books helped develop) and use them both wisely.

DEFINITELY real books. Real books becoming obsolete scare me just as much as you.

However, my Aunt DID give me a nook for Christmas, and although I haven't used it yet I plan to use it for travel. But I definitely won't use it if I can get a real book in my hands at the moment.

I also read stuff on fanfiction and fictionpress, but I'm talking about REAL books, from classics like The Catcher In The Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird, to newer books like Nicholas Sparks and James Patterson novels.

In fact, you wouldn't believe how many books I have lying around. In my bedroom alone I have like, eighty books and all around the house my family has hundreds.

I love real books. I could use iBooks but I can't see the point when a real book costs teh same (if not less) than fake ones, and e-books don't seem personal like a real one does, I don't know why, but they just don't feel teh same. Plus the smell. Ipods and Kindles don't smell of anything :)

Hi, MissKayleeBee Loves Cody Toast, folks that get an eReader generally read 3-4 times more books than before they got one thus that speaks for the devices (worth the money and useful.) There's advantages of eReaders - for example, you can put MP3's on them and listen while you read and they can hold thousands of books in digital format.

When choosing an eReader, you need to consider not only the physical properties of the device, but also compare eBook stores behind it. Sony has never been a contender for any comparison by anyone as they only have like 20 books in their Ebook store and their devices are way overpriced for what they offer. Borders is behind Kobo/Cruz devices in US and as you might of heard, Borders is on a brink of bankruptcy. Kindle and Nook are the only devices to be considered as their eBook stores have over a million of free public ebooks as well as over a million of ebooks that you need to pay for available.

Several features of Nook's environment are similar to regular books (unlike Kindle's) such as:

- Nook allows to lend books for two weeks to friends or to your other devices that run B&N app (PC, MAC, Android phones, Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad, etc.)

- When you walk in with the Nook to B&N store you're allowed to read any available eBook for free while in the store via free provided in the store Wi-Fi.

- Nook can be used for library ebooks and for renting text-ebooks

You should understand the limitations of e-Ink eReaders - they are limited to be black & white for now, they "blink" at each ebook’s page turn, they're not too good for web browsing, they need external light source for reading when dark, and they cannot handle videos.

If all you read is black & white novels then the better one would be e-Ink Nook. If you read electronic magazines or college text books with a lot of color graphs and charts or children’s' books with a lot of pictures then the better would be Nook Color from Barnes & Noble. Nook Color is a hybrid Android eReader/tablet and has USB port (unlike iPad). It has a new generation screen which is anti-glare coated and is better performing in sunlight and for reducing eye strain than iPad's. The screen is one of the best and sharpest on the market and it's viewable at wide angles.

Nook Color has several apps that already come with the device (Pandora Internet radio, QuickOffice, etc.) Also, Barnes & Noble recently released Nook SDK and Nook Developer platform that will allow most of the existing 100,000 Android apps be ported to it. Also, you can use the Social Settings screen to link your NOOK Color to your Facebook account and your Twitter account. You can also import all your contacts from your Google Gmail account. Once you have linked to Facebook and Twitter and set up email contacts, you can lend and borrow books, recommend books, and share favorite quotes with your friends.

i watch television rarely. you just don't get the same quality. i mean, try making walden into a television set show

Truly, there is absolutely no contrast absolutely....simply because watching TV depends on the gunky imagination of a TV entertainer who's main concerns are budget, popularity and ratings and to Hell with theme integrity, or, for that matter, anything truly creative.

There's something profoundly tactile and personal about a paperback book.

E-readers are good an' all. But they're sterile.

I love an actual book for all those reasons. I love the feel of a book in my hands.

Can you help me out?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApDnr...

Actual book by far! for all those reasons and more!

Give me a tangible book any day, and I agree with all your reasons