Are you going to buy an e-reader or do you already have one?

Does the iPhone count? I have read a number of books on it so far during my commutes.

No, I am a dinosaur. I prefer books. In fact, I can't see any advantage of e-readers. Just last night, I was browsing through my library of books, picking various ones out and reminiscing. Then there is the smell of the pages of new books, the feel of the book.

When I think of all the time I have relaxed by a pool, on a beach, on a park bench, reading a book ... that cannot be the same with an e-book.

And how many parents read bedtime stories to their children from an e-book? No, thank you.

Some technological gadgets we can do without. E-books are one of them.

nice comment, very true...

Agree with Smartacus. Prefer books as well. Maybe people are getting to lazy to turn pages?

smartacus, I'm with you on that one. E-books have their pluses, but will never replace books for all of us. But lending books to friends and not getting them back really sucks!

For you information guys, e-readers (tablets, tabs, smartphones) are also meant to read magazines, comic books, e-books, publications, etc not only novels or bed time stories. Once in a while a paper book is good for some occasions, like the beach or for kids. Anyway, you guys are obviously wrong and will be the few that still insist on paying a ton more for paper. Just like the mp3 format did away with CDs so will the tablets and mainly because of price (i didnt mention e-readers because they are useless in comparison to a tablet, galaxy tab, and smartphones that cost just a bit more with a billion more functions). We can get most books/magazines/etc for free, online, just like music.

For now, my iphone is enough. I read the newspapers but no time for books.

Actually, I prefer audiobooks. My inner ear is really sensitive and picky, and something about the neck position plus staring at a fixed spot (yes, your eyes move, but not much) makes me queasy. No paper, no kindle--best for me.

I use an iPhone 'on the go' and a Kindle at home or on vacation. I can see massive advantages to eReaders and the main one is portability. Since I have my iPhone with me at all times, when I have to wait around, I just pick up a book and read where I left off.

Another advantage is that it is a lot easier to read from a Kindle in your hand than a book. Especially if it is a big book.

Don't get me wrong, I have a ton (probably literally) of 'dead-tree' books. And that brings me to another advatage of eReaders: storage.

Then there is the smell of the pages of new books, the feel of the book.

That's never been an influence in my reading experience.

I can see that the lending issue is a drawback. I'd like to see the sellers address this issue in a 'fair' way.

Finally, being in Japan makes it difficult to search out and find the book you want. eReaders can help here.

Call me old fashioned but I prefer a book! E-readers probably have their advantages but I dont think I will be buying one! EAch to their own!

Im a book adict. I love reading and i do it everywhere. Read two or three books at a time. This add load to my bag and pain for my back and it feels "good". So, please, you have to buy an ipad or something to know what are you talking about. Since I have it, i stop buying books.Im sorry but there is not much room in my tiny japanese "mansion". No more global warming, polluting, space taking, dirty books. And that what you call smell, is just dust and mold acumulating is your room wich leads to more allergies and respiratory diseases. Im not rich, so libray in my house is not even a dream. People who opposes e-readers should be opposed to mobile phones, cars, trains, boats and airplanes. Or they are making money from the books business.

I forgot to mention I have an iPad, but I find it too heavy as a book reader. Also, another advantage of most eReaders: A built-in dictionary.

Paper books forever. Don't have to WAIT to open it and close it. Never runs out of batteries. I can drop it a hundred times. A whole bunch at the library for free. Can re-sell it if I please. Still ok if it gets a little wet. Will last 100 years on the shelf.

Does anyone have an amazon kindle in Japan? I want to know if you can use its free internet browser function here or do you need to use its wi-fi function to read email, blogs etc?

catusjack

Don't have to WAIT to open it and close it.

I'll wager that opening a Kindle to the current page is quicker than a real book (especially my iPhone Kindle).

Does anyone have an amazon kindle in Japan? I want to know if you can use its free internet browser function here or do you need to use its wi-fi function to read email, blogs etc?

The web browser in the Kindle is not great at all, and yes, you need to use WiFi. An iPad is a much better option for this.

I nearly bought a Kindle last year, but then I noticed that the new version was released immediately after Christmas. I don't think the books on my shelf were made with built-in obsolescence.

I agree with everything smartacus says. And had I not had to move my entire life from a 4LDK house in the country to a 1LDK apartment with no closet space in Tokyo I would not have bought my kindle. But to move those boxes and boxes of books that I never read again, and put them in storage, paying a monthly fee for them to get all mildewy, pushed me to get a kindle. I love the kindle, and I love being able to carry 1500 books on the train every day, reading bits and pieces here and there without having a bag weighing 15bazillion kg. A lot of the books I read are the "big" kind, and they take up a huge amount of space in my pack to work, so having the kindle really cuts back on commute weight, and hauling bags in the slam of Tokyo mass transit commuting hell.

My apartment is austere, clean, and not cluttered with books that I have to sweep off all the time, my shoulder and neck are not killing me from carrying heavy books all the time, I can read several books at one time anywhere, any time, and I love technology.

However... having said that, I wish the kindle did more than read books (and very very rudimentary internet).

The web browser in the Kindle is not great at all, and yes, you need to use WiFi. An iPad is a much better option for this.

No, you do NOT need to use WiFi. I can browse the web just fine in Japan on my 3G Kindle. The web browser sucks, but it's free!

I like paper books, and I like my Kindle. It's great to be able to carry a library with me on the road when I am unsure what I want to read. Battery life is great, price is pretty reasonable, equipment is quite rugged.

Books are great, too. I see the two as complimentary. I've found I am reading more with my Kindle as it's convenient to have it with me at all times, but I still read and enjoy "real" books, too. I was pretty dubious about the e-reader thing until I actually tried it. It's nice.

Paper books. I agree with Smartacus. Call me a dinosaur as well, but the feel and yes! the smell of even a dusty old book beats an e-reader any day.

I am going to get a new Kindle shortly. They look great, have a great battery life and can be read in sunlight. You can also download a huge number of the classics for free or for a nominal cost.

I will still have a need for "real" books, but some things I read only ever take up space after they have been read. Personally I would rather download the workd of Dickens for a dollar rather than have them take up half a book shelf for 100 times the price.

I don't think the books on my shelf were made with built-in obsolescence.

Mine are. Paperbacks these days are cheaply constructed. With many of my titles, the binding glue has gone brittle, causing pages to fall out and the newsprint-quality paper is yellowing. After they've been loaned three or four times, they basically fall apart.

E-books, however, are data and thus can last forever.

I can see a lot of advantages for e-books, but not enough when I look at the current technology. I certainly will not carry around yet another electronic device just for reading books and which can hardly be used for anything else (such as the Kindle). It has to be integrated into a swiss army-knife type of device. The iPad is a step into the right direction, but not there yet - too heavy, battery life still too limited and a couple of other limitations which Apple has designed into the device.

And last but not least, there is the DRM problem. I will not accept any type of e-book where the vendor can revoke the license at a later time. OK, it depends a bit on the type of book, so in some few cases I could compromise. But that also means I'm not going to spend any money on a reader device just for some few exceptions.

I have a Kindle that hubby got me for my birthday and I love it. I admit, it doesn't replace a real book. I love the feel of paper and ink, I love the way they look on my bookshelves. However, I no longer have panic attacks when I come near my last unread book in the house and my Amazon shipment is still a week away from arriving. I have two small kids so its not so easy to get to an English bookstore- not that they have a great selection in Tokyo anyway. I love the fact that I can download a book in 90 seconds. I think the minus side of my Kindle is that I don't savour books as much as I do when they are real. Now I know that if I finish a book in two days, a new one is just a push of a button away. Also, if I lived in an English speaking country with huge bookshops and libraries, I don't think I would feel the need for an e-reader.

I don't read bedtime stories to my kids off the Kindle. I want them to grow up appreciated the printed word. They can decide to get themselves an e-reader when they grow up.

I don't think the books on my shelf were made with built-in obsolescence.

I see paperbacks in the bookstores that are falling apart, and their covers are stained from too much exposure to either harsh lighting or the sun. These books won't last 100 years.

E-books are actually encouraging more people to read - both classics and new novels - whereas before they stuck buds in their ears and listened to music on their commutes, now they read.

I'd prefer a technology that allowed sharing before I invest too heavily in an e-reader.

If they were big (the size of a paperback at least), thin, lightweight, flexible (you could roll them up and stick them in a corner of your bag!), cute (pink would be great!), cheap, and could access any book ever printed for significantly cheaper, then I would consider it!

Otherwise, I suppose that I will have to wait. Oh, and of course, battery life is still a consideration. I don't have to recharge any of the books that I currently own.

I think that e-books are convenient for travelling but they will never replace the feeling of reading a good paper book. Plus, i would get a headache trying to read a whole book of hundreds of pages on electronic screen. Thus, after trying e-book reading in a friend's Kindle while being on plane, i still prefer paper books and never thinking of bying an e-reader.

"Personally I would rather download the workd of Dickens for a dollar rather than have them take up half a book shelf for 100 times the price."

Ah so, don't forget the initail 20000 yen or whatever cost of the e-reader. for that price you could buy approximately 200 100yen books at Book-off. How long does it take you to read 200 books?

I have kindle on my iphone (iBooks was unreliable when I tried it out, so I dumped it for kindle) but I only have a few free books on it. I would never buy a dedicated e-book reader because they're way too expensive for what they do.

The worse thing about e-readers is their fragility. Imagine if you drop the blasted thing and the swarms of commuters around you step on it!

The second worse thing is the lack of re-sale-ability or lend-ability.

Yet they cost the same if not more than a paper book in most cases I've checked, what a rip-off.

(As for CDs and someone mentioned that they're obsolete, they're not actually obsolete at all, and again they're often much cheaper than mp3s and just as easy to put on my iPhone, plus I can sell them if I get sick of them.)

Paper books won't become obsolete just yet, and certainly not because of things like Kindle. They may become pretty much obsolete in future, but only if there's a ban on paper from trees (rather than re-cycled cardboard.) Then, when we run out of paper to recycle, you'll be on here lamenting the lack of cheap toilet paper (LOL).

The new update for Ipad comes with Aromabooks. You can read and feel the dusty smell for the classics, the love stories comes with rose and lavanda, the thrillers and mistery section comes with blood and if you use 3d glasses you can se the bloods pouring through your hands. Politics smells like %$##it. Not recomended.

Nothing will ever beat the smell, feel and weight of a real novel! All these gullible slaves to pretentious gadgets, make me wanna slap em silly! Letem carry their uncool kindle, cause I know its a quarterly profits swindle! I love to imagine all the famous people who read the book I hold in my hands,especially if its a real oldie, not to mention the punters on the street stealing furtive glances at what you hold in your hands and think DAMN that boy is HIP! So, carry that uneccessary piece of junk, cause what Im smokin is the real SKUNK! Death to all electronic readers! Viva la publishing industry!

gonemad

It has to be integrated into a swiss army-knife type of device.

It's called an iPhone. Just download the Knidle app.

kansaifun

Ah so, don't forget the initail 20000 yen or whatever cost of the e-reader. for that price you could buy approximately 200 100yen books at Book-off. How long does it take you to read 200 books?

And the cost of storing and transporting 200 books from Book Off? Probably not ecomical.

I need an eWriter! Last two posts mistakes: Kindle (not Knidle) and Economical (not ecomical). Sorry...

Like CDs vs. mp3s, Mac vs. PC and now DVDs vs. streaming, the entire discussion is based on a false dichotomy: "ebooks vs. real books". Haw. Nobody's asking you to choose only one or the other. You can have both. I love real books as much as Smartacus, and for all the same reasons. I used to read 2-3 books per week. But in living in a small J apartment and with 3 toddlers, the issues of expense, storage space and screaming chaos from 6 am to 9 pm every day mean that real books aren't happening. The Kindle software on my iPhone allowed me to read in bed without getting a pile of kids on my head trying to play with my book light. I was back to reading again. From there it was a small step to the new Kindle and a lighted case for it. Light, portable, instant word lookup... You can even remove the DRM from Kindle files if you want. Google is your friend.

Love the feel of a real book, but also love my Kindle. It is all I take when I travel - everything I have bought remains on it, and if I find a new author whilst on the beach somewhere I can buy another title by that author whilst sipping my beer - With the wireless connection turned off (I just turn it on to browse the book shop and buy) the battery will last a month. That is NOT a false claim by Amazon. Brilliant.

I love books. Call me old fashioned.

It's called an iPhone. Just download the Knidle app.

I own a Kindle and an iPhone. I have great eyes and am generally patient, but I HATE reading on the Kindle for iPhone app. Screen is too small, you need to flip pages too often, eyes get very very tired (which they

It's called an iPhone. Just download the Knidle app.

I own a Kindle and an iPhone. I have great eyes and am generally patient, but I HATE reading on the Kindle for iPhone app. Screen is too small, you need to flip pages too often, eyes get very very tired (which they don't do with the Kindle proper). It's better than nothing, but it's not very enjoyable.

It's called an iPhone. Just download the Knidle app.

2020hindsight, except for the weight the iPhone has all the limitations of the iPad, plus the much too small screen for reading books.

I went traveling last summer with 4 books in my backpack. That's a lot of weight!

When you consider that you can take your entire library on an e-reader, plus the number of trees you are saving by not buying books, it's a no-brainer, surely?

Battery life isn't an issue with the iPad - 5 to 10 hours!

I'm waiting for the iPad2. Then I'll buy one.

2020hindsight, except for the weight the iPhone has all the limitations of the iPad, plus the much too small screen for reading books.

Not for me. It's lighter for a start and I'm short sighted. I have the font size on the iPhone on the lowest setting and can read it perfectly. A simple tap from my thumb and I change the page. I tell you it's much easier than a real book.