E-books Vs. Physical Books

[menedob]

Are there any downsides to using e-books (kindle) for most of my kids' reading (including Great Books)?  If so, what are they?  What do many of you choose to do?

[Angie in VA]

Welcome to the boards! 

 

Google for articles about Kindle v. real books and you'll get plenty of hits. I prefer real books, but I have a basic Kindle. The charge lasts forever and I keep it w/ me so if I'm stuck waiting somewhere,  I always have something to read. I like having my old iPad and my basic Kindle to read pdf books. 

 

Here is one older article, but there are many. 

[Minerva]

I like all of our reference books to be print because we use them often and they are much easier to navigate than e-books. Other than that we use a mixture of ebooks and print. My dd, who is dyslexic, finds it much easier to read on a Kindle; however, I am always on the lookout for inexpensive (or free) used books, partially to save money, and partially because my kids are apt to pick stuff up that's just lying around. 

 

 

 

 

[menedob]

Thanks.  I, personally, prefer physical books, but enjoy the convenience of my kindle too.  My initial concern for my kids' reading was the difficulty of flipping back through the book for review, writing literary criticism on the book, etc.  We live overseas in a country where books in English are difficult to obtain, so the appeal of purchasing books on kindle is high in that regard, but will it do them a disservice later?  

[Butter]

I have an Oasis and it's extremely easy to flip through books on it.  The search function and note making are also exceedingly better on the Oasis than they were on my old Kindle Keyboard.

 

I have some kids who do better with ebooks and some who do better with paper books.  My 17yo has trouble concentrating on ebooks and just prefers to have the weight of a paper book in her hands.  My 8yo (who has ADD) said that when he hits the next page button on the Kindle it tells his brain he is done reading and it's hard to get back to focusing on the book.  My 10yo reads a lot and he is like me and much prefers reading on his Kindle.  My 15yo has dyslexia and prefers not to read with his eyes unless he has to (he is a voracious audiobook listener, though).  For school-assigned books, he uses his Fire and does immersion reading (listening and reading as it highlights the words he is hearing at the same time).

 

I personally do not like reading paper books because they hurt my hands.  I read a whole lot more because I read on my Kindle.  It's so much more comfortable for me, plus I can instantly look up words I don't know (I never, ever looked up words I didn't know in a dictionary reading a paper book).  I literally forget I am reading on a device (and have been known to try to change the font size or look up the definition of a work on the occasions I've read a paper book).  There have been all sorts of opinions and studies written on ebooks vs. paper books and it really seems to come down to what works better for the individual and so the results are mixed.

[HTRMom]

I have a visual memory and have better recall when I read from a paper book compared to an e-book.

 

 

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[Guest]

Thanks. I, personally, prefer physical books, but enjoy the convenience of my kindle too. My initial concern for my kids' reading was the difficulty of flipping back through the book for review, writing literary criticism on the book, etc. We live overseas in a country where books in English are difficult to obtain, so the appeal of purchasing books on kindle is high in that regard, but will it do them a disservice later?

Under those circumstances, no, I really wouldn't worry overmuch about the difference. The pro of convenience is so much more important for you than for those of us a click away from free two day shipping and twenty minutes away from Barnes and Noble.

[Tranquility7]

Thanks.  I, personally, prefer physical books, but enjoy the convenience of my kindle too.  My initial concern for my kids' reading was the difficulty of flipping back through the book for review, writing literary criticism on the book, etc.  We live overseas in a country where books in English are difficult to obtain, so the appeal of purchasing books on kindle is high in that regard, but will it do them a disservice later?  

 

I prefer paper books. *But* I might be coming around to Kindle, ironically for the reasons that you indicated concern - reviewing and lit criticism. I do find Kindles harder to navigate than a real book, and understanding where I "am" in the greater context of the book can be difficult. However, I have recently learned that if I highlight in Kindle, I can then review all of my highlights on the web, and I can add notes to them. For me, I think this will actually over the long-term make it *easier* to find quotes and such for literary criticism. I also want to highlight for structure - meaning highlighting headings and such, or main idea sentences so that I can easily see where in the overall book a quote or idea comes from.

 

Highlight something in your Kindle book, and then go to https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights and you will see what I mean. Fabulissimo!!

[daijobu]

Using a kindle device, I find it hard to view illustrations and photographs.  Then I need to use the kindle app on my phone which is much easier to manipulate the images, zoom in and pan around.  Also, my phone has the illustrations in color.  Frankly, I don't know why I don't use my phone instead of the kindle I bought.  

[Stibalfamily]

With e-books for homeschool, I find that I forget about them. I need physical books. Otherwise they just don't get used. The problem is shelf space. We have 5 overflowing bookcases and books still seem to be everywhere. Novels, I am ok with kindle because you read them once. You don't reference them everyday for a year. I have been doing more cookbooks in kindle. I am not sure how much I like that either. 

[SoCal_Bear]

Physical books. There are some studies that show that retention of material is better with physical books. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/print-ebooks-studies_n_6762674.html

[PentecostalMom]

Under those circumstances, no, I really wouldn't worry overmuch about the difference. The pro of convenience is so much more important for you than for those of us a click away from free two day shipping and twenty minutes away from Barnes and Noble.

This.

 

 

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[Guest]

Ethical issues: https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2011/spring/the-danger-of-ebooks

 

Ebooks need not attack our freedom, but they will if companies get to decide. It's up to us to stop them. The fight has already started.

It is possible to find DRM-free eBooks, but not if you don't specifically look for them and don't know why it matters.

[Hunter]

I have no choice but to use a lot of eBooks, and gradually I have learned HOW to choose them and use them.

 

Sometimes, when it has been possible, I have owned enough devices to have one book open in three different devises so I didn't have to flip back and forth. Also if I would have had multiple hardcopy books open, I prefer to have multiple devices open and displaying the books at the same time, so I can just glance back and forth.

 

Certain types of ebooks display better on certain devices. Sometimes Amazon will only download certain Kindle books to certain devices. The Kindle app on one device is not always the same at the Kindle device on another.

 

Some devices do not have apps for all my favorite ebook vendors.

 

On smaller screen, narratives work better than textbooks. Sometimes I have been more Charlotte Mason and living book centered because I had to rely on a smaller screen.

 

Older tablets are sometimes sluggish and cannot download large pdfs.

 

Backups for eBooks need to be stored. I have lost eBooks to every type of storage. But I've lost far more hardcopy books to eBooks, because I have super-duper bad luck and make poor choices in life. Stories about my book losses keep everyone here entertained and sometimes horrified. And at least when I lose an eBook it is just gone. Sometimes loss of a hardcopy book means needing to dispose of something really nasty.

 

Last October, the internet went down because of a virus that had infected unsecured devices including baby monitors. since then, more and more manufacturers and operating system and cell phone providers have been sending out forced updates that sometimes break the device or make an app incompatible. Sometimes things take months or are never fixed. Having some really different type of devices is necessary, and as many as possible from manufacturers that sell both the operating system and the hardware. Apple is quite a bit less likely to break that Android and Windows. Kindles are a bit better than straight Android.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Hunter

[Hunter]

Also, some things are quite different overseas that in the USA. Many Americans giving advice might assume things are the same for you that are not. Be careful about advice. Double check things.

[Guest]

 

since then, more and more manufacturers and operating system and cell phone providers have been sending out forced updates that sometimes break the device or make an app incompatible.

I did not know this. Thank you for sharing.

 

I suspect that many people who have this experience might want to try some sort of FOSS that does not have forced updates, like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, LXLE, AntiX, etc. or even bumble on to forums for distros that are directed more for power users, such as Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, Fedora, Arch etc. because they do not know any better.

 

Now that I know what is going on, I can be kind to them and ask the right questions so that I can help them instead of automatically assuming ill intent or trolling.

 

 

 

[Hunter]

These forced updates are going to be a real issue. There is talk of being able to sue manufacturers for unsecured devices, so all of a sudden, a bunch of forced updates were quickly released. I got hit with one of the first really bad ones and got hit with a case of classic and severe overheating that could not be dismissed as anything else.

 

Before a device overheats, it will often begin malfunctioning in many ways to prevent overheating. Slowing down, shutting some services, actually turning off, etc, all to try and keep the hardware from damaging itself. A lot of this can be dismissed and confused for things other than classic overheating.

 

And any update requires a bunch of compatibility issues to all sync, and there isn't time to test all this stuff every month. Some app developers are just abandoning old apps or their apps for certain devices.

 

Many of our devices are going to be a lot less dependable.

 

And cellphone providers are not always going to do what they should. Some Sprint employees on commission actually took advantage of one phone getting wrecked to try and force people into new more expensive plans while they were in crisis and vulnerable.

[Hunter]

Also, there are issues with eyestrain. Reading the narratives on a dedicated eReader reduces eyestrain.

 

Using things like Layers of Learning, where mom skims the pdf on her iPad and then does a project with the kids, means their eyes are seldom on the screen, even if hers are.

 

The fewer hardcopy books you use, the more devices you NEED. Multiple devices is NOT a luxury or a waste if you are dependent in eBooks. Having a little overlap in devices is a necessary backup.

 

Old cell phones make great dedicated audio book players, freeing up critical storage on tablets and other devices being used for eBooks.

[regentrude]

We prefer physical books.

I dislike reading on a screen. I cannot read as carefully (this is evident when I am trying to edit; I find a lot more typos and mistakes when I have a paper copy than when I proof read on a screen. Almost everybody I know has to do serious editing on paper.).

I like to flip around.

I cannot see full page images comfortably displayed on a screen. As a visual learner, I retain information by recalling position of elements on a  physical page. Does not work if I have to zoom in on an electronic device.

Edited May 7, 2017 by regentrude

[eternalsummer]

We are travelling very lightly at the moment, so we've ditched all physical books for a while and bought a couple of non-wifi-enabled e-readers.  I vastly prefer books, but there are some advantages to the e-readers:

 

1. a library of 200 books can be carried in a backpack and weighs 12 oz or so.

2. no amount of food or dogearing or anything destroys the books; on the off-chance the ereader eventually needs replacing, I still own the rights to the books and can download them again for free.

3. getting the next book in a series is fast.

[Hunter]

When you HAVE to use eBooks, you learn to work around their weaknesses. You adapt. You get creative. You learn which devices display them better. You learn which books will work as an eBook and which ones won't. You skim the reviews for the reviews of the ebook versions. You read threads with attention to details that you wouldn't otherwise and that hardcopy users might miss when skimming.

 

When newbies just buy any old eBook instead of the hardcopy, they don't always get a usable and pleasant experience. An eBook centered curriculum can be effective and pleasurable, though, after you learn some tips and tricks.

[Guest]

I would also prefer physical books but I can't afford a bigger house and I can afford a bigger hard drive.

 

Please keep talking.

 

We use laptop/tablet convertibles that were designed for windows xp or vista and are dirt cheap on ebay; even after getting a new hard drive and a new battery, the cost is the same or less than a brand new swindle or crook.

 

.pdfs are much better on the 32 bit tablets when you switch to "presentation mode" on evince. I assume atril has presentation mode too since MATE is just Gnome 2 with different names for everything.

 

It feels like reading a nice, quality hardback large print edition instead of a paperback. People look at you strange on the bus or the doctor's waiting room, but who cares.