Comments on: Quaint Brits Cling to Paper

By: Litlove

Litlove — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:06:51 +0000

Where’s the sense in spending over £100 for an ereader, only to have to pay almost the same price as a book, on top of that, for an ebook? I think I’ll just have the book, thank you. Knowing it will not break down on me, run out of battery power or require an upgrade to be read. I hate the way that anything digital has to be replaced every two or three years – it makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a huge consumer con.

By: Anna Jacobs

Anna Jacobs — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:49:56 +0000

The point is not ebooks vs paperbooks for me, in the technology sense, but a desire to keep the good books for as long as I live, so that I can re-read them.

We’ve all seen technology and gadgets come and go over the years – look at the early fight for videos between ? Beta and VHS. Now neither is used much.

I don’t trust ereader technology to keep my beloved books permanently, which is what I want. I do trust a paper book to stay viable for as long as I’m likely to live.

That’s not to say I won’t buy an ereader as well as paper books once they’ve come down in price. With a three books a week reading habit, I read some books for ephemeral pleasure only and know I won’t be keeping them.

By: Avril Field-Taylor

Avril Field-Taylor — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:16:05 +0000

Why does it have to be either/or? Why not both? As a matter of fact, the choice of e-books available in the UK market is little short of pitiful and yes, I have an e-reader. It was just the same with the feminist revolution when ALL women HAD to go out to work in order to be THEMSELVES. The sentiments in this article are just as arrogant, short-sighted and frankly, stupid. As an arthritis sufferer, actually holding an ereader is not as comfortable as holding a book. And, as an aesthetic part of life, I would hate to lose the joy of going into a house and seeing a bookcase full of books, each one a secret world that I can dip into. It reminds me of the Joni Mitchell song. ‘Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?’ Can’t see Paradise being paved by Sony and Kindle yet awhile.

By: Paul Story

Paul Story — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:03:59 +0000

Yes, we were sure gratified when that fine American, Tim Berners-Lee brought that new-fangled web-thingy across the pond.

The real problem is that Amazon has not put the concentrated effort into the UK that it did in the huge US market. Despite being able to buy the international Kindle from the US site, ship it over, pay VAT and import tax on the device and pay 2USD on ebooks for each free wireless delivery, we Brits are still in a pre-Kindle world. No other manufacture will bootstrap the revolution unless publishers band together and beat Amazon to it.

Now, there’s an idea.

By: Stuart Aken

Stuart Aken — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:20:05 +0000

I really can’t decide whether this is a piece of ironic fun, badly presented, or an example of USA arrogance gone even madder than usual. Does anybody, even the most ardent fan of the USA, really believe that the American way of life is better than…well, better than any other civilised country? I know most Americans don’t have a passport and can’t place most countries of the world, or, in many cases, even their neighbouring states, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising if this piece of balderdash were meant to be read at face value.
As for the electronic age and its multiple devices sold to the unsuspecting public; like all new gadgets, they have their appeal but, when it comes to reading, a book with pages will always beat one on a screen. The exception being reference books, where the ability to search is a useful tool.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:03:32 +0000

“for opening the lucrative British market to … an American way of life that is unquestionably the quintessence of civilization.”

Ahh. Therein lies the rub! Perhaps we Brits are resisting ‘the American way of life’ because….

Well, best not “go there” as you guys like to say.

By: Bill Glass

Bill Glass — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:16:48 +0000

I find the objections to eReading somewhat missing the point. I agree that reading on one’s computer can be more distracting and less immersive — but eReaders present a page of text without advertisements, noise or distractions. So I find it a bizarre comment if the subject is the Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc.

As for curling up in a chair, it’s a lot easier to bring the e-version of Don Quixote on an eReader than curl up with the bulkier printer version. (On the other one can use the computer version if one is interested in seriously annotating.)

As for the British marketplace, well, I would note that original market research about cash machines indicated that only 6% of the people indicated they’d use them. A lot of people are appalled about reading on an eReader — until they actually try it and find the experience surprisingly comfortable.

By: David Whyte

David Whyte — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:12:22 +0000

This article is amazing. Who said Americans don’t understand irony?

By: Devaki Khanna

Devaki Khanna — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:44:45 +0000

As a citizen of a country that managed to toss out the British imperialists some 60 years ago, I will cheer on the American effort to encourage British purchases of IPods, Kindles and Nooks. It is eerily reminiscent of the way they went about destroying our textile industry in India to build their mills in Lancashire.

By: Brett Thomas

Brett Thomas — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:29:21 +0000

Whatever next? You’ll be asking us to drive on the right if we’re not careful, getting our carriage whips entangled while we’re at it!

By: reagent

reagent — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:17:50 +0000

Very funny. My favourite parts were:
“primordial child-like society” and “an American way of life that is unquestionably the quintessence of civilisation”.