Is it just me or are ebooks a really crappy idea?
 

Just found a little ad booklet for eBooks in a book I bought.
What I wonder about is who in their right mind would buy books to actually read in ebook format. I can understand it if you just want to look up words/passages etc., but I think that for reading entire books it would probably suck immensely.

I spent this morning reading 400+ pages, and even the idea of the headache reading all that on my monitor would have given me gives me a headache...

They were going to be the next big thing a few years ago.

Today, nobody cares.

I find reading ebooks really hard on the eyes

I used to download them to my palm, but the battery in my palm V kept dying :(

As for reading on the computer, that's just retarded, and horrible for your eyes. Printing? That'll cost more than just buying the real book.

Well the real idea was not so much about reading on your computer monitor at all, more about reading on a palm pilot or a slightly larger device that you could read in bed, on the bus, or where ever you are. That's what they were intended for and they'll probably take off eventually, just takes time to perfect and bring out solutions for them to take off.

I just wonder who the people are who believe something like that could actually work...

Ofcourse, it would be rather nice to get a cdrom with the entire text when you buy certain books, since it does help in looking up things.
But for actually reading hundreds of pages, it simply isn't suitable.

A great idea, but not yet ready for prime time. It won't take off until they perfect an electronic medium that's as easy to read as paper. They are working on it now.

i occasionally download an ebook and then print it and read it. i don't have to wait or leave the house to get my reading.

I think part of the reason they've never taken off is that people who read books are accustomed to the physical act of holding and reading a book as well as the content. There's no way I can imagine sitting down to relax with a good e-book.

I read technical books (eg. from the orielly safari service) but only because they are much much cheaper than buying real tech books - but I'd still much rather have the physical volumes.

I thnik that ebooks are a good idea, even I love to own a lot of books and have my own little library, but the screens have to get mucht better. With the new technology which will come within the next years, I guess the will be getting more popular

it's you.