I love reading on the Kindle. but books usually last ages. we can still read the ones written by hand in medieval times. will I still be able to read e-ink in a few years? hermes 4, 1934
Good question. There is no reason to assume that any digital files will last longer than a few years. If you want to read and re-read a book, get it on paper.
I enjoy my Nook as it is great for travel and loading with tons of reference documents. But it isn't the same and discovering interesting things by thumbing through the pages.
Case in point is the last book that found me for $8 USD at an antique store: "The Scientific American Cyclopedia" copyright 1898. It is available as a free ebook, but that would not have lead me to the interesting topic of perfume formulary. Who could have guessed that Civet Cat excretions were used to anchor more pleasant smelling molecules?
The problem with digital anything is preserving the formats and or converting them as the devices, storage technologies and formats change. Another problem is the life time of the display devices. They'll need replaced. LCDs are good for about 10 years unless one lives where it gets very cold or hot and one time in temperature extremes they are ruined. Not so for a book. Unless it is in a fire or flood I can and do read books printed over a hundred years ago. (And write about them with my decades old manual typewriters) Besides when the batteries go dead or the power goes off I cannot use an ereader or a computer!
There's nothing like the touch and the smell a real book! Even your perception of the story is different. But I have to agree that e-readers are very practical. I have one my self and I use it a lot. Although I believe that in some year they'll be as obsolete as floppy disks are now...
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Good question. There is no reason to assume that any digital files will last longer than a few years. If you want to read and re-read a book, get it on paper.
Not bloody likely. But take comfort in the fact that data doesn't degrade. One hopes.
I enjoy my Nook as it is great for travel and loading with tons of reference documents. But it isn't the same and discovering interesting things by thumbing through the pages.
Case in point is the last book that found me for $8 USD at an antique store: "The Scientific American Cyclopedia" copyright 1898. It is available as a free ebook, but that would not have lead me to the interesting topic of perfume formulary. Who could have guessed that Civet Cat excretions were used to anchor more pleasant smelling molecules?
The problem with digital anything is preserving the formats and or converting them as the devices, storage technologies and formats change. Another problem is the life time of the display devices. They'll need replaced. LCDs are good for about 10 years unless one lives where it gets very cold or hot and one time in temperature extremes they are ruined. Not so for a book. Unless it is in a fire or flood I can and do read books printed over a hundred years ago. (And write about them with my decades old manual typewriters) Besides when the batteries go dead or the power goes off I cannot use an ereader or a computer!
I find it akin to trying to watch a movie on an iPod. It CAN be done - but you miss a lot of the action.
There's nothing like the touch and the smell a real book! Even your perception of the story is different. But I have to agree that e-readers are very practical. I have one my self and I use it a lot. Although I believe that in some year they'll be as obsolete as floppy disks are now...
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