Opinion: eBooks are brilliant

Posted on 12 Oct 2009 at 11:09

 

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I'm a big fan of books.

Real, old-fashioned paper books. They don't require any power, you can take them anywhere and paper's incredibly easy to read under any lighting conditions. I also love the smell and feel of paper. So, when I first heard about epaper, I thought it sounded interesting and then paid it no more attention.

That was, at least, until I went on holiday to Vegas and was sitting around the pool in bright sunlight. There I saw loads of people reading their Kindle eBook readers, and I was surprised to find how good they looked. Walking past people, wearing my sunglasses, I found that I could read the Kindle's screen; something that you can't do with a laptop or smartphone, as the polarising lenses in sunglasses block some of the light from the screen and make them difficult to read.

After that point, I thought differently about eBooks and decided that I wanted one. After weighing up the pros and cons, I wasn't going to wait for Amazon to release the Kindle over here. Its wireless delivery system is nice, but I don't need it. I'm also not a big fan of the content protection system used and want to have full control over what I put on my eBook.

I decided on the Sony Reader PRS-505 (it got a Best Buy in Computer Shopper), as I can manually select which titles I want to put on it and it supports PDF files and the ePub format. By the end of this year, Sony will only use ePub and will be ditching its proprietary format for good.

I have to say that I'm deeply impressed with the PRS-505. The screen is unbelievably good. Reading from it seems a little strange at first as it looks like print, but your brain's telling you that it's a computer screen and there should be light coming from it and, after prolonged use, a bit of eye-strain. Once you settle down, it's incredible and every bit as readable as a normal book.

I stocked up on all the classics at Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org), where a lot of the 30,000 books are available in ePub format for free. It's not quite perfect and some titles I've tried, such as Tom Brown's Schooldays, have parts of the chapter titles disappearing off the screen, but the main text is always readable.

Paper still has its place. There's nothing like getting one of your favourite books out and flicking through its pages, and houses would look weird if there were empty shelves where books once stood, but there's room for both. I have been converted: eBooks and readers are incredible devices that mean I can enjoy the books I want, where and when I want. Try it yourself; I'm sure you'll be impressed.

Author: David Ludlow