The weekends and holidays are great times to catch up on reading –be it on vacation, travelling or settling into your favourite reading chair with a cup of tea. If you’re an avid reader and live in an urban area, chances are, you are doing at least some of your reading on an e-reader.
Throughout the developed world, e-reading seems to have become commonplace during the last ten years, with the cost of e-readers coming down well below consumer spending levels.
The recent figures from the Association of American Publishers estimate that eBook readers will rise in US to 95 million by 2020. In 2014, it was just 80 million. In UK, nearly a third of adults say they are likely to buy an eBook in the next six months, according to a new study.
In the past twelve months in Italy, 8.2% of the entire population has read at least one e-book. In France, an estimated 6.4% of book sales are e-Books. The e-Books in Germany had accounted for 4.3% of all book sales. The same trend continues in other European countries. The figures for Sri Lanka are not available, but the readership is estimated to be growing.
Reasons
Have you ever been reading an eBook? If not, it is time to start. Trying out eBooks for the first time may be a challenge. However, this is typical for any new technology which you need to learn to properly function in the rapidly changing world.
eBook readers are readily available in Sri Lanka from Rs 17,000 to Rs. 29,000. It is a good investment. This writer has a Kindle eBook Reader of 8GB with over 2,200 books. The books are of different subjects, from ancient history to modern science.
Let us see why you should invest on an E-Reader. The following are good reasons.
(1) e-Books are available instantly and can save time running to book shops.
(2) e-Books can have web or multi-media tie ups which is key for a generation of youth who speak the language of YouTube and Netflix
(3) Newer E-Books have text to speak readers. TTS (Text-To-Speech) have multiple functions that can enhance learning experience. Some examples include helping readers with dyslexia, reading challenges or visual impairments. It can also reduce eye strain, improve foreign language learning and promote listening skills.
(4)Environmentally friendly. You will not have to constantly buy new physical copies of textbooks as curriculum changes and updates take place.
(5) e-Books are a more cost-effective way of obtaining your full reading curriculum: e-books cost on an average 50-60% less than printed textbooks
(6) Storage space is reduced: eBook readers can hold thousands of textbooks in one device, plus homework, quizzes, and other files, eliminating the need for physical storage of books.
(7) The search feature makes eBooks the preferred format for many people, particularly university students. How many times have you scanned every page in a chapter looking for a quick answer?
For example, to check on the ‘French Revolution’ my eBook reader will search the 2000+ books in three seconds and show the pages of the books containing these two words together. It’s as simple as that!
E-Reader not essential
eBooks are a good way to keep up with technology, because they are part of technology. On the other hand, eBooks are a technology that doesn’t require a lot of attention or intensive learning.
Initially, you may not need to buy an e-Reader. You can use your smartphone or iPad.There are lots of great book reading apps for Android, iPhone or iPad.
You can download an app connected with a particular eBook store, such as Kindle, Nook, or Kobo. Or you can pick up an independent e-reading app. There is Marvin for iPad, or Aldiko for Android.
Reading experience with eBooks is more intense than with print books, because: (a) you’ve got bigger control on how you read, and (b) you can handle much more books.
When you use a book reading app, you can personalize the look. Pick up a sepia mode to resemble the look of the old book, or select the night mode to read in the dark. Make the font bigger. If you love Palatino font, change it to Palatino.Once you set up the style in the app, every new book will look the same.
With eBook, you open a totally unknown world. In a printed book, you have to accept the font which maybe too fancy or too small for you. And you have to accept the paper which maybe too thin or too rigid.
Differences
There is another important difference. Once you connect your device to an eBook store, you can see a lot of books in it. Many people start with packing up e-readers with free ebooks. Not just five or ten, but hundreds. Some of them are really good books.
There are also trustworthy sites like – BookBub and Free-eBooks.net which can help you build up your library. BookBub offers eBook bargains by email, daily, between .90 USD cents to USD2.90 valid for two days. These are modern high-priced books in every field. Free-eBooks.net offers 12 eBooks every week free of charge.
Pleasures of e-Reading
Reading eBooks bring joy. Maybe not after the first or the second, but once you get the grips on it, you’ll wake up and want to open the e-reading app, just to see the familiar interface, and that perfect Palatino font in a perfect size on a perfect background.
Anyone who says eBooks can give you a touch of pleasure that paper books used to give, that person is wrong.These pleasures are different. A pleasure of changing the brightness of the Kindle Paperwhite display cannot be compared to the pleasure of touching the sheet of paper in a book.A pleasure of adding a note, highlighting a texting, or looking for a reference in an eBook is not the same as the smell of the old hardcover.
Yes, these eBook pleasures are radically new. You’ll have to discover them yourself.