How much time do you spend reading eBooks?

[bryus]

Carying eBooks in your Palm is a great way to kill time when you get to a meeting early, have to wait in line at the bank, (or anywhere else) or just have a few spare minutes.

A few minutes here and there can really add up. So my my question is how much time do you spend reading eBooks in a week?

[Omnitron]

And a lot less scrutinized than playing a game...

[Edlin]

I`ll read a couple of pages while I wait for stuff to load nearly all the time. I get lots of little reading snippet times at work :D

[dmxmd]

I can read from a minimum of 3 hours up to 7 hours a week.

[*YellowRose*]

I picked 1-5 . . . but that's PER DAY.

Depends on the book, and whether I can put it down, you know.

[ktp]

Almost every night .. on my bed. Depends on what I read on that day, it may be 15 minutes or 2 hours!

Just finish 'Angels and Demons' and just start 'Big Bad Wolf'

[Rokiteer]

I am too busy to read very often, regular or electronically. If I did read, then I would certainly use my handheld.

[giantrock]

If the book is interesting, anywhere between 1 to 2 hours, but most of the time is just 15-30 mins, especially when I am travelling on the train/bus

[spvwolfy]

I love e-books and I love to read. Since I work a night job, it gives me the opportunity to read alot. I am thrilled. I carry around a phenomenal amount of e-books with me. So, I read 10+ hours of e-books.

[Steller]

Another vote for 10+ a week.
Although i have many games installed i barely use them ´cause i often feel that i´m only wasting time. Could be funny sometimes but having an up to date PC i prefer to play Multiplayer games.
I used to read many books for years now on my Palm.
The main reason for upgrading my old IIIC was the higher resolution of the T3.
I like the small form-factor, one-hand-reading and good light condition at night.
I have bought many paper books and do like them but it´s difficult to have a few of them always with me.

Have fun, Steller

[bryus]

Originally posted by Steller
Another vote for 10+ a week.
Although i have many games installed i barely use them ´cause i often feel that i´m only wasting time. Could be funny sometimes but having an up to date PC i prefer to play Multiplayer games.
I used to read many books for years now on my Palm.
The main reason for upgrading my old IIIC was the higher resolution of the T3.
I like the small form-factor, one-hand-reading and good light condition at night.
I have bought many paper books and do like them but it´s difficult to have a few of them always with me.

Have fun, Steller

I was thinking the same thing. I felt like I was spending too much time playing games when I had all these eBooks on my Palm. So I started reading eBooks more and playing games less in the last two weeks. The higher resolution is definitely better for eBook reading. The T3 is probably the best Palm out there for eBook reading thanks to it's great display. That is the one thing I miss from my HandEra 330, landscape reading.

[skw]

I've always been a voracious reader. Half the weight of my travel luggage was always devoted to books. About three years ago I had an accident that messed up my vision, and I couldn't read like I used to without getting a headafche or just being wiped out. With a T3 I can use large high rez font, auto scroll, read out of the better eye, and take the whole summer's worth of novels with me on vacation- all on a 6 oz. T3. Plus I get to read in bed now without my husband's protest. Naysayers always talk about the ebook market like it is too small and peculiar to be justified. People don't know what they are missing.

I think authors and publishers should be thrilled about the format Before I used libraries exclusively, but now I primarily buy the books I read. You're less likely to lend ebooks, so if you recommend them, the other person is probably buying their own copy. The overhead has got to be so much less, so the profit margin is greater. Ebook sites are also able to act as boutique publishers and publish authors who might not ordinarily find a publisher, because they aren't investing in a print run and physical stock distribution. Ebook vendors are also a great resource for short stories and novellas, both literary forms often neglected in hard copy.:)

[numsquat]

On average about 30-60 min a day, just because that's all the time I have. There are times I can go for hours though. That's the nice thing about ebooks though, you always have them with you when you have the opportunity to read.

[Caffeine kid]

I read all the time at work and before I go to sleep at night.

[bryus]

Originally posted by skw
I think authors and publishers should be thrilled about the format Before I used libraries exclusively, but now I primarily buy the books I read. You're less likely to lend ebooks, so if you recommend them, the other person is probably buying their own copy. The overhead has got to be so much less, so the profit margin is greater. Ebook sites are also able to act as boutique publishers and publish authors who might not ordinarily find a publisher, because they aren't investing in a print run and physical stock distribution. Ebook vendors are also a great resource for short stories and novellas, both literary forms often neglected in hard copy.:)

See, this the point I think they are missing. If you sell an eBook it won't wind up in a used book shop or passed around to friends. I have some paperbacks that have been read by a half a dozen friends. eBooks on the other hand are one user books. My wife and I may read the same eBook, but it won't go beyond that because of the DRM. Bottom line, they could actually sell MORE eBooks if they opened up to the idea.

[BMEngineer]

Less than 10min a day.....

[skw]

My wife and I may read the same eBook, but it won't go beyond that because of the DRM.

Even if the ebook is multiformat, rather than the much more restrictive Adobe DRM for example, you just aren't going to pass it around like a paperback. I read a book about the "idea" of digital books about 20 years ago and the author raised all the same points we have in this thread. In the novel, the format is destroyed by a syndicate made up of paper mill owners, newspaper conglomerates, and a truck shippping cartel. In a side story, an author writes the greatest novel of his generation but only three people read it because "great novels" aren't in that year. It's much too expensive to edit, print, advertise, store, ship, and stock a novel that's not a guarenteed best-seller. More people will see a movie that tanks than will read a best selling book. If you really look at the ebook sites, you'll notice that many of their best selling authors are writers you might never have seen in "print" before. Inversly, in hard copy book stores, half of all books appear to have been written by a combination of J.K. Rowling, John Grishom, James Patterson, and Dr. Phil.:rolleyes:

[Edlin]

I think people would pass books around. If it was possible. But there isnt enough people with hand held readers. I have many friends - honest who read similar taste to me. I would love to just beam them a book :) but they still use those paper things.
More people will see a movie that tanks than will read a best selling book So true. Sigh.

Hard copy seems to be a much harder medium to get published in. A good take on why this is so is from Katherine Kerr <http://abintrapress.tripod.com/k-kerr.htm>

IMO: The lack of standard formats is for many mainstream p-book authors thinking of going to e-book a concern, as if they only publish to ebook, there is no gurantee that their book will be readable in 20 years... its not even likely.
Worrying about DRM is a bit stupid, as books get pirated from paperbacks extremly fast anyway. And DRM stops legit users from reading via more than one device etc etc.

ps: do you recall the name of that book, sounds interesting?

[skw]

I can't remember the title for anything. The topic just impressed me even then because I, like many others, saw the possibilities immediately. I also remember reading a sci-fi book around that time about a doomed Earth where friendly aliens were busily loading the Library of Congress onto a fabulously small database the size of a refrigorator so we wouldn't lose our entire heritage when the Earth was destroyed. We may not have the Jetson's flying car but at least we beat that one by a long shot!

[Nate]

I read them about an hour or 2 everyday. I'm very glad I bought a palm. Only problem is kids at school ask me a bunch of questions and say I have porn on it. O well I'll let them simpletons think whatever they want to think.

[caroln]

I read whenever I get a chance but, alas, only about an hour a day.

At first I wondered if I'd ever take to reading on a little screen; I expected that I'd miss the whole tactile experience of the paper copy. It didn't take long though! I still enjoy an old fashioned book but ebooks have so many advantages... No need to list them for you but I am rather surprised they haven't caught on more with other people. Most people here seem bemused and then amused when they see me using my pda.