Your experience of e-books

[binkie]

Thank you, cateau1, for a thoroughly well-considered response. Some of what you say is particularly interesting in the context of the kind of content our library is looking to provide. I would be very interested in your thoughts on any of the questions arising from your comments

(08-03-2011 04:50 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  ...I hate pdf versions though if they don't fit to my iPad screen size and I constantly have to move the page around or resize it because the text doesn't flow like an ePub book.

Do you find the problem of uncooperative formatting more, or less, of an irritance if the text is something you are reading for purely information purposes? Does it bother you more to have to keep moving or resizing something you are reading in your leisure time than it does to have to apply this behaviour to something you are using for reference or research purposes? Are you more, or less, tolerant of formatting imperfections in a technical document? Does the fact that such a document has not been designed to be 'enjoyed' make it less of a frustration that it is not enjoyable to use? Or is a lack of user-friendly formatting just annoying whatever the context?!

(08-03-2011 04:50 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  If it's a non fiction book...an enhanced interactive app can take the reading experience to a whole new level by providing fun interactivity, great searchability, video footage, ability to add my own content to, say, a database, use my GPS location to customise information relevant to me, etc. etc.

I'm struck by the fact that your enthusiasm for the user-generated content (UGC) functionality is something you mention only in terms of non-fiction (and childrens' books, I know, but I'm afraid our library won't be providing access to childrens' books ). Is this something you expect of reference or technical documents? Does the ability to adapt and mark-up documents of this type play an important role in your relationship with these documents? You talk about searchability: is this something you find more intuitive in the context of adaptable text than in the case of static files? Is a more sophisticated and responsive search (rather than a simple word search) something which you expect to be able to experience in relation to non-fiction texts?

(08-03-2011 04:50 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  I've never printed anything from an ebook or app, though I might from a website or blog - though I'm more likely to cut and paste, or file it.

This is very interesting. Is your attitude towards web content informed by its assumed currency? Or do you print, or file, from websites as insurance against their potentially ephemeral quality? Are you protecting yourself from unstable URLs and editorial capitulation? Do you just not trust the Wayback Machine?!

Thank you so much for taking the time to post in this thread. I hope you have more to say