I was having a conversation with B about E-book readers and if they will make a strong advent into the Indian market.
I have thought many times over about getting an E-book reader but there has never been a strong enough reason to go ahead and make the buy. I am not sure whether the Indian market will bring out that many varieties of e-books especially of Indian authors. I like to read some Indian authors as my usual light reads and those would be ones which I would like to read on the go on a E-book reader. The only place where you can download E-books that I know of is amazon.com, and I am not sure whether I would like to buy the Indian authors at international prices, when they are available in a book version much cheaper.
The owners of most Kindles which I know are readers of international authors much more than Indian authors, and I guess that helps them make use of amazon very effectively. I am still not sure whether in due course, websites like www.flipkart.com and such would come out with e-books as a buying option?
What is your take on this?
Another interesting observation which came out of the conversation was that maybe we need to be more by ourselves, and we value our space so much more that we are looking for gadgets which will reduce our interactions with others to a great deal. Like when you have a E-book reader, then what are the chances we will go to a book shop to browse through titles. Well, even now I think I still do browse online more than in a book store. But, I will admit that the feeling is completely different. In fact B was of the opinion that blogging and facebook is also a reason why we as people are becoming more involved with ourselves and not social enough. I wonder whether we have the time to be involved and time to socialize so much. I guess its a matter of priority, we need to see that as a need, then it is bound to happen.
Frankly speaking, I think I love blogging more as the people I have met on the blog have the time to share and interact, even though only through written words. But, is that really an issue, isn't it better than friends who we have lost touch with and have very limited FB interaction with?
Another interesting observation which came out of the conversation was that maybe we need to be more by ourselves, and we value our space so much more that we are looking for gadgets which will reduce our interactions with others to a great deal. Like when you have a E-book reader, then what are the chances we will go to a book shop to browse through titles. Well, even now I think I still do browse online more than in a book store. But, I will admit that the feeling is completely different. In fact B was of the opinion that blogging and facebook is also a reason why we as people are becoming more involved with ourselves and not social enough. I wonder whether we have the time to be involved and time to socialize so much. I guess its a matter of priority, we need to see that as a need, then it is bound to happen.
Frankly speaking, I think I love blogging more as the people I have met on the blog have the time to share and interact, even though only through written words. But, is that really an issue, isn't it better than friends who we have lost touch with and have very limited FB interaction with?
Ok, my first reaction to kindle and such, is a big NO. I love the feel of holing a paperback in hand, spilling few drops of coffee on it,and wiping it away hurriedly so the library won't notice :-) And I love passing books around, between my sis, mum and friends. So there is no way I can do all of that with a Kindle. Now having said that, I saw something on TV the other day. It was this really sleek e-reader with Wifi and internet capabilities, along with a slot for SD card, and music and videos and what not. Am considering saving up for it ;-)
ReplyDeleteI own a kindle and apart from the initial few days of buying books of amazon, its a bit fat failure!
ReplyDeleteAmazon does not even stock the recent books online, so its a moot point anyway or reading online or otherwise.
But, the DH does a lot of case studies and surveys, which are on PDFs, which he transfers to the kindle to read when free.
For me, it would be books all the way :)