{"id":1704,"date":"2011-04-28T09:16:56","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T08:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:34:36","slug":"do-e-books-make-me-read-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2011\/04\/28\/do-e-books-make-me-read-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Do e-books make me read more?"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a year ago<\/a>, I was speculating on whether e-books would really catch on [with me and\/or everyone else]. Things have moved on. I am still a very enthusiastic iPad user – even buying one for my partner earlier in the year – and use it every day for a variety of purposes. A significant use is reading e-books. To me, the benefits of having books so immediately to hand and being able to access a whole library when traveling have been a real boon.<\/p>\n

But e-books and having a significant effect on wider society …<\/p>\n

Last year, Amazon announced that e-books were out-selling hardback volumes. Recently, it was paperbacks that were outsold. I guess the next landmark will be when e-books out-sell all paper books. My money would go on this occurring before Christmas this year.<\/p>\n

The attractions of e-books are widely recited, as I have above, but I believe there are some more subtle factors. For example, I was listening to the radio this morning and there was a serialization of a book. Historically, the radio has been a common source of inspiration for my reading and this book sounded very interesting. So, I was soon online reading details of the book. When I spotted that it was available as an e-book – one click and it would be mine immediately – I was certainly tempted. As it happens, the price was not particularly attractive, so it went on my Wish List.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I have observed that I go through phases [of perhaps a few years] when I read a lot. Then, that can tail off and I have a non-reading period. Although this is influenced by what is going on in my life – lots of travel results in much reading, for example – I still think there is a cycle. Of late, I have been almost voracious in my reading – enjoying book after book. Is this because I have entered a new phase or is it the influence of e-books?<\/p>\n

I have heard from others that the acquisition of an e-book reader and led to them reading more than ever. My partner is not a gadget freak – she uses technology when she sees a clear benefit. For her, the [or, rather, my] iPad was love at first sight. She is now a total convert to e-books and can barely understand why anyone would put up with the inconvenience of the old kind. She does not do things by halves.<\/p>\n

It has been a long time coming, but I think that real change has occurred in the (e-)reading world. I believe that this will become even more significant when the loan of e-books [or, at least, a good business model for same] becomes widely available. I would be very interested to hear by comment or email<\/a> about your e-book experiences. If you are interested, I maintain another blog, specifically about my reading habits, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a year ago, I was speculating on whether e-books would really catch on [with me and\/or everyone else]. Things…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[354,350,302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-e-books","tag-ipad","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9954,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions\/9954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}