E-books, the successor of paper books?

Have you ever seen a person staring at the screen of a computer or a e-reading device and read through all those teeny-weeny words? Or I should twist my question in another way: have you tried that yourself before? There's no doubt that they are reading E-books, which is the short term for 'electronic book'.

There is this phenomenon that E-books are getting more and more popular. Cornwall (2010) reports that the release of Kindle Book, an electronic book reader, by Amazon has helped in boosting the percentage of virtual book demand to surge upwards. To add to this, the launch of Apple's iPad on the April 3 acts as another factor in rising the demand for E-books (Apple 2010). Publishers came to realized the power of Internet in spreading information, and thus many of them have now open their doors to the Internet. They have decided to publish the electronic version of a book online. This is also said to be following the footsteps of the other two major media industries, namely, the music and movie industries. These publishers understand that they have to go digital or else they won't be able to survive (Cornwall 2010).

Amazon's Kindle Book fueled the hype of e-reading.

(Source: www.abc.net.au 2010)

Advantages of E-books for the readers?

Through my personal experience, I have identified a few advantages of E-books.

1. E-books usually have a lower cost compared to paper book. There are plenty of them which are available for free too. For instance, the public domain consists of all the fiction from before the year 1900 which you can download them for free (Harold Robbins Novels 2010).
2. E-books are eco-friendly as their productions do not require any paper or ink. A study proved that to print a book, it will consume three times more raw materials and 78 times more water than producing a E-book (Siegle 2009).
3. E-books are eco-friendly as their productions do not require any paper or ink. A study proved that to print a book, it will consume three times more raw materials and 78 times more water than producing a E-book (Siegle 2009).

Acceptance and adoption of E-books by readers?

Despite the fact that E-book does bring benefits to the readers, there is still readers who are reluctant to accept and follow the trend. What does this mean and why did it happen? My answer to these questions would be due to the style of reading. Hard-copy books are meant to be read on the papers while E-books through the screen. The difference in medium causes difference in the speed of reading. People tend to read slower on screen than printed page. This has been proven through studies carried out by both Nielsen (2000) and Krug (2000), which the results show that people read 25%-40% slower on screen. Moreover, Mercieca (2004) claimed that readers start to suffer from eye strain after attempting in reading three to four pages of E-book. Personally, I have experienced this before and it made my eyes very uncomfortable. This has also lead to skim-reading. E-book readers are slowly adopting this new reading style by searching for only the key-terms without reading through the whole book content. This style of reading is best reflected in the younger generation, especially students like us who are receiving tertiary education (Brown 2001).

We are the generation that gets in touch with all these new media daily.

In conclusion, it's all about personal preference on whether to accept E-book as the upcoming trend. It depends on an individual's preference to choose between paper book and E-book.

References

Apple 2010, Apple Sells Two Million iPads in Less Than 60 Days, viewed 15 June 2010,
< http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/05/31ipad.html >.

Brown, GJ 2001, 'Beyond Print: Reading Digitally', Library Hi Tech, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 390-399.

Cornwall, D 18 March 2010, ‘E-books popularity on the rise’, The 7.30 Report, ABC, viewed 15 June 2010, < http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2849989.htm >.

Harold Robbins Novels 2010, Digital Book Readers, viewed 15 June 2010,

< http://haroldrobbinsnovels.com/digital_book_readers.htm >.

Jobs, S 2010, Apple iPad's e-reader and bookstore, CNET TV, viewed 15 June 2010,

< http://news.cnet.com/1606-2_3-50082833.html >.

Krug, S 2000, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Que, USA.

Mercieca, P 2004, E-book acceptance: what will make users read on screen?, viewed 15 June 2010.

Nielsen, J 2000, Designing Web Usability, New Riders, USA.

Siegle, L 2009, Should we switch to reading books online?, The Observer, viewed 15 June 2010,

< http://www.guardian.com.uk/environment/2009/aug/30/reading-books-online-eco-friendly >.