| Páginas sobre el tema: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | Off topic: The ultimate battle: electronic text reading devices vs books! Autor de la hebra: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
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Milos Prudek 
República Checa
Local time: 23:10
inglés al checo
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| Both products have merits | May 9, 2011 |
While the topic starter's pretend goal was a flamewar, this discussion highlighted strong points of both paper and electronic books. Hence this discussion is very useful and no winner needs to be selected.
My conclusion is that electronic books (e-ink, not iPad) are immature to be a complete replacement of normal books, not only technologically, but also due to the question of book ownership and DRM. Once this is resolved, e-books or technology that replaces e-books will replace pap... See more While the topic starter's pretend goal was a flamewar, this discussion highlighted strong points of both paper and electronic books. Hence this discussion is very useful and no winner needs to be selected.
My conclusion is that electronic books (e-ink, not iPad) are immature to be a complete replacement of normal books, not only technologically, but also due to the question of book ownership and DRM. Once this is resolved, e-books or technology that replaces e-books will replace paper books.
I do not own an e-book reader. I would buy one if the e-ink display was as white as paper. It would also be nice if the book display were readable in the night like computer screen, i.e. if it could switch between e-ink and normal LCD, but that is not a condition to buy an e-book reader for me. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michele Fauble
Estados Unidos
Local time: 15:10
noruego al inglés
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| e-books in Spanish | May 9, 2011 |
Ashley Wans wrote:
On my Kindle (I'm based in the US), I've downloaded multiple novels in Spanish for very reasonable prices.
I'm mainly interested in contemporary, original (not translated) fiction. Too many of the e-books available in Spanish still seem to be either classics or books translated from English.
| | | | Michele Fauble
Estados Unidos
Local time: 15:10
noruego al inglés
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| Not the right books | May 9, 2011 |
Stanislaw Czech wrote:
While there are few books in Polish available for purchase at Amazon, there are thousands of books with expired copyrights. For example you can read on Kindle (and other devices) all books from project Gutenberg - i.e. enough books to keep one occupied for more than just one lifetime.
Old books. Those are books that I have already read (some classics) or would not be interested in reading (most of them).
Amazon offers plenty of books available in major languages like German, French, Spanish, etc.
The selection seems to be slowly improving, but most of the non-English e-books available are classics or books translated from English. I'm mainly interested in contemporary, original (not translated) fiction in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
| | | | Ashley Wans
Estados Unidos
Local time: 14:10
español al inglés
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| True about the classics | May 9, 2011 |
Michele Fauble wrote:
Ashley Wans wrote:
On my Kindle (I'm based in the US), I've downloaded multiple novels in Spanish for very reasonable prices.
I'm mainly interested in contemporary, original (not translated) fiction. Too many of the e-books available in Spanish still seem to be either classics or books translated from English.
It's true that many of them are classics. I like this, since I didn't start to be educated in Spanish until college, I still take a lot away from reading very "literary" works. I have recently down loaded the recently published novel "El secreto del tio Oscar". I'm not very far into it. It's certainly isn't a difficult read, but it is entertaining thus far.
There also seem to be a lot of self-help books available in Spanish. Never purchased any of these, so I can't comment on it (I'm also not sure how many of them are translations).
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Ashley Wans
Estados Unidos
Local time: 14:10
español al inglés
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Ashley Wans wrote:
On my Kindle (I'm based in the US), I've downloaded multiple novels in Spanish for very reasonable prices. While I Barnes and Nobles and other large bookstores in my area are starting to include Spanish language sections, they have a very limited selection and the prices are frequently high. So for me, the Kindle has greatly expanded my ability to read literature in a non-English language.
I am asking this in good faith: how fast would you say has the market has evolved along time in number of titles available?
If you're asking how rapidly more titles are available on the Kindle in Spanish, I honestly have no idea. I got mine for Christmas, so I don't know how it was a few years ago.
As far as traditional books go, in my area of the country the introduction of Spanish language sections in book stores is really going pretty slowly, even considering only 6% of the population in my state speaks Spanish as a first language.
| | | | | Keeping electronic texts along time | May 10, 2011 |
Milos Prudek wrote:
My conclusion is that electronic books (e-ink, not iPad) are immature to be a complete replacement of normal books, not only technologically, but also due to the question of book ownership and DRM. Once this is resolved, e-books or technology that replaces e-books will replace paper books.
Hm... I think questions like ownership and DRM are rather minor here. The problem is the ebook itself and how to make sure that any books you buy remain with you for as long as you wish.
On my desk right now I see four rather bulky dictionaries (which should be on the shelves by the way) and three other books. If I had them all in electronic format, I would probably have them in a reader and use them with the screen, but... wouldn't I need to make different kinds of efforts to make sure that, if I lost or damaged the device, I would be able to have the books again?
Also, while the reader is damaged and I get a new one, I would not have access to my books unless I also made the effort to neatly archive them on a computer, backup them regularly, etc. etc. In this sense, the fact that electronic texts are stored in an electronic form means a lot of disadvantages long-term.
Maybe the sellers will allow me to download the books again, but wouldn't it force me to spend hours and hours finding my stuff at a host of different sellers, having to remember my passwords, re-learning their website if I haven't visited them for a long time, and with the risk that some of them go bankrupt and I lose access to the product forever?
Losing or damaging my reader would be a true catastrophy! I would lose it all in one go! In this sense, making an intense use of an electronic reader probably feels the same as having a laptop. It is not maintance-free or risk-free, and it will not last forever.
I think that, despite the weight and space, books resist the action of time, children, pets, and climate a lot better, and eliminate the uncertainty of keeping your books along time.
[Edited at 2011-05-10 04:32 GMT]
| | | | | Availability of books | May 10, 2011 |
I think it is an established fact that today the availability of non-fiction, non-English, contemporary books is really scarce.
For translators, the situation is even worse: product range is nearly nonexistent in the case of advanced or specific resources, like specific dictionaries in our language pairs, technical monolingual dictionaries, books about our fields of specialty, specialist magazines in electronic format, etc. etc.
Today, people who get an electronic reade... See more I think it is an established fact that today the availability of non-fiction, non-English, contemporary books is really scarce.
For translators, the situation is even worse: product range is nearly nonexistent in the case of advanced or specific resources, like specific dictionaries in our language pairs, technical monolingual dictionaries, books about our fields of specialty, specialist magazines in electronic format, etc. etc.
Today, people who get an electronic reader and can't speak English must feel like getting a flashy car that requires special petrol you cannot buy locally. ▲ Collapse
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Today, people who get an electronic reader and can't speak English must feel like getting a flashy car that requires special petrol you cannot buy locally.
Tonnes of actual books in spanish.. just google (search for epub)...
My books are at the same time in Laptop, PC, Phone, Reader and iPad (all of then using Dropbox)... How the hell could I lose the books?
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| Dont understand | May 10, 2011 |
Michele Fauble wrote:
Too many of the e-books available in Spanish still seem to be either classics or books translated from English.
English books are translated into spanish.... and spanish books into english.... ??
| | | | | So you need very many things... | May 10, 2011 |
Fernando Toledo wrote:
My books are at the same time in Laptop, PC, Phone, Reader and iPad (all of then using Dropbox)... How the hell could I lose the books?
So to be on the safe side you have to spend a lot of time making sure that everything is safe and sound. I know that it is not that complex, but you do have the dependency of many electronic products and services.... just to read a book and ensure its longevity in your "shelves"!
| | | | | Would you give an electronic text as a present? | May 10, 2011 |
When a birthday approaches... would you say that an electronic text is something you can give as a present?
After all, you go to a bookstore and choose a book not just because you think that the person receiving it as a present will like the theme, but also the binding, quality of paper, images in the book... most especially if you give a graphic book as a present (an art book, picture book, tourism book...). If the book is something special you have been looking for or just found b... See more When a birthday approaches... would you say that an electronic text is something you can give as a present?
After all, you go to a bookstore and choose a book not just because you think that the person receiving it as a present will like the theme, but also the binding, quality of paper, images in the book... most especially if you give a graphic book as a present (an art book, picture book, tourism book...). If the book is something special you have been looking for or just found by chance, the need of the printed form is even more important.
Isn't the equivalent electronic text a rather cheap present, in the bad sense of cheap? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | @Tomás: you did talk me out of e-stuff :) | May 10, 2011 |
I probably always felt that nothing can substitute the warmth of a bookshop and of a simple, cheap, friendly paper object, but I had definitely added an e-reader to my wishlist (erm... I actually have a Google Docs spreadsheet for the purpose! Shame on me!).
Well, you definitely made me think back on ebooks, and you *might* even make me stop keeping records and accounts and notes and recipes on my PC, and learn to do that on paper.
Not sure I'll actually end up using paper (I only st... See more I probably always felt that nothing can substitute the warmth of a bookshop and of a simple, cheap, friendly paper object, but I had definitely added an e-reader to my wishlist (erm... I actually have a Google Docs spreadsheet for the purpose! Shame on me!).
Well, you definitely made me think back on ebooks, and you *might* even make me stop keeping records and accounts and notes and recipes on my PC, and learn to do that on paper.
Not sure I'll actually end up using paper (I only start up a paper file if I have a clear, detailed layout in mind), but I will at least feel guilty as long as I don't give Excel up
So, thank you for your "weak arguments", they were strong enough for me!
Oh, and about English classics: Penguin have a cheap series with dozens of titles at about 3,50/3,60 euros each, all paperback and printed on recycled paper (which, besides being green, is much lighter to carry in your bag). I've just bought Wuthering Heights ▲ Collapse
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Fernando Toledo wrote:
My books are at the same time in Laptop, PC, Phone, Reader and iPad (all of then using Dropbox)... How the hell could I lose the books?
So to be on the safe side you have to spend a lot of time making sure that everything is safe and sound. I know that it is not that complex, but you do have the dependency of many electronic products and services.... just to read a book and ensure its longevity in your "shelves"!
If a put a new contact into my phone or a new book it is the same task!
and automatically this new adress, or book, will be in the other devices. Organized and searchable (content, not only titles) no action required, I don't need to think about!
Anyway I don't really care about longevity
I try to make my life as easy as possible, and for me a e-book is "easier" than a paper book.
| | | | Jaroslaw Michalak
Polonia
Local time: 23:10
Miembro 2004
inglés al polaco
LOCALIZADOR DEL SITIO | Digital vs. physical | May 10, 2011 |
Tomas could be right if only the books required preservation... However, such a large part of my life is already digital, that I have to secure a solution to back up my data, both business (TMs, clients' info, accounting etc.) and personal (thousands of pictures - impossible to print out!).
If I take care of that, adding a folder or two to the backup solution is rather easy...
While digital data is, indeed, rather vulnerable, there is a simple solution for that: duplica... See more Tomas could be right if only the books required preservation... However, such a large part of my life is already digital, that I have to secure a solution to back up my data, both business (TMs, clients' info, accounting etc.) and personal (thousands of pictures - impossible to print out!).
If I take care of that, adding a folder or two to the backup solution is rather easy...
While digital data is, indeed, rather vulnerable, there is a simple solution for that: duplication. It might be as easy as copying (and encrypting!) everything to an external disc drive and taking it to a remote location (your parents' house, bank box, summer cottage, you name it) from time to time. Of course, there are many other solutions, like cloud storage etc.
As long as there is one copy of the data, you can restore it as many times as you wish. On the other hand, if that book or precious photo gets burned, flooded or stolen, it might not be that easily replaced... ▲ Collapse
| | | | | That really worries me! | May 10, 2011 |
Jabberwock wrote:
Tomas could be right if only the books required preservation... However, such a large part of my life is already digital...
Indeed. We are more and more and more digital as time goes by. Doesn't this make us more "deleteable" once we have died, and therefore a bit less important for the future generations?
If all or a big share of our memories are stored in the web or in electronic devices, won't we die twice in away as the storage media or cloud services get obsolete, cancelled, bankrupt, when control of the stuff passes to our children?
Keeping memories alive will take quite an effort on the part of the next generation, I think, while on paper you simply need a drawer or cupboard you can open with no need for devices other than your hands and eyes. Yes, of course fire, water, and time itself can damage printed items, and losing that precious picture of a loved one is always a big loss, but in a way losing the souvenir in an uncommon event will be part of the memory of the loved person, right? (Yes, I know that this sounds a bit odd; I am just thinking aloud!)
[Edited at 2011-05-10 14:23 GMT]
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