img48m.jpgLets’ take a look at one benefit ebooks have that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. Weight!

I have been trying to read Stephen Wolfram’s “A New Kind of Science” for quite a while. I’ve never been able to get through it. Why? The book weighs 5 pounds 7 ounces and is 2 1/2 inches thick. There is simply no way that you can comfortably hold a book like this – it’s just too thick and heavy. Wouldn’t an ebook version be wonderful! I wonder how may copies of this book go unread simply because of its size and weight?

Let’s look at some other unwieldy books.

Peter Jennings “The Century” – 5 pounds 13 ounces
Neal Stephenson “The Confusion” – 3 pounds 1 ounce
Neal Stephenson “Quicksilver” – 3 pounds 5 ounces
Will Durant “Our Oriental Heritage” – 3 pounds 12 ounces
Peter F. Hamilton “The Naked God” – 3 pounds

It is an unpleasant experience to read books like these. I wonder how many handicapped people have been denied the pleasure of reading Neal Stephenson’s books simply because they can’t hold them.

I don’t believe in DRMed ebooks, but I have acutally spent the $$ to buy all of Stephenson’s books in ebook format, simply because they are so much easier to read without having to deal with all that weight. I did the same with Hamilton’s Neutronium Alchemist series.

Ebooks are about more than just portability, they are about ergonomics as well.

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5 COMMENTS

  2. I have the single volume Compact Oxford English Dictionary (OED) that uses a micro-miniaturized type to provide a “direct photoreduction of the entire 20-volume set” of the OED. The type is so small that a magnifying glass is mandatory and it is included with the volume. The OED reference is a magnificent accomplishment but using the compact paper version is preposterously cumbersome in the electronic age. It is heavy and unwieldy, and it requires careful concentration and rather acute vision despite the magnifying glass. Years ago I used the OED regularly. But that was before the internet was supplied with several freely accessible dictionaries and other reference works. Now I use the OED infrequently.

    The OED is available online. Shockingly it costs $295 per year. The OED was built using volunteer labor extensively, and now it is behind a subscription wall that is remarkably high for such a central and beloved tool of the English language.

  3. >>>Lets’ take a look at one benefit ebooks have that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. Weight!

    WTF?!!? I mean, SERIOUSLY, wtf?!!?

    >>>I just know, lugging around two printed books, one of which is the fekkin latest William Gibson which is big and heavy, it’d be a great alternative for me.

    http://newteleread.com/wordpress/blog/?p=7191

    >>>As for the critics yearning for paper: Until I saw the Sony Reader, I was like that too. In Part 3 I recounted my experiences with ebooks. I still read books primarily on paper — but, in the past ten years or so, it’s become very rare for the me to actually buy a paper book — specifically for the very reasons stated by the pro-paper critics: bulk and weight.

    >>>I don’t know about anybody else — especially the critics — but from time to time, I’ve had to move house. Packing books is not fun. Having to carry boxed books is just hell. Unpacking is fun, but it’s a joy I’ll sacrifice!

    http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/sony-reader-part-4-of-4/

    >>>This is a two-inch thick book that also weighs a ton. I just couldn’t keep lugging it around.

    http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/09/23/reading-september-23-2007/

    If you haven’t seen it, it’s because you haven’t looked! Not even here!

  5. Amusingly, from the NKS Online FAQ:
    “We are considering a future e-book version of NKS, but it is difficult to achieve adequate quality levels. The printed book, of course, provides full offline access, and this is the solution we recommend.”

    –John N.

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