Survey about literature

[Shoggoth2588]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

- 24, Male, Caucasian, college drop-out with HSD, X years customer service & X years various retail EXP

Do you read published literature often?

- Semi-regularly (once every 2 to 5 weeks not counting sequential art)

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

- Not at all. I had a more dramatic change in my reading habits since I got out of school than since the rise of E-Reading

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

- Printed. I have never bought a digital book.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

- I don't feel like a digital book is worth it. When I exchange money for a product I want a the product to show for my money. Also I can read a book almost any time: There may be no back light but on the flipside, I don't have to wait for a device to charge.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

- Physical books can degrade, go dog-eared, etc.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
17
White Australian (Half Swedish)
Finishing distant education in a couple of years
1 week at a company that makes business cards and the like.

Do you read published literature often?
Try to every night in bed. Fall asleep more often than not though

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
Nope.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Printed

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
I stare at a computer screen all day long, don't need to do it more. Plus, books have more feeling than electronics.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
No


Thank you for your feedback, any replies are much appreciated!

Not a problem

 

[Eleuthera]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
34, male, white (Dutch), university, 4 years building design

Do you read published literature often?
Yes, 'always' (4-5 books a month)

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
Not at all, don't use e-books

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Printed 100%, never bought an e-book

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
Printed, more convenient, prettier, easier to use.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
Nope

 

[Scarim Coral]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

25, Male, British (ethnic background Chinese), High school and University and Sale assistant in a retail store.

Do you read published literature often?

Rarely

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

No

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed book

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Because I still like to read it from the page it was print on. The only device I can read an ebook is via the pc and sometime staring the pc screen for too long strain my eyes.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

N/A

 

[Amaria]

Thank you, everyone! You're all absolutely amazing; these sorts of answers are just what I need. You've brought up points I didn't think of (inability to trade books when using an e-reader)and that's... Absolutely wonderful.

I'd type out an entire essay on how much I love all of you for this, but I have to go to class in ten minutes. When I come back home, then I'll write out a proper thank you. There will be rejoicing. Then there will be frantic, frantic typing in order to organize all of this for class, broken up by quiet bouts of rejoicing when someone else posts a reply, to keep things interesting.

 

[viranimus]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Age: Profile says 106
Gen: Male
Eth: Common
Edu: Enroute to Bachelors
Wrk: 12 years communications, 3 years Logistics/EMS, 2 years Social work/Psychology

Do you read published literature often?

I try to avoid as much as possible, but perhaps a rough once a week average

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

I have been reading more things for pleasure

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Technically printed (thanks to school and etext books not yet being pervasive) For personal use, technically printed as well as Project Gutenberg is my friend.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Digital. Lots of reasons. The biggest of which is hyperphotosensitivity related to diabetes as well as medications for its treatment. Suffer inverted contrast. Whites are far too bright, and on written paper in even medium light the reflection of the white will typically bleed over black text font. Digital allows the inversion of contrast to compensate for that.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

I never could get comfortable with printed books. The crease is and has always been a problem. It either takes breaking a book binding, or constantly fidgeting with holding it in position never quite getting comfortable, and when you swap the page, you start all over again. Ive yet to have any sort of issue with electronic format

Good luck.

 

[AngloDoom]

Thank you for your feedback, any replies are much appreciated![/quote]

Age: 22
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: White British
Education: University graduate
Work experience: Retail, office-work, storage-work, healthcare assistant, hoping to study nursing.



Do you read published literature often?
With my slow night-shifts I often read for four/five hours a night.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
No, I have only read one non-academic book in an electronic format and it belonged to a relative.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Printed, never purchased an e-book.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
- Cost of buying a Kindle or similar device to read on-the-go
- Books feel sturdier than electronic devices
- I like to read in the bath, I wouldn't dare with an electronic device
- I like artistic book-covers
- I like having a large shelf of books as a collection

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Have not experienced problems in my limited experience with e-books, but I tend to damage and deface printed books over time and each little mark upsets me a little. I once got a bloody fingerprint on my favourite book and I felt physically ill.

(I love books D= )

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me for further detail if you need it, or I was sloppy.

 

[SckizoBoy]

*shrugs* OK... won't hurt... -_-

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Mid-twenties (hell, just look at my profile), male, BBC, post-grad, ten years in logistics.

Do you read published literature often?

All the damned time (always reading at least two books concurrently).

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Nope, not at all...

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Still by paper & binding books only...

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Can't 'break' a paper & binding book, I like perusing, sorting and flipping through my old(er) books. There's a certain comfort to their weight and they're just a helluva lot more endearing to me... -_-

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Yes, but only with second-hand ones, and they are as you'd expect (dogeared pages, pages missing etc.). E-books, takes a while to deal with .pdf publications but OK, otherwise.

Hope that helped... =_=

 

[SckizoBoy]

*shrugs* OK... won't hurt... -_-

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Mid-twenties (hell, just look at my profile), male, BBC, post-grad, ten years in logistics.

Do you read published literature often?

All the damned time (always reading at least two books concurrently).

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Nope, not at all...

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Still by paper & binding books only...

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Can't 'break' a paper & binding book, I like perusing, sorting and flipping through my old(er) books. There's a certain comfort to their weight and they're just a helluva lot more endearing to me... -_-

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Yes, but only with second-hand ones, and they are as you'd expect (dogeared pages, pages missing etc.). E-books, takes a while to deal with .pdf publications but OK, otherwise.

Hope that helped... =_=

 

[IndomitableSam]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Female, 29, Canadian (caucasian) Library Technician education, works at a Legislative Library for my province. Previously was a school librarian.

Do you read published literature often?

Yes. Not as often as I'd like, but the love of books comes with the job/education.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

I don't have my own ereader, but I have used audibooks and ebooks for a number of years now.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed, very much so.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I'm still a fan of printed, I like having a physical object to display. I know the typical medium will shift to mostly emedia in the next decade or two and I fully welcome it (less work for me in a lot of ways), but I will always personally try to have physical copies of books I enjoy. I will read ebooks too, though.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Other than the copyright and limited use laws surrouding the politics and business-end of ebooks used for library lending (which is not something a regular person needs to know about or understand), not really.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

19, Male, Caucasian, Currently first semester at Community College (completed high school), I currently pump gas but previously worked off the books at a hotel.

Do you read published literature often?

I read at least one book ever one or two days, so often.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Not at all.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

I most often buy printed books.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I prefer the fact that I will forever own the printed copy. I prefer the feeling of a physical copy on my hand. I enjoy the smell of books. And finally reading a printed book is easier on my eyes and brain.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

I have lost a couple of e-books to data corruption, or damage to the e-reader. E-books cause me considerable eye strain and headaches for some reason.

 

[Sonicron]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience.

25, male, Caucasian (German), Bachelor of Arts (still in university, working towards Master of Education); no work experience except paper route, stocking shelves at the grocery store, tutoring and several internships.

Do you read published literature often?

I do. Quite a bit of that is obviously due to reading requirements for university studies, but I'm always in the middle of some kind of novel as well, mostly sci-fi and fantasy; I especially enjoy the WH40K branch of Black Library Publishing. I'm also partial to a wide variety of comic books / graphic novels.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Not really. I recognize this new branch in the market along with its potential, and I have a few e-books stashed on my smartphone for convenience, but the collector in me prefers having neat rows of printed books on his shelves.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed books, definitely.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

- It's the way I've always read books. Something about the concept of a passive literary medium on a platform based around interactivity feels alien to me.
- There's a tactile dimension to reading I very much enjoy; e-books don't have the weight and feel of printed copies I'm used to.
- A printed book cannot run out of battery charge, and neither can its text become inaccessible because a few specks of data become corrupted due to age.

That said, I'm a pragmatist at heart, and the idea of one small, slim and light device holding hundreds of books appeals to me. What irks me the most is the fact that I have to pay double if I want both a printed and a digital copy of the same book; I'd have no problem with paying a Euro or two extra to get a redeemable code for a complementary e-book download along with my printed copy, but I'm not willing to pay full price again for a bit of code that costs publishers nothing to multiply if I've already shelled out for the 'real deal'.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

None that I can think of.

From one academic to another, I wish you the best of luck with your paper. Enjoy and excel.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Male, 28, former analyst.

Do you read published literature often?

It varies. My media consumption tends to run in patterns with games dominating parts of the year and movies/books the other parts.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Not really. I actually prefer browsing for books in a stores but an e-book lets me pick up something on a whim so it works about the same. Indeed, I often find myself browsing at a physical store for a book that is interesting and then later buying the e-book version.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Over the full course of time, I have purchased and read far more physical books. I still prefer them in many ways though my current Kindle is sufficient that I will willingly read any piece of fiction on it. When it comes to reference, I still prefer using the old technology.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I'd choose the printed book. A tactile interface is simply superior and the relative difficulty of cross referencing when it comes to non-fiction (or fiction though such things are rarely necessary) on an electronic device is problematic. Combine that with the fact you currently have to chose between visual comfort and color means for many types of book, the analog model is simply superior.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

None that I can recall. At least no problems of note. Pages tearing, spines breaking, smudges and stains and other marks of wear all all I can truly count as a problem with a physical book. Larger physical books are often annoying to hold for long periods leading to situations where reading the book had to be paired with very particular seating arrangements.

Beyond some technical limitations outlined above, I have not had any problems with e-books that I can recall.

 

[VladG]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

22, male, eastern-european, college student, basically none.

Do you read published literature often?

Yes, almost daily.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Yes, I pretty much only read e-books and have done so for several years. I also read a lot more on the go. Before handy digital formats I'd only read at home.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

100% digital.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Living outside the US, It's very hard to find the books I want in paper format. Especially if I'd rather read them in the original language (and I strive to always do so)

It's also much more convenient to always have a good portion of my library available in my pocket at all times.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Aside from minor compatibility issues with some e-books (I don't use a dedicated reader, I use my smartphone) not really.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

17, soon 18, male, Caucasian, student, no job yet.

Do you read published literature often?

Yes. If I don't have a book to read, I'm doing it wrong.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

No, I don't have a device to allow me to read on the move.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed only.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

You can get books in high quality, and good condition at second hand prices.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Nope.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Age: 30 / Male / Caucasian (Irish-American) / Undergrad College educated (working on post-grad)

Do you read published literature often?

Yes. Most recently "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

No.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Printed. 1. For easy of use. 2. E-Readers tend to strain my eyes. 3. Resellability.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Yeah, I purchased "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon a few years back, and the book itself was missing pages 180-232. There was no obvious crease or gap in the pages, it was clearly a production error. Also, my last volume of Edgar Allen Poe's collected works had a paragraphing error in the short story "The Masque of the Red Death," which is more or less my favorite short story of all time. I suppose had these been eBooks, those errors could have been corrected.

 

[blackrave]

age
24
gender
M
ethnicity
Lets call it complicated (mostly european)
education
Business and general management
work experience
IT (I know doesn't stick to my education)

Do you read published literature often?
Yes, regularly

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
I don't have e-reader, but I read books on my mobile phone

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Digital

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
Once again mobile phone is always in my pocket, why not to read something good when I'm on the buss or train

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
Finding books I'm interested in (some I can't find in physical form, other in digital, occasionally even can't find at all)

P.S.Hope it helps and good luck