Choose one section of questions and answer them extensively in one text.
c) Have you ever read a novel or story online, or an e-book? Do you think that this is going to be the future of reading?
My intention for choosing this topic is that I am interested in technical things in general, but especially in computers. To me it seems very interesting to catch a glimpse of the future and to have an outlook into the future. On the other hand I have already read some e-books and know something about them.
At first I want to give some information on e-books in general and the development of the e-book.
An e-book is a book in digital form. Concerning the content e-books are similar to real books - for example the directory and the pagination. But the advantage of digital media is for example the possibility of searching for specific words. The first e-book was published in 1993 - it was the manual of a computer game and in PDF-format. In 1999 to 2000 the first tries of real commercialization started. Nowadays especially professional literature is published in the digital form; there are approximately 1000 titles available.
As I already said above, I have read some e-books in the past and it was quite a nice experience. I read these e-books because on the one hand they were only available on the internet and not in printed form and on the other hand they were for free. If I would have read these texts in a book, I would have been forced to buy them for much money. Because of the fact that these stories were not published because it is a really specific topic that should not be publicized I had to read the e-book and did not regret it until today, because they were very interesting books to read. Certainly it would have been easier to have a printed book, to have the possibility to read it in the evening before I go to sleep, but it was not very uncomfortable to sit in front of the computer either with something to eat besides me and read the interesting book. When I got tired, I set a bookmark and was able to continue reading where I had stopped the day before. Usually if I read a book, I am too lazy to take a bookmark and I also think that I am smart enough to remember where I stopped. But often this is not the case and the next day I have to search for the right page a long time until I find it. Asking me, this is really annoying and a minus for a printed book. I would read an e-book again at any time, if I was not able to purchase it cheaply in the printed form. In the first instance it is important for pupils to have access to a large amount of information without paying a lot of money. Since e-books are for free they are a great opportunity for students to save money, but still get a lot of information. The only negative aspect I found was that it can be a little bit more exhausting to read a long text with hundreds of pages on the computer. Nevertheless it is possible to do something else while reading the e-book. You can for example visit a forum, listen to music and chat with other people while you are sitting in front of the computer and reading a book. If you are not able to do several things at the same time you can as well shut all other programs and disturbing things down so that you can read calmly. For me it is normal to cope with many tasks at the same time, but some friends of mine and relatives sometimes wonder how this is possible. They say that I will go insane, if I keep on doing it. But they also have to admit that it is really amazing that I am very good at things which have to do with the computer. That could be the reason why I am really interested in reading e-books, whereas my relatives and other people are not willing to read an e-book. Asking me they are not really adept at things that have to do with the computer. Because of this they are scared to encounter new things they do not know. For me an e-book is a reasonable invention with good perspectives but still some decisive objections. Nevertheless the printed book has some disadvantages, too. In my opinion e-books are just one out of many examples for digitalisation. Other examples are music on CD’s, movies on DVD or catalogues on the internet. It is a corollary to publish texts and other things in the digital media. But the DVD or CD do not have any disadvantages, the e-book unfortunately has. Usually it is uncomfortable to sit in front of the computer and read a book. Normally you prefer to lie on the bed or sit on a couch while reading a book and enjoy the warm and cuddle feeling. With a notebook it is possible to do that, too, but it is still tiring for the eyes. They have to cope with glaring light and the noise of the ventilators could disturb the nice silence. You always have to scroll down in order to get to the next page and you cannot lie down. But in case you have to wear glasses you can as well enlarge the script. Furthermore you are able to search for text passages in particular without having to search through the whole book. Another positive aspect is that nowadays e-books are often for free. But you cannot take a notebook to the doctor and read it in the waiting room. Furthermore it is not possible to equip every student with a notebook to be able to read school lecture.
Asking me printed books still have some advantages today, but Handhelds being smaller and more portable devices than laptops are a step into the right direction. In a few years it could be reality that nearly every person is reading e-books. How wonderful would it be to share the texts with other users of e-book-devices and get a new virtual book for free. It would be possible, if the digital rights management allowed it. But this is another disadvantage - other people could define which books you are allowed to read and which are not. This could be a high risk for your personal freedom. But the e-book could be the future of reading, because it will be more necessary to save paper and valuable forests in future.
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