Charlie Stross has yet more interesting things to say about E-Books. I’m very interested in Mr Stross at the moment having really, really enjoyed The Atrocity Archives, and he had already managed to win me aroind from my very negative stance on E-Books with his earlier article on the subject.
I bought my first E-Book last month, or rather my first e-magazine. The american SF digests are difficult to find in the UK, so I read my forst copy of Asimov’s in electronic format (it hasn’t won me over to getting a subscription). E-Books still don’t work with my reading pattern however, a laptop is just too much effort to take to bed with me. It also just isn’t relaxing in the way a book is. Computer screens flicker at 60mhz of some such, imperceptible perhaps but I think it impacts on the subconscious entirely differently from the static calmness of a printed page. However, I can see myself buying more E-Books of stock i can’t easily get in the UK. Of course I could go on Amazon, but these are often impulse purchases and no one wants to wait three days for an impulse purchase to arrive. The immidiacy of E-Books may be the quality that gains them an audience.
