How would you buy the reprints?

[anijen21]

I know right

And it can't multitask, doesn't have a camera, and won't run anything with flash. It's like a big awkward iPhone with slightly more memory.

[itw2009]

@anijen- absolutely. ease of use will be, i believe, an even bigger factor than price.

it's kinda... like itunes. sort of. as long as the platform for book purchase and download is simple- i mean, how many 10-year-olds can purchase itunes?- no problem there. it is, as i briefly mentioned earlier, the "hassle" factor that the borderline buy/don't buy people are riding on. ^^ so we're on the same page, i think.

@goom- DITTO. what sort of freakish transition-vista-esque technology IS this? the reason i question its utility is centered around my experience with the ipod nano i bought last week- already, it has orientation recognition issues.   and my sister's touch screen phone has more bugs surrounding touchscreen related issues than anything else. i anticipate epic fail on the order of "blue screen of doom" from apple this time.

[Terenia]

I'm a huge supporter of technological advances, especially in regards to the digital age. I think that a switch to ebooks is inevitable and people will, eventually, just have to accept it. Many people felt the same way about owning vinyl as people do about owning a book. They wanted to actually be able to hold it, smell it, own it. I can certainly sympathize...nothin g compares to spending hours perusing the shelves of a bookstore or curled up with your tattered favorites. I don't think that we will ever completely lose print books.

However (there's always a however, eh?).

It is a known and widely accepted fact that we live in an age where people want information now. They want it cheap (or free) and they want as much of it as possible. They want interactivity, and they want to control the experience. I think that in this vein digital books are inevitable. Kindles, Nooks and eReaders are already widely used and as the technology is improved will continue to be popular. Almost all smartphones have the ability to download ebooks as well. From a purely economical standpoint, the place to invest is in digital books, not print books. It will take awhile to make the switch, but it is going to happen.

Case in point, the school that I teach at was talking about using our stimulus money to buy a class set of Kindles instead of books. Why not, when you get all of the classics for free and many books at discounted prices?

I think the pricing system needs work, and the devices themselves need to be improved upon, but eventually it will happen. It's just a matter of who is going to be on board and who is going to sit back and whine about it. Personally, I find my eReader hugely useful. I tend to travel a lot, and I always hated having to pack four, five, six books in my carry-on. Now, I need only pack one. Of course, I also make it a point to own a hard copy of every book I buy a digital copy of....so there you go.

[itw2009]

@terenia- true, that. like BIM (my personal peeve, haha). but until the technology improves, i'm not buying it for myself. sure, encourage the public sector to invest, but i want them to deal with buggy ebooks- not me. xD

i'm waiting for direct downloads to my brain.

yes, matrix-style.

[anijen21]

I don't know. "People whining about it" has definitely killed some other technological advancements--betamax, HD DVDs. I honestly think that eReaders themselves are going to fail, but some synthesized technology along the lines of the iPad but better is going to finally convince everyone. And to be frank, from an economic standpoint right now, they're not successful. Unless you're a compulsive reader, it's not cheaper to spend $250 on a Kindle so you can buy the cheaper ebooks. And not only that, but not all publishers are on board! A publisher would much rather have you spend $20 on a hardcover they printed for $5 than $9.99 for an ebook that had no printing cost. Case in point--Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games, is not available on the Kindle yet. Add to that all the drama with...MacMillan, I think it is, pulling all of its books off the Kindle and selling them to the iBookstore (or whatever dumb name Apple calls it) for less restrictive pricing guidelines?

My point is, I think that publishers still WANT us to buy books, not ebooks. On an industry scale, the fate of eReaders is uncertain.

[Ss112]

i much prefer actual books to e-books.
you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop )

I completely agree. I'd buy them in physical form, no doubt.

[morfowt]

so what? I'm the only one who prefers an ebook to physical book?

[Dameg]

Well, I think I have to answer too.
As a pirate, I don't like to pay, of course, but I do when I really like. Of course I like to pay for something special, not something I can have for free. For example, music is the same if you download it or buy it. So if I pay for music, it's because I want to reward the artists. Now, I know that, on a price of an album, only a very little part actually goes to the artist and it makes me sick. For the movies, it's different. I'll buy my favorite movies in DVD because I want the various languages, the subtitles (even if fansubs are sometimes better >_<), the bonus, a good video with a good sound etc. Buy for downloading them?! Are you crazy?! What for?! lol
About books/ebooks now: As Richard, Goom, SS and so many other people, I prefer actual books. My eyes are sick, I can't look at a screen too long, I need glasses to read and concentrate... well, I wear them when I'm on the computer or playing video games, and during exams only. And I stay so long in front of my computer, it isn't really good for my eyes, maybe I'll be blind later lol. So reading ebooks (so concentrate AND looking a screen) isn't good at all for me. Anyway, I read all the Twilight books like that. So I can do it sometimes, but it isn't my favorite way to read. And same: I can't take my laptop in my bed (some of my friends do ). Another thing that wouldn't make me buy ebooks: as for music, a pirated ebook is the same as a paid ebook. So why I would pay for it?! I would pay the actual book!
But I also am in favor of ebooks for some reasons: When the price for Kindle book will be low enough to let us buy one, I probably will. When I was in Japan, I had to ask my parents to send me books, and I returned them after I read them... How much money for sending so many books! So I also read ebooks, 'coz it didn't cost anything to send them or receive them. And in holidays, when you travel a lot, and also read a lot, you can have all your ebooks with you, in your laptop or your Kindle book. That's really great! Something else: I said I've read the ebooks of Twilight. I did because my real books were in France (and I was in Japan), but also because I bought them in English (less expensive than if I bought them in French/France O_o even with the shippings, it was way less expensive!) and wanted to read them in French at first. So here another reason: You can buy the book in a language and have as ebook the other language, not paying twice for the same book. I also like that with the Animorphs and Everworld ebooks, 'coz I have most of them in French and sometimes the translation isn't perfect, they even delete full passage (or volumes, or characters >_<) and I wanted to have them in the original version. That's why I'm so into the Ebook RAFproject! (PS: We still need help to finish the Everworld ebooks; and I won't give up >_<)

That was the (long) story of a French .
[spoiler]Die, Sarkozy, Hadopi &Co! Die! 
(Excuse my French )[/spoiler]

[Terenia]

Dameg, one of the advantages to the ebook readers such as Kindle is that they use what is called 'liquid paper', which simulates the visual effect of reading from a page on a book. It is way less harsh on the eyes than reading from a laptop screen. My eyes are sensitive as well, from so many years on the computer and extreme nearsightedness, but I have no problem reading my eReader for hours. My ipod, however, gives me a headache.

AniJen, I think you're right that people are whining, but I don't think it'll hurt the industry as much. The convenience really overrides everything else. I mean, I know people who carry their kindle to class instead of their textbooks. Can you imagine going through college without having to lug a single textbook around? I still have nightmares about 20-block walks with five huge books.

I do agree that the readers need a LOT of work. Mine is an older edition and it's slow, doesn't have wireless and really has limited capabilities. I want an e-reader that can donwload immediately, have color if I choose, and ESPECIALLY allow me to highlight and annotate.

That said, I really do like the project that Michael Grant and his son, Jake, are working on (if you haven't seen it, go here. You get a preview of LIES!). I like the idea of readers getting a lot of 'behind the scenes' information as they read. I think it will make the entire experience more interactive. Additionally, we live in a time where sadly many young readers do not have the ability to visualize what they read (it's a constant problem in the school systems), and by using video/music/background information it will certainly help those struggling readers get a more accurate visualization of setting/characters/etc.

Ebooks have a long way to go, but I think they're here to stay.

[Dameg]

I took a look of Michael Grant's Frebook. And it's really cool! When I said bonus for DVDs, so what they're making could be the bonus for bought Ebooks! It's a very good idea ^^ If you can have in Ebooks something you won't have in a actual book or in pirated ebooks, so people will buy them ^^

Oh, and I didn't know about Kindle's screen. It's cool ^^ Still, I don't have the money to buy one yet, but later... later...

[Kyle]

I honestly don't plan to buy the reprints. I do admit I never finished reading the series (I lost my place around number 37, and never picked it back up) but since there are free ebooks online already I think I'll use that to try and finish the series.

But if animorphs 2.0 happens, I might go the ebook route. I don't mind at all reading from my laptop. Sure I'd prefer to have something like the ipad, but I don't do enough reading to make buying something like that worth it. Ive literally never read books, only art books, which isn't really the same.

I know this might sound weird, but I don't really like the feel of paper. I find turning pages to be a bit of an annoyance more than anything. I'd rather just hit a button or something.

There is something to be said about actual books though, and if I hadnt already sold many of my animorphs books, I'd jump on getting the ones I haven't bought already in book form, just to complete my collection. But thats just not going to happen at this point, so e-books for me.
Though if there were a new special book like the andalite chronicles though in hard cover I'd probably buy that.

But as I mentioned, I don't plan to buy any of the re released books, I don't see the point. I don't re read anything, reading isn't something I enjoy, which I guess is a testament to how much I liked animorphs. They were good enough to get a non reader like me to get sucked in.

[Serraph105]

You have a pointabout the bookcase. That's kind of a symbol of who you are. Someone can come to your house and look at what books interest you. I used to have a special shelf for al my Animorph books.

lol I have a box for mine. Have you seen the new graphical interface for e-books on the Ipad though? When you look at your list of books it has a shelf (Like the ones you see at stores) showing miniature versions of all your books on it.
 
I really want somebody to copy that program and make a freeware version of it so I don't have to have an Ipad for it.

[Mr. Guy36]

There is nothing like sitting in an armchair, cracking open a book, and settling in for a read.

There is also nothing like carrying several thousand books wherever you go.

With the Kindle, eyestrain is a non-issue. And with companies like PixelQi coming out, you don't have to choose between full-color, backlit, fast responding lcd, and easy on the eyes, battery-saving e-ink.
I love ebooks for their price and convenience, and seeing as I'm a little short on cash right now, ebooks sound very nice.

But don't go just ebooks, physical books are still awesome for other things. Plus, a box set of ebooks looks dumb.

[Serraph105]

Dameg, one of the advantages to the ebook readers such as Kindle is that they use what is called 'liquid paper', which simulates the visual effect of reading from a page on a book. It is way less harsh on the eyes than reading from a laptop screen. My eyes are sensitive as well, from so many years on the computer and extreme nearsightedness, but I have no problem reading my eReader for hours. My ipod, however, gives me a headache.

AniJen, I think you're right that people are whining, but I don't think it'll hurt the industry as much. The convenience really overrides everything else. I mean, I know people who carry their kindle to class instead of their textbooks. Can you imagine going through college without having to lug a single textbook around? I still have nightmares about 20-block walks with five huge books.

I do agree that the readers need a LOT of work. Mine is an older edition and it's slow, doesn't have wireless and really has limited capabilities. I want an e-reader that can donwload immediately, have color if I choose, and ESPECIALLY allow me to highlight and annotate.

That said, I really do like the project that Michael Grant and his son, Jake, are working on (if you haven't seen it, go here. You get a preview of LIES!). I like the idea of readers getting a lot of 'behind the scenes' information as they read. I think it will make the entire experience more interactive. Additionally, we live in a time where sadly many young readers do not have the ability to visualize what they read (it's a constant problem in the school systems), and by using video/music/background information it will certainly help those struggling readers get a more accurate visualization of setting/characters/etc.

Ebooks have a long way to go, but I think they're here to stay.

I always get my textbooks as e-books if at all possible. only having to carry around my laptop, and using the Ctrl+f combo for searching through it makes my work much easier.

[powertrash]

No one's said this yet:

I would buy the Animorph reprints in book form if there was no updating.

I would NOT buy the ebook reprints if there was no updating. What would the point be? I'd like new copies, covers etc. even if it was the same story but there'd be no point in me spending cash on the ebook if I wasn't getting anything new.



2.99 seems priced right.