At the end of 2009, I got my first electronic reader – a SONY eReader.
It was around Christmas time, still two months before Steve Jobs released the first generation of iPad. I had just quit my job and was taking a lovely short break, getting ready to return to the university.
At first I was pretty excited with an electronic reader, because I am a downright bookworm. There is always a book in my bag every time I go out. Even on a day when I know very well I will not have the time to read, I will still pop the book in. It just feels better to have a book near me. I can always steal a couple of minutes in case, say, my date is running a bit late, who knows? Because of this habit, my bag is always full and heavy. And if I happen to be reading a brick-like hardcover, the weight on my right shoulder can feel like a self-inflicted, day-long punishment. Now I could put hundreds of books in just one thin device, in terms of saving my back and shoulder, isn't an e-reader a godsend?
Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the SONY eReader did not last long.
The ebook price was one of the reasons. Back in 2009, the standard price for an ebook was almost the same as a traditional, beautifully printed book. I believe, to many book lovers (and I am one of them), reading is not just about digesting the content, it is also about the design of the cover, the feel of the book paper – that slightly roughened surface resting on your fingertips, the unspoken, quiet beauty of ink printed text, that vague yet particular scent of paper while you flip through the pages...... all these "interactions" between a book and a reader play a very important part of the joy of reading. By comparison, using an e-reader somehow feels like reducing the act of reading to mere "content" ingestion. I don't mean "content" does not worth the money, however, it just doesn't feel right if an electronic version of a novel is priced exactly the same as its paper "original". On top of this, 2009 was still quite an early day for the whole ebook market, the e-reader interface was far from intuitive. There were still not so many ebooks around. Looking for ebooks in other non-European languages (e.g Chinese) proved to be a tough job itself. Eventually, I ended up selling my SONY eReader only after one year of use.
Then 2011 arrived, and so did the era of tablet. I started to use my iPad mini for reading ebooks. However, iPad's brilliant screen with retina display is hardly designed for comfortable reading. And even it is the smaller version of a standard iPad, it still weighs almost half a kilo. After holding it for some time, my wrist starts to feel sore. A few years passed. During this time I lived in a place where eReader is not popular (or, reading itself is not popular), and I overslept the whole development of ebook readers such as Kindle and Kobo. Only this year when I came back I noticed ebook reader not only has not lost its battle with tablets, it has also gone through quite some nice innovations. I was showcased a Kindle in 2 separate occasions, by 2 different friends. Naturally, my book addict's bug started to work. It took less than one week for me to do the shopping research before I decided on which model to buy – a Kindle Voyage.
Unboxing
Ordered on Amazon. 3 days later it went through my letter box.
Inside we have the Kindle reader, a USB charging cable, plus a tiny user manual.
Kindle Voyage is lighter and thinner than its previous generation Kindle Paperwhite. It is only 6.4" (H) by 4.5" (W), weighing a mere 180 grams (the Wifi + 3G version weighs 188 grams). It is also considerably smaller than an iPad mini. As mentioned above, I love carrying books around but am not blessed with a strong shoulder, to me, the smaller and more lightweight it is, the better.
Next is to pop it in a lovely sleeve. I found this one also on Amazon, not expensive. It works like an iPad case. When you close it the Kindle will be put to sleep mode, then wakes up when you open it again. This way you almost do not need to use the power button at the back of the device at all.
A closer look.
Power button is at the back. The body is of matt black finishing, with a nice piano high gloss touch only on the Amazon logo and the top panel. I have not used previous Kindle models, but some online comments say that Kindle Voyage has a more premium look and feel then its predecessors. Kindle Voyage almost doubles the price for a Paperwhite so I guess this "extra touch" on the finishing is a "must-deliver". Aside from the PagePress, auto adaptive light, software-wise there aren't many upgrades between previous model and the Voyage. This is why some people suggest that if you already have a Paperwhite, there is no instant necessity to upgrade.
After I put the sleeve on, the total weight became 270 grams. An ordinary paperback of 250 pages weighs approximately 215 grams. My iPad mini with sleeve on weighs 443 grams. I have been carrying the Kindle Voyage around for 2 weeks already and do not find it heavy. Of course it can always be lighter. Or, I just need to find myself an even lighter sleeve.
Reading Experience
Kindle eReader uses e-ink technology. Different from the colourful, multi-tasking LCD screens used in tablets such as iPad, Galaxy Tab, e-ink screen is noticeably slower when you want to turn a page, look up a word in the dictionary, highlight a couple of sentences or take notes. And that flash of black every time when a page is turned could be annoying. Admittedly for someone who is used to the smooth transition of an iPad screen, this does take a bit of time to get used to. Not to mention there is no way (so far) e-ink technology could, like in the iBook app, use animation to recreate the visual effect of real page turning. On the other hand, e-ink consume much less battery. It is glare free, has no or very limited reflection under the sun. It automatically adjusts screen brightness according to your environment (only in Kindle Voyage) and I found this function very convenient. The page is of white-grayish colour, close to "paper white", which provides a good contrast to the sharp black text without being too invasive and causing eye strain.
And I love Kindle's new font Bookerly. Typography has long been a big issue in e-reader. But Bookerly, plus a way smarter hyphenation/justification engine, has greatly improved the reading experience. It may be hard to see in the photographs below, the font is very comfortable to look and and read on.
On top of all these, Kindle has obviously been trying very hard to reproduce what we can get from reading a traditional paper book, sometimes, in between the lines, you can vaguely see the text "printed" on the next page, this is of course fake, but I quite like it. It really gives out a faux text-printed-on-paper look. Overall, I think reading from a Kindle eReader is more comfortable then from a tablet (such as iPad), especially for long reading.
In terms of touch and feel, because the Kindle is so small and light, it is not a burden to carry around. It feels fairly comfortable in my hands too. The haptic PagePress buttons felt a bit funny when I first used them. I had to press really hard before they react. But then I went to the settings and changed its sensitivity to maximum and they respond a lot better now. PagePress allows us to read and flip pages with one hand only, for instance, when we are commuting in a packed train. I would prefer traditional, actual buttons but this is still a nice feature to have. If you don't like it, you can always swipe left and right on the screen to flip pages, just as you would do with an iPad.
Availability of ebooks
Before I gave up the SONY eReader for the price and the availability of ebooks. These do not seem to be issues anymore. If I go to Amazon, I could find an electronic copy of almost all the paper books. And the pricing is more approachable too. If a paperback is sold for £ 7.99, its electronic counterpart may cost around £ 4.99, some even as low as £ 0.99. Not to mention there is a reservoir of free classics. However, to acquire books in other languages still pose a difficulty. When I was buying ebooks from Apple, I experienced a huge problem with downloading books from my UK account and Japanese account. iBook literally locks me out for 90 days when I switch store. I still need to test this but I expect similar issues with buying and downloading ebooks from UK and then from Japan. Some say this is due to the copyright issue of electronic publications. But at the end of they day, I bought them, didn't I? If I like, I could have paper books in a thousand languages piling on my bookshelves, all at the same time, but I cannot do the same with electronic books......
As for Chinese books, unfortunately the ebook market did not seem to have taken off very well. There is no Amazon in Taiwan. There is Amazon in China but books will be in simplified Chinese. Nevertheless, the number of electronic publications is still way behind paper one.
This maybe my reading pattern from now on: English (use Kindle), Japanese (use iPad) and Chinese (stay with paper).
Battery life
According to the Amazon website, if you do not connect to Wifi, keep the screen's brightness at 10 and read only half an hour a day, the Kindle Voyage battery can last up to 6 weeks (but who will read books according to such strict regime???). After using it for 2 weeks, completely ignoring whether Kindle was connected to Wifi or not, letting it adjust the screen brightness as it felt suitable, and reading for at least 2 to 3 hours a day, within half a week the battery drained by 50%. So, if you are a serious reader, I guess you will need to charge your Voyage once a week, which is acceptable to me. However, if I go for a one-week trip, I think I would not dare leaving my USB charging cable behind.
Conclusion
I think, to me and to a lot of people who love books, ebooks could never be comparable to the paper book. Because reading is not just about swallowing the content, reading is about "experience" as well. We do not just receive the messages with our eyes. We also "feel" the books with our five senses. To me, the feeling of finishing an ebook is very different from finishing reading a paper book. I cannot "close" it, then softly stroke its cover one more time while I quietly run a small summing up of what I have just read in my head, then slowly "put the book down"...... this ritual, to me, is almost sacred.
Also, with real books, you can line them up on your own shelf, one after another, all according to your favourite order, and slowly they make up a colourful, beautiful wall for your home...... a religious altar for any severe bookworm!
I always feel something is missing after finishing reading an ebook...... maybe that is the reason.
Nevertheless, to me, ebook still has a great advantage – its portability. With such a tiny piece, I could store thousands of books inside. I love buying books but I also love moving around. Problem is I do not just move from one street to another. I also move from one country to another. So every time when I need to pack, those dozens of boxes of books really give me a headache. There are those books I truly love and will bring along with me no matter where I go. But there are also those books that are good as a one-off. I enjoy reading them. But I will not revisit them or I do not have space to keep all of them. And the process of recycling them have not been easy. I have been rejected by friends, libraries and second hand book stores. For these types of books, I would prefer to stay electronic.
Although there is no way ebook could be better than real paper book (at least to me), in the past few years e-reader really has improved a lot. Kindle Voyage is actually very comfortable to read with. The newly designed font Bookerly is smooth and elegant to guide your eyes. Sometimes, if you are unfortunate enough to run into a poorly typeset paper books, reading ebooks may prove to be less frustrating.
There has probably been enough debate between paper book and ebooks. Everyone has his or her own pick. To me, rather than one is definitely better than the other, they are probably complimentary. Both have their pros and cons. When to read what books with which medium, it's all down to the end readers to choose.