QotW #164: Format

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Book formats: which do you use? Prefer? Avoid if possible? And why?

[Shel, Moderator]

Pretty evenly split between paper and ebook. I like the heft of a paper book, but it's hard to beat the convenience of an ebook (especially for travel). And I'm fine with most typical books, but sometimes a paperback will have teeny teeny print that is too small for my aging eyes to read, I like being able to increase the print size on an e-reader.

I tend to avoid audiobooks when it comes to fiction. I can read faster than a narrator can read to me, and I'm usually impatient to know what happens next. It's difficult to go back and find passages that I want to read over again. Plus sometimes I zone out and it's hard to flip back and find out where I was. I do like nonfiction on audio, especially if it's read by the author. I learn better through listening than through print.

[Kateblue]

I am reading ebooks because
1) small house and
2) don't need readers

I still have paper books around, though WAY fewer than in the past. The missing entries have, alas, gone to that Goodwill in the sky.

[Random]

I've talked about this a lot over the years.

My husband and I have been slowly but steadily decluttering our physical books for electronic (text and audio). We still have some print books, some things just work better that way, but we have been keeping that number down and plan on reducing it even more as time goes on. I just find as I get older that I want less physical stuff around me. I'm tired of taking care of it all.

As for preference between ebooks and digital audiobooks, that is really difficult to say. Audiobooks are so very handy in my busy life, but there is a cozy aspect of curling up with a book and a cup of tea that is also very appealing. :)

I don't know if I can really choose between the two. They each have their place.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I still own a lot of physical books, both paperbacks & hardcovers, & I enjoy reading them, but my hands sometimes fall asleep or get cramps holding the book.

I have gotten to like ebooks a lot. I like being able to highlight a word & instantly get a definition. And I don’t have to hold my iPad in my hands since the case has a built-in stand. Ebooks are great for traveling, although I have to be sure to keep my iPad charged if I’m going to read a lot in addition to tending to emails, Goodreads, social media, & the online games I play.

My least favorite format is audiobooks. I am much more of a visual person. I can only listen to audiobooks when I’m doing something like walking alone or driving alone (as long as it’s not at a busy time or in an unfamiliar place). I usually listen at 1.2 speed—helps me get through the book faster but I can still understand the narrator & get the impact of narrator’s skill in delivering the story. It takes me forever to get through a book since I only listen for about 1.5 hours a week unless I’m driving alone someplace relatively far away, which rarely happens.

[Dawn]

I like all formats. Usually over 50% of my reading is audiobooks. I listen when I drive, when I walk, when I cycle. I've worked my way up to listening at somewhere between x2 speed and x3 speed depending on the narrator. (Interestingly, if I listen to podcasts I have to go much slower, x1.5 - x1.7 speed.)
I seldom buy books anymore, so I get almost everything from the library (other than my audible subscription), and whether that is paper or ebook depends on availability. It is trending more paper lately, as there is often little to no wait to get them.
I used to have preferences, like, classics and non-fiction on audio. Genre fiction in paper. Ebook only if I had to. But now, any format is good with me.

[Ken]

I have gone all in on ebooks.
I buy books on sale and then decide if I still want to keep a physical copy. Some authors it is not a question
I still read physical books but find it uncomfortable

[Kateblue]

I forgot to say that I don't do audiobooks unless I am in the car. In other locations, I tend to fall asleep

[CJ]

I actually use audiobooks to get to sleep, but it's only audiobooks of books I've read. I start them, set the timer and lie down. I'm usually asleep in 15-20 minutes.

My cancer and treatment has resulted in some physical limitations that make physical books uncomfortable or difficult for me to read now. Plus I do not want to acquire any more things at this point in my life. I usually only read physical books, which are almost always library loans nowadays, when I can't get them in ebook or audiobook format, like via Libby.

I would say close to 90% of my reading is in digital format now, either ebooks, audiobooks or both together (my preferred method when possible).

I have learned that listening to an audiobook attentively is a skill like any other, and in my early stages of my cancer treatment right after my dx, I had a lot of time lying in beds, at home and in the hospital, to practice that skill. So now I am very comfortable with it. But at home now I like to have something to do with my hands, since I'm not so sick now that I need to lying down as much. If I do not have the ebook to read along with it, I often play a video game that doesn't require a lot of mental attention from me, or some other repetitive task like folding laundry or cleaning a room. Most of the time I listen at 1.2-1.7 speed, which is usually slower than my eye reading speed, but I will only go faster if the narrator is very slow or I'm doing the audiobook equivalent of skimming. My slow year-long reads of classics I will read along with the book at regular speed since the daily reading is just one chapter, so I see no need to rush.

I really like ebooks despite their glaring drawbacks--like with audiobooks, you can't loan them easily or donate them, as you don't really own them in the same sense, and also Amazon sucks (change the cover of my copy of All Systems Red, that I bought in 2018, back to the original artwork instead of that Apple TV ad, you bastards)--and have been on board with ebooks since buying a 1st gen Kindle. They, with audiobooks, make reading for me with my cancer accessible, so I am very grateful for that. I love being able to adjust font size with my eyesight problems, the easy word search, easy quoting to posting on social media, and more.