Worrying about the environmental impact of books is misguided. You use far more paper products in the course of your everyday life: paper bags, cardboard packaging, paper towels, etc. etc. Even for an avid reader, the impact is negligible.

With paper books I'm more concerned with having to have space to put it when I'm done. But, I find it more enjoyable to read a physical book, and am more likely to re-read it.

Another nice thing about paper books is that you can lend them out to your friends when you're finished reading them. This saves a bit of space, plus your friends can just pick them up and read them without worrying about a bunch of BS like whether it's compatible with their e-reader, if the DRM will work, if the publisher will revoke the rights for some reason, etc.

Or give them away, or leave them in a little free library for someone else to enjoy. In my old neighborhood somebody else had similar taste in scifi and (as far as I could tell) we traded Asimov books back and forth through the book box in the park!

I'd love to keep them all forever but (a) I think my house is about maxed out on shelves and (b) a book's potential is wasted on the shelf.

Get the ebook for archival purpose and ditch the paper book when you’re done with your first read through.

If you later find out you want the paper book as home ornament, then spend a little extra to decorate your home.

The two major mistakes we make about books is:

1) we think we have to finish it. No, drop it if it’s boring.

2) we think we have to keep it around. No. Take a picture and write a few notes for your personal blog if you need to keep track. You don’t need it in your room or house.

If I cannot/need not re-read a book, I could get rid of it and have more space. Tho the gain feel very tiny compared to the rest of the hoarded stuff.

Sell them 2nd hand. I mainly buy 2nd hand and sell 2nd hand.

That has always been a pain point for me. I read a lot, so having physical copies can turn into a storage problem, especially since I keep a good backlog of books. I may not need a new book now, but I found one at the store that looks really good, so I buy it, place it on the shelf and it enters the queue. Although I did get myself used to using a kindle. Especially when I was in the Navy and needed enough to read for a 7 month deployment.

My current strategy is this. If its a book I know that will have re-read value that I really enjoy. I get a physical copy (such as LOTR). If its an interesting book that I want to read, but I don't see it as having high re-read value, I buy it on my kindle. May not be logical, but its a system that works for me so far.

This is not good news. I just got my first eInk reader today and first thing I did was go through all the navigation setup pages.

I have one professional development book and was going find a work of fiction to start. Hope it works out.

FWIW - This (GP post) is not my experience with eReaders. Not sure if they have the eInk one or not (like the Fire or tablet ones), but I have the eInk sort.

Anyway, I really like it because it's far lighter weight than a paperback, easier to hold, and I can have like the entire library on there and take it with me. I don't experience the distraction that they are referring to, because there's really not anything else to do except read my book. How much time can I spend on settings? Browsing my library? As far as brightness I leave it alone mostly and don't think about it unless it's irritatingly one way or the other.

I have no idea what "navigation setup pages" are - I've been through several different Kindles and I pretty much just take them out of the box and start reading. There's nothing to "set up" outside of logging into my Amazon account.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Also, while I know the readership of HN skews young, but when you reach your 50s, having the ability to make the text larger in an ebook is a killer feature.

Yeah my vision is still good but farsighted so need low-strength reading glasses, larger fonts, or what I've started doing with this eReader is just getting good at reading fuzzy letters with a relaxed gaze at less than arms length. It's actually less straining than trying to force focusing closer than is comfortable.

I tried using landscape mode or larger fonts but didn't like the extra page scrolling/turning. Eventually I suppose we'll get lightweight and normal looking AR glasses for reading eBooks.

Thanks (everyone) for the replies and different viewpoints.

I already went through all the setup menus, including messing with fonts, layouts, making some collection/folders, and downloading some samples to preview.

So far it all seems pretty good. I don't think I'll be too distracted by it. The 7" screen is a tad small, but I really do like the size and weight so will keep it. Anything larger/heavier will likely not be kept on my person so loses a lot of use.

Another great use I just discovered is loading it with pdf's of all my device/appliance/toys manuals in a User Manuals collection.

Chiming in with the others to say that my experience with e-readers has been great. Physical books can grow to be a huge burden over the years.

For me personally, e-readers have not caused any loss of focus. In fact, the integrated dictionaries often keep me MORE focused than the interruption represented by pulling out a dictionary or googling a word.

I'll acknowledge there is a tactile joy to physical paper that is lost when using an e-reader, but for me it's well worth the trade-off for the the portability and space saved.

Also consider that often, people who are expressing skepticism of digital reading have only ever tried it on laptops and iPads, which is a very different (more distracting) experience from an e-ink reader.

Another massive advantage to using Kindle estead of iPad - enourmous battery life. My like 6-8 year old Kindle survives what feels like a month without recharge with active use. This enables you to just drop it in your backpack and be sure that it works the next time you feel like reading.

A lot of the posts here are just individuals' opinions, not universal experiences. Yours may well be different!

Personally, I carry an e-ink reader everywhere and read it every time I get a spare minute or so. It's done wonders for my reading habits. And unlike this topic's creator, I basically set the font and formatting once and almost never mess with them again.

FWIW I got a Kindle in 2010 for a trip and found that I really liked it.

I also wound up inadvertently encouraging other people to get them.

Only one person out of about 6 who got them after I got them didn't use them. She didn't actually read much.

Everybody's different! I prefer to read on paper, I know many other people who prefer to read on their kindle. Whatever works for you is the right answer for you!

I still use ebooks when I travel - I'll usually have one or two actual physical books with me, but I'll also have a few loaded up on my iPad in case I get bored or finish them early.

The undeniable minus of a Kindle e-reader is: the illustrations suck. They're just too small. Half the time, my "library" has book covers that I can't even make out.

That's why a retina display ipad is now my preferred reader.

Yeah, I have a nice Galaxy tab for a mix of art and ebook reading.

I slightly prefer physical books and still collect them, but a tablet lets carry dozens on the road

Yeah, I've owned a e-paper Kindle for a decade but probably never finished reading a book on it. Instead I use a iPad 11 or mini, which are superior in every way (that I care about) except reading in sunshine. I love how lightweight the Kindle is, but not its small reading area or lack of color or weak illumination. Or its inability to serve any task other than reading ebooks.

I discovered that, although one really doesn't see the difference between a lower res display and a retina res display, it is just more pleasant to read the retina display.