I think Simon (like many people) is missing the point. For one thing, it’s generational - there are many young people (and not-so-young) growing up staring at screens all day. It’s not a big deal. The screens these days aren’t going to burn your eyes out with radiation, and the quality means that reading black text on a (adjustable) white background is not going to put a strain on your eyes - unlike trying to read small grey text on an off-white page.
For another thing, it’s about ease of use. Who wants to trail up to town to buy a book? Or wait until Amazon and their chosen ‘delivery partner’ get around to dropping the book through your letterbox? When you can press a couple of buttons, and hey presto! The book is there, ready to read.
One thing holding back the groundswell of eBook adoption is price. Most of the stuff people in bulk want to read is expensive. Sometimes more expensive than a hardback book. How is this possible? Publishers and e-tailers need to get their act together pretty soon, or else the internet connections are going to be buzzing with pirated copies of eBooks. It happened with music, and it’ll happen with eBooks too.
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