Do you get through a book faster on your e-reader than when reading paper? (novel, e-book)

[DaddySpice]

I definitely read faster on my Nook than most paper books. I have the font set larger than normal for my aging eyes. With large fonts, you can scan straight down the page without having to scan left-to-right as you would do on paper books with a smaller font (and this forum!). Narrow columns are much easier to read, which is why newspapers are divided into several columns instead of having the text go completely across the width of the page. Of course, large fonts make a long book show up as a daunting 2000 pages, but I'm turning pages on the Nook at a furious rate.

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by DaddySpice

I definitely read faster on my Nook than most paper books. I have the font set larger than normal for my aging eyes. With large fonts, you can scan straight down the page without having to scan left-to-right as you would do on paper books with a smaller font (and this forum!). Narrow columns are much easier to read, which is why newspapers are divided into several columns instead of having the text go completely across the width of the page. Of course, large fonts make a long book show up as a daunting 2000 pages, but I'm turning pages on the Nook at a furious rate.

Interesting!

I always use the default font (and my dollar-store reading glasses ) but that's such a good point. No matter that it's the default font, you're right -- it's narrow and no left-to-right scanning is required.

This also makes me realize that because it's all on one page (screen), rather than it being double-sided (a paper book), I don't have to readjust myself every time I turn a page, which I do with a paper book. EUREKA! I actually just realized that, yes, I actually readjust my entire body for every page, depending on which side of the book I'm reading. With an e-reader, there's none of that.

I think you just helped me solve the mystery.

PS. I wish that the Kindle would tell me how many pages are in the book (and what page I'm on). The Kindle, though, works in percentage, telling me what percent of the book I've completed. No big deal, but I haven't yet acclimated myself to that "feature."

[toosie]

Dawn, in many Kindle books, if you open the menu while you're reading, it will show the page number at the bottom middle of the screen. For me with my Kindle Touch, I'll tap the top of the page and underneath the bottom menu where the font, go to and xray options are, it will show location and percentage as usual but the middle will show something like 'page 52 of 637'. Also, if you use the Go To option, and choose 'location or page number' it will show you the full range of page numbers (1-637). HTH!

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by toosie

Dawn, in many Kindle books, if you open the menu while you're reading, it will show the page number at the bottom middle of the screen. For me with my Kindle Touch, I'll tap the top of the page and underneath the bottom menu where the font, go to and xray options are, it will show location and percentage as usual but the middle will show something like 'page 52 of 637'. Also, if you use the Go To option, and choose 'location or page number' it will show you the full range of page numbers (1-637). HTH!

Oh, oh, oh!!! I'm going to check this out right now.

(Please hold.)



Nope. Not on this cheapest-Kindle-alive version. When I press Go to..., it says, next to 60% (where I'm at now with this book): 3118 of 5174. It's only a 350-page book, so that's not the page numbers.

Oh, well. I'm getting used to living in percentages anyway.

[toosie]

Ah sorry - was worth a shot. Not all books have the pages anyway - so maybe, just maybe, you'll have one sometime that does? I'm getting used to living in locations

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by toosie

Ah sorry - was worth a shot. Not all books have the pages anyway - so maybe, just maybe, you'll have one sometime that does? I'm getting used to living in locations

Yeah, I thought of that. I'll have to check on other books.

LOL! It's good to live in locations.

[Tracysherm]

I'm in the same boat, Dawn. I read much faster on my Kindle but also still read "real" books. I think I read the Kindle ones faster for a few reasons:

• I carry it with me, so read it in more places (at lunch, the dentist's waiting room, at red lights, and {gasp} even in the office! Don't tell.)
• It's easier to read in the tub than a paper-based book (no breaking the binding to make the book stay open while it's lying on the side of the tub, no having to weigh down one side with the shampoo bottle...) So I stay in the bath tub longer and read more while I'm there.
• I look at the percentage thing as a competition against, well, against myself. If I'm at something like 43%, that's just a "messy" number, so I'll stay up until I hit a nice round 50%. A little obsessive-compulsive? Maybe. But I can never go to bed if it's on something like 78%--have to get to 80!
• Once I'm past 90%, I'm pretty much in the "home stretch" and have to read it to the end, even if it's close to 2 AM I guess I don't want to put it down with only around 5% left to go, thinking that the following night, I'll have to abruptly finish and have to pick out a new book when I'm already in bed. I like to pick my next book when I'm "up."

I have the font at the smallest setting, but it's still a shorter page than in a real book.

Here's another thing I've noticed, at least in the book that I have hard copies of, plus have on the Kindle: I find more typos in the Kindle version. Some of these aren't just typos, but seem like a weird problem with a computer "reading" what a book said when the e-version was made. Like if there is a proper name that's similar to a common word, it'll have the common word there. Or there might be a word that looks visually like the word that's supposed to be there, but it's not a common mistake to use that wrong word. Anyone else notice that? I'm pretty aware of typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors when I read, but I can definitely say they are popping up much more in the Kindle books, and I've only been on the Kindle since Christmas.

[toosie]

Originally Posted by TracySam

Here's another thing I've noticed, at least in the book that I have hard copies of, plus have on the Kindle: I find more typos in the Kindle version. Some of these aren't just typos, but seem like a weird problem with a computer "reading" what a book said when the e-version was made. Like if there is a proper name that's similar to a common word, it'll have the common word there. Or there might be a word that looks visually like the word that's supposed to be there, but it's not a common mistake to use that wrong word. Anyone else notice that? I'm pretty aware of typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors when I read, but I can definitely say they are popping up much more in the Kindle books, and I've only been on the Kindle since Christmas.

Argh yes! You're right - not just typos but scanning errors. I'm ok with that when it's a free book (pre 1923, for example). Many of those are scanned or transcribed and digitized by volunteers. For more recently released modern books, though, it really irks me. It's like no one is editing these things - plus, the table of contents often is less useful than the one in the paper version. That's true particularly with collections - the paper version will have the story name, author name, and sometimes other info, but the kindle version just has the story name. That makes it less user friendly since you can't choose by author as easily. I don't see why they'd even need to leave that out for kindle versions either. But yes, definitely more typos and errors. One of the most common is when they'll split a word and/or attach part of a word to another like...ano ther day....or...ano therday. It's distracting and irritating. Honestly, though, I'd be even more irritated if these errors were in a paper book.

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by TracySam

• I look at the percentage thing as a competition against, well, against myself. If I'm at something like 43%, that's just a "messy" number, so I'll stay up until I hit a nice round 50%. A little obsessive-compulsive? Maybe. But I can never go to bed if it's on something like 78%--have to get to 80!
• Once I'm past 90%, I'm pretty much in the "home stretch" and have to read it to the end, even if it's close to 2 AM I guess I don't want to put it down with only around 5% left to go, thinking that the following night, I'll have to abruptly finish and have to pick out a new book when I'm already in bed. I like to pick my next book when I'm "up."

I have the font at the smallest setting, but it's still a shorter page than in a real book.

YES, me too! Hello, OCD! Those silly numbers make no sense to me. Except, though, I can't stop unless I've reached a natural break in a chapter or the end of the chapter, which may mean that I'm reading to the NEXT round percentage.

YES, me too about the 90%!

Here's another thing I've noticed, at least in the book that I have hard copies of, plus have on the Kindle: I find more typos in the Kindle version. Some of these aren't just typos, but seem like a weird problem with a computer "reading" what a book said when the e-version was made. Like if there is a proper name that's similar to a common word, it'll have the common word there. Or there might be a word that looks visually like the word that's supposed to be there, but it's not a common mistake to use that wrong word. Anyone else notice that? I'm pretty aware of typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors when I read, but I can definitely say they are popping up much more in the Kindle books, and I've only been on the Kindle since Christmas.

I've definitely noticed that. Also, a lot of missed spaces, like "tome" instead of "to me." As an editor, it freaks me out, but then I think of it as a computer glitch rather than an editing error. In a paper book, I'd be MUCH more aggravated by them.

[PA2UK]

Originally Posted by TracySam

Here's another thing I've noticed, at least in the book that I have hard copies of, plus have on the Kindle: I find more typos in the Kindle version. Some of these aren't just typos, but seem like a weird problem with a computer "reading" what a book said when the e-version was made. Like if there is a proper name that's similar to a common word, it'll have the common word there. Or there might be a word that looks visually like the word that's supposed to be there, but it's not a common mistake to use that wrong word. Anyone else notice that? I'm pretty aware of typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors when I read, but I can definitely say they are popping up much more in the Kindle books, and I've only been on the Kindle since Christmas.

Those are OCR errors - Optical Character Recognition - it's when the book has actually been scanned and then the images are automatically transcribed by the OCR software into text. Many older books don't have a master digital file so the only way to digitize it is to scan and OCR it. And the poorer the quality of the printed text, the more inaccurate the OCR will be. But the publisher should really pay for someone to go through and fix those. If there's a lot of OCR errors, you can report it to Amazon. Scroll down to the bottom of the book page on Amazon to the box that says "Feedback" and there's an option for "Would you like to report poor quality or formatting in this book?"

I'm typically happy with percentages - but the only thing that bothers me is that, naturally, 10% of a 900 page book is way more than 10% of a 300 page book.