Switching to ebooks for a year… the journey so far

An article by Glen    5 Comments

I’m never been much of a fan of ebooks – “But I prefer paper…. I can read a real book in bed… blah blah”, but I’ve never given the whole ebook thing a real solid shake. So this year, I’ve made a decision to *only* purchase ebooks for a year. No exceptions. So how’s the experiment going so far? Great! Things I’ve learned so far…

How do you handle the “screen only” reading thing?

Not perfect, but totally good so far. A few months back I bought a Netbook (eeepc 1001ha) as part of my transition to be completely “post-mac”. It’s been the most amazing device ever. Small enough to carry around, but enough heart that I’ve done Java, Grails and Dotnet development on it without a hitch. Not as a main machine, but as a “sync to revision control” beast that I can use on the road, it’s perfect.

No so interested in a dedicated ebook reader (kindle,nook,ipad). Having a real PC with me means that I can copy and paste code samples from ebooks and try them out. But what about reading in bed? Well. That’s part of the joy. I read tech books on my PC when I’m in *work* mode, not when I’m supposed to be hanging out with my family. It’s better sleep hygiene too.

Seriously, do you end up reading the entire book onscreen?

So far, probably not. But I didn’t read the real thing cover-to-cover either. Now days I tend to read the intro chapters then the stuff I want to get done. Tend to do a lot more scanning than I did with a real book, but so far I’ve been trying out a lot more than I previously did – which I’m sure is a better learning experience.

Some books definitely lend themselves more to ebook format. Something like jQuery Cookbook is ideal in ebook format since you’re typically trying to get something specific done and it’s easy to search/reference it directly. I’m not sure something like The Pragmatic Programmer would work as an ebook. That book is a “cover-to-cover” deal, with reflection rather than hacking the key idea. Will have to wait and see whether I digest anything like that in e-format.

Are you spending more time searching your ebook library for stuff?

Interestingly, I still find I’m spending more time jumping from the table-of-contents rather than searching – seems quicker when I just “remember” the part of the book I read things in.

What about the cost?

Here’s the big win. I’ve probably bought about a dozen titles so far this year, with an average cost of about $10/book. Compared with a typical $60 book in AUD, that’s a massive win. The various publishers have “deal of the day” pages (Manning promotes on twitter, and there’s even a simple aggregator for a few of the main publishers) , which means I pickup things I’m interested in super cheap. Each of the publishers have regular “50%” style promotions which means I’m often paying a few bucks for titles. Since they’re so cheap, I’m buying a lot more stuff that I used to just to see if it interests me.

How to you manage all those PDFs lying about?

As the moment, I mirror them to a USB stick on my car keys. That way I’ve always got my whole reference library with me if I’m on a client site. Given that a typical ebook is around 4mb, I should be fine for at least a thousand titles! Setting up rsync for my various desktops is also on the radar .

Will keep you posted…

So far the journey has been great. I’m reading a lot of titles that I would have brushed aside. For instance Brownfield Application Development in .Net has been a fantastic read – and not for the .Net parts! Their stuff on managing legacy teams, bug triage and refactoring legacy codebases, has been completely pan-applicable to my Java and Grails work. Looking forward to see how the rest of the year pans out…