Survey about literature

[Amaria]

Hello; I don't say much on these forums, but I do often lurk. I'm writing a paper for college on electronic books and how they've affected consumer opinions and the sales of books. As per college rules, we're required to have an interview or survey. I had plans to conduct an electronic interview with Barnes and Noble, but as it turns out their customer service is terrible and they've completely ignored me. Thus, here I am; I don't have the time to try to set up another interview. Survey, it is.

So if you've got some free time and like reading, please help an overworked college kid out. Just answer the questions below as honestly as possible, and post your answers to this thread. If you're not comfortable with posting your answers on a public forum, but still want to help, please message me your answers.



Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

Do you read published literature often?

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.



Thank you for your feedback, any replies are much appreciated!


EDIT: Amount of surveys I needed achieved! Thank you to everyone who participated; you're all amazing. I'm serious, you are.

Quite frankly, when I put this survey up I was expecting like... Two replies. Because of my previous horrible luck with this, I was already thinking up worst-case scenarios and making plans for posting this survey on other sites. In the span of 12 hours, this community made all of that completely unnecessary. I can't express how happy I was when I saw - I'll admit that there was some dancing around my room for a bit. There was some gushing to friends. I was honestly, truly ecstatic; I didn't have to jump through any more bureaucratic hoops and can sleep tonight.

So because I seem to be lacking the words to say this properly - thank you. Thank you all so much.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience.

19, male, white, American (German/Norwegian/ Hungarian)
finished high-school, in college, limited employment

Do you read published literature often?

Very much so.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

now that e-books exist, I have begun to ignore them.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Only Printed.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Want to have hard copies.
Can't buy e-books at used book stores.
Very limited selection.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
my problems with e-books are listed above.

 

[Pfheonix]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. 18, Male, European-Caucasian, Sophomore College, None.

Do you read published literature often? Indeed

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed? Not much, as my Kindle went haywire, and I've taken less to reading now that I don't have occasion to during class and at home I have games.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books? Printed. They feel better, honestly.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why: Printed books, especially well taken care of older paperbacks, have a feel, and a smell... It's great, honestly.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

None. My device went nuts, but the books themselves were usually of average printed quality of editing, if not quality of feel.



Thank you for your feedback, any replies are much appreciated!

 

[Little Woodsman]

Hello; I don't say much on these forums, but I do often lurk. I'm writing a paper for college on electronic books and how they've affected consumer opinions and the sales of books. As per college rules, we're required to have an interview or survey. I had plans to conduct an electronic interview with Barnes and Noble, but as it turns out their customer service is terrible and they've completely ignored me. Thus, here I am; I don't have the time to try to set up another interview. Survey, it is.

So if you've got some free time and like reading, please help an overworked college kid out. Just answer the questions below as honestly as possible, and post your answers to this thread. If you're not comfortable with posting your answers on a public forum, but still want to help, please message me your answers.



Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

45 years old; racially mixed-born/raised lower middle class America; Graduated HS, a technical school, some college;
have worked restaurant, retail, medical, parking services, holistic health.

Do you read published literature often?

I would say yes, but "often" is a very vague term, you might want to refine the question.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

No, but I have determined that I need to get an e-reader soon, for space considerations.
Have also made use of freelibrary.com

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Have not yet purchased any digital books.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

My intent is to switch to digital, for space considerations.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Oddly enough, I have experienced technical problems with printed books. The most common of course
being misprints/page reprintings.

Thank you for your feedback, any replies are much appreciated!

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

26 years old, female, white, finished College years ago, and about 7 years experience of my field. I mean working in theatres and such for my profession and experience.

Do you read published literature often?

All the time.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Nope, and I don't pay them any attention.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

I prefer printed books.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I like the feel and smell of printed books.
I don't like the selection of digital media.
I'm interested in what books I own rather than what books I've downloaded.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

They are stated above.

I will also add that I'm just not impressed by e-books.

 

[TehCookie]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience.
20, F, american, attending college, 4 years employed cleaning shit.

Do you read published literature often?
In binges. Not that often but a lot at once.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
Yeah, I can now read all the books I downloaded.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Printed.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
If I'm paying money I want something physical for it.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
Books age and e-books have annoying file formats.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

30, female, white, some college, various odd jobs

Do you read published literature often?

I go through at least two books a month.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Not remarkably.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Digital. Always digital.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I recently moved. Included in that move were ELEVEN boxes of books. Big, heavy boxes. Frak that. No more physical books. I'll buy digital, and download them when I want them. It's a book, it takes like five minutes tops on the worst connection imaginable. Physical books aren't worth the effort.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

No problems, other than wearing myself out moving all those boxes of books around. I cannot overstate how much I hated moving them all.

 

[MammothBlade]

22, Male, White, University

Do you read published literature often?

Yes.

[b/]With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?[/b]

No.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed. I don't buy ebooks.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I enjoy the smell and feel of physical books, of turning a real page to read authentic words on paper. There's something about it that an ereader just can't match. Plus no-one can delete them at the drop of a hat, and they can be sold or handed on if I don't want them anymore. Hardbacks also make for a great weapon against anyone seeking to take away my precious texts.

Oh and did I mention just how much I like having all my books arranged in a library?

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Not at all.

 

[BrassButtons]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
24, Female, European Mutt, a few years of college, several years doing entry-level office work.

Do you read published literature often?
Yes.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
A bit. I'm reading more books now that I wouldn't have before, because the e-book versions are cheap and incredibly easy to acquire. I'm also reading more in situations where I might not have thought to bring a book before (my kindle lives in my purse).

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Digital. I like printed books but the electronic versions are far more convenient for me.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
Many of the digital books I buy are far cheaper than their dead-tree counterparts (in some cases the digital versions are free). And then when I decide to buy one, I don't have to drive to the store or wait for a delivery--I just click a few buttons and I have it. And all the e-books I own fit together in a package that's more compact than any one of them would be in paper format. I can go to work, start reading one book on my break, finish it, and immediately switch to another book. If I'm reading a series I don't have to debate whether or not to pack the next book in case I finish the current one, because I already have it (and the book after it, and the one after that). Also, I love the built-in dictionary my kindle has.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
With e-books I've encountered some formatting problems (paragraphs not lining up right, punctuation symbols all getting replaced with question marks, that sort of thing). I've had printed books start falling apart on me (they were old and had been read a lot).

 

[Spade Lead]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience.

28, Male, White, Some College

Do you read published literature often?

Frequently

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Not so much. I usually get series from the library, unless it is a book I know I will like, from my favorite author, etc, or it will be part of my collection.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Technically, this question is biased since I have been buying books since I was 14, and only have had an e-reader for the last year.

In the last year I have bought approximately 15 e-books, and only one paperback, but I have over 125 Star Wars books in my collection, as well as probably half that many that I bought used and traded in over the years.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I collect Star Wars novels, even though I would like to have both hard copy and e-book copies of both so I can read them without messing up my collection.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

No.

 

[Arakasi]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
18
Male
Currently at university.
0 work experience.

Do you read published literature often?
Fairly often, yes.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
Nope, not a fan of e-books.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Printed.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
I prefer to have the physical copy for my shelf, reading from a laptop for extended periods is annoying, books allow me to move around more.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
DRM.
Seriously, e-books DRM is a pain in the ass, I normally have to use some piece of shit unoptimised program to run them instead of a simple PDF file.

 

[Death Carr]

Snip

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
17, Male, Caucasian, High School (Year 12), None
Do you read published literature often?
Fairly often
With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
No
Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Printed
If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
The smell of a new book is something that can't be replicated digitally
Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
Apart from worn spines, not really

 

[Joccaren]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

17, Male, White Australian, Just finished Year 11, have worked at 2 Fish and Chip shops.

Do you read published literature often?

I used to a lot, but I've run out of books I'm interested in reading in the last 2-3 years, and as such have stopped. I'm not interested in re-reading books, except for 1 or 2 series which I adore, so that is also out of the question.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

My family bought me an E-Reader and it got me back into reading for a couple of months, but afterwords I stopped again for the same reason as stated above.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Obviously printed as they were available before digital, and as such I've bought more of them over my life than I have in E-books. Talking only of recent years though, its about even

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

See above

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

Nope, not really.



Thank you for your feedback, any replies are much appreciated![/quote]

 

[Hollyday]

1. Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

24, Female, White (British), BA English Literature, TEFL teacher (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)

2. Do you read published literature often?

Yes, I usually read 1-2 books a month

3. With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

No

4. Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Printed books

5. If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I'm a traditionalist Part of the pleasure of reading, for me, is actually holding the book, being able to flick back a couple of pages to reread something. I also love the smell of books, especially old books. Also, from a more practical point of view, I'm extremely absent-minded and have often left books on trains, lost them in my room etc. and to lose a kindle/e-reader would be an expense I couldn't afford. I also enjoy swapping books with people.

6. Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

I live abroad, and I've moved around quite a lot for my job, so taking a number of books with me is extremely difficult. It's probably inevitable that I'll eventually get an e-reader, because it would instantly solve my overweight baggage issues, but I'm stubbornly holding out.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

25, male, white English/Irish, left school with 4 GCSEs, attended and was thrown out of two colleges and a university, close to completing the AAT certification (which is apparently degree level, so whoop-de-doo tarantula town). Work experience is a bit of shop work here and there, some work as a handyman and working on building sites, and most recently four years of work as an accountant.

I also write articles about them thar vidja games, though I don't know if that counts as work because A) it's fun and B) nobody has paid me for it yet.

Do you read published literature often?

Absolutely. They have these places, right, called libraries? Fucktons of books, and they're all free! I know, it's mental, they just let you wander in and read what you like. Pretty sweet deal :-D

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

Not at all. I don't own a dedicated e-book reader and never intend to. I do have an app on my phone with a couple of books - read Treasure Island on it most recently - but I don't really enjoy using it.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

Generally speaking I don't buy either; see above re libraries and free shit!

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

Proper books, clearly. I don't like screen-reading much, I don't like the feel of the pads, I'm a clumsy bastard so I'm constantly terrified of smashing any fancy technology that happens to come into my hands. Books, to me, feel authentic. I like the solid weight. I like being able to pile them up on every surface. Owning a physical copy feels much more like actual ownership than having a digital copy.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

I'm not sure what you mean by problems. I've dropped books in the bath before, I guess? Sometimes with the really old or badly-bound ones, pages fall out. That's about it I think.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Printed books, especially well taken care of older paperbacks, have a feel, and a smell...

I like the feel and smell of printed books.

I enjoy the smell and feel of physical books, of turning a real page to read authentic words on paper. There's something about it that an ereader just can't match.

The smell of a new book is something that can't be replicated digitally

Part of the pleasure of reading, for me, is actually holding the book, being able to flick back a couple of pages to reread something. I also love the smell of books, especially old books.

I find this really interesting, how many of us are listing sense-based reasons like the feel or smell of physical books as a reason we prefer them. I thought it was just me being weird and refusing to go along with the march of technology!

Wonder what's behind it? Speaking for myself, I read a lot as a child, so perhaps that smell and the feel of that weight in my hands makes me feel nostalgic for a time when I had no responsibilities and could read books all day if I wanted.

 

[capper42]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)

21, male, White British, in final year of a history degree, little employment experience.

Do you read published literature often?

Yes, but not as much as I'd like.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?

I have started reading more self-published books, because they're so cheap to get for my kindle (some are even free). Other than that, not really. I wouldn't say I read more or less now.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?

I still buy a mixture, because some I can get cheaper in print because of second hand sales on amazon, but I probably buy more digitally now. On one occasion, I bought a book digitally, and liked it so much I decided to buy a print copy.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:

I already mentioned the cost and the fact I get self-published books digitally. The weight of the kindle is also a plus, lying on your back holding a book can get tiring after a while, and the kindle eliminates this problem. That said, I do love the look and feel of real books.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.

When reading books that belonged to my parents, pages often fall out or the book just collapses, but most of these are about 40 years old now, so it's understandable. A lot of the ebooks I read have typos or formatting errors, and I think this is the result of how easy it has become to self-publish digitally. The author is able to update their book after it's released, so is less careful to proofread and ensure it's error free as they would if it was going to print.

I guess it's a similar problem that plagues the game's industry.

 

[sagitel]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
15,male, Iranian, in high school now no working experience

Do you read published literature often?
yes.its my biggest hobby.

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
yes actually. with e-books its way easier to get hands on the books which are really rare or hard to find.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
printed.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
having printed is better in my idea. also its easier to get.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
well the only problem is thats its hard to find some titles here. both books or e-books

 

[FalloutJack]

{1} 31, Male, Irish/Italian (born in Pittsburgh, PA, USA), Bachelor of Arts, Various.

{2} Indeed, to tbe point where my chosen calling in life is writing.

{3} No, and I'm not sure why they would. I embrace technology and value physical media at once.

{4} I haven't bought an E-book as of yet. Unlike an MP3 player full of music, I only need one book at a time, and they're a bit less fragile than a Nook or a Kindle. As for on my computer, this wouldn't be unwelcome, but I haven't gotten around to it.

{5} I think the previous answer covers why I'd be more keen on a physical book. This is not to say I'm resistant to change. It's just that there is no true reason for me to move on to digital texts as of yet.

{6} Of course, the inherent problem with normal books is that they are still destructable. They can burn (which hasn't happened to me), they can get wet (which HAS), and they can get old and degrade (because it's sad when an old copy of Catch-22 starts to fall apart). The thing I wonder about any e-book is "What if some asshole with too much spare time and the brain the size of a thimble decides to virally corrupt my digital media?", which can, has, and will happen.

I hope this proves enlightening to you.

 

[Piorn]

Please state your age, gender, ethnicity, education and work experience. (For this question, if you're not comfortable being specific, vagueness is fine.)
21,m,caucasian german, currently studying Bachelor of Computer Science, working at a hospital call center

Do you read published literature often?
Almost every minute I have to wait for a bus/course to start

With e-books now available, have your reading habits changed?
Yes, I have a Kindle, and can now carry many books around, read a short story by Arthur C. Clarke in-between chapters, and continue reading after finishing one book.

Is it more common for you to buy digital books, or printed books?
Almost all my book purchases are E-Books now. I'm half way through Discworld and have them all on E-Book, but when a sequel to a paper-book I have gets released, I tend to get it on paper as well.

If you choose one over the other, please list your reasons for why:
E-Book, because they are easier to carry around university, you don't easily lose your page and aren't as unwieldy to hold. Also, printed books just pile up.

Have you experienced any problems with either printed books or e-books? If so, please state them.
When I lie on my bed sideways, printed books always have one page in the air, which makes it uncomfortable to read.
The greatest problem with E-Books would be that they are just a direct copy and don't use the advantages of E-Book readers, like annotations or chapter-bookmarks.