Even though reading ebooks was one of the main uses I had in mind when I begged James to buy me an iPad for my birthday (by the way, I never thought he’d take me seriously… but I’m overjoyed he did!) I just can’t get over how enjoyable reading on the iPad is.
Using it to browse the internet is great; you really feel like you’re interacting with the web pages themselves as the barrier of the mouse or trackpad is missing and you touch the links & images directly with your fingertips. Playing games on it is great fun – it’s a fabulous gaming device, with new great games coming out every week. And the myth that the iPad is for consumption not creation is completely shattered by the hundreds of apps that are already available in the app store that allow you to ‘paint’, sketch, create moodboards, wire frame diagrams, and so on.
Even though I enjoy all of the above aspects of the device, my favourite thing to do using my iPad is just to curl up with a good book. Only this way, I don’t have to keep James awake with the bedside light, or take a heavy bag full of books away with me on holiday. I can read 4 or 5 books a week without accumulating large piles of books all over the house! I’m finding it really convenient. I already have the iPad with me most of the time, so being able to pick it up, check my email and Facebook before settling down to read using iBooks is fantastic.
Bookshelf
The reading experience you get with iBooks is really nice. I even find myself fiddling with the corner of the page while reading a book! I love the brightness control, the navigation options and the whole look & feel of the app. You can see how many pages there are left in a chapter, ‘scrub through’ the book to find your page, make notes and have multiple bookmarks, and change the font type and size options. I think it is a perfect compromise, aesthetically, between a piece of technology and a real book – you have the advantages of the tech but you can also fade everything away to just leave you with the page and the text itself.
With & without controls displayed (portrait orientation)
Landscape orientation
Similarly to reading a real book, I can read for hours using the iPad without noticing any eye strain – the quality of the display is great so you don’t have the problems you do when reading ebooks on a PC. There was an interesting study conducted lately where people were asked to read using an iPad, a Kindle, a PC and a paperback. The PC had terrible scores but the iPad won on ‘user experience’, though it was only slightly ahead of the Kindle and the real thing.
One interesting thing I’ve found is that I am actually reading more books than I had been recently, before I got the iPad. I think the convenience of having the book with me if the iPad is with me means that I’ve been reading more in my lunch breaks and when sitting on the sofa downstairs. I never really carried my books around too much as quite a few of my favourites are large and heavy hardbacks and I just couldn’t be bothered lugging them around everywhere.
iPhone app
A great example of this is the Harry Potter series, which I reread in 9 days using my iPad. I was reading at lunch time, on the way to & from work (using the fab iPhone iBooks app with its very useful current page & bookmark syncing!), in the mornings before work and in the evenings when I got home from work, in addition to my usual reading at bedtime stint. I never would have carried those heavy books around enough to squeeze all that reading in.
So… if you’re debating whether or not reading ebooks on the iPad is pleasant enough for it to be a major reason in buying one, let me tell you it is!
