Here’s the results of the How do you like to read survey from last week. Thanks to everyone for their responses. Some things were expected, others pretty surprising.

What is the most common format you read books in?

most common format

 

We hear a lot about eReaders taking over books, the end of printed books, the end of bookstores like Borders (and soon to be Barnes and Noble joining them but the responses here show that print is still the preferred format by a pretty wide margin. I personally read almost exclusively eBooks now. It’s just so much more convenient than taking a paper book with me.

Where do you read most often?

where

I definitely do a majority of my reading in bed. This was the least scientific question in the poll and the most subjective so I figured we’d get all kinds of results. I know several friends that never have time to read except on vacation so that surprised me we didn’t get any results on vacation.

Other responses included: At my desk at work during breaks and lunch, while traveling such as on a plane, trains, and airports. Also in the bathroom (I should have put that one on the survey!)

When do you read most often?

when

Glad to see all these readers in the evening. What a great thing to do instead of watching TV (and helps with better sleep). Lunch breaks seem to be pretty popular as well.

How many hours do you spend reading during a typical week?

how many hours

 

Around 5 hours a week seems to be the consensus. It would be interesting to get a comparison of these responses to how much time is spent weekly watching TV, movies, surfing the Internet, hanging out on social media, and playing video games. My hunch is those others would be much more than 5 hours a week for most of us.

I was a bit surprised that more people didn’t say they “never read”. I know quite a few that never read more than a few times a year. Glad to see most pick up a book on a weekly basis.

What is your biggest annoyance with eBooks?

Surprisingly, a lot of people said they had not read an eBook yet so they didn’t know. 25% of responses said they’d never read an eBook or had no experience with eReaders. Print is not dead yet.

Here’s the most common responses:

  • Older public domain books are some of the only books available for free.
  • If my eReader breaks, I have no backup of my books in paper form. I have to buy a new eReader to get access to my books again.
  • Miss the touch, the smell, the emotional connection with the book, no way to display the beautiful covers or have them in a library.
  • Small text size.
  • Don’t like how pages flip.
  • Lose my place when switching between books.
  • Hard to find new books and get good recommendations.
  • Page numbers missing for most books and instead shows percentages. Many novels have page breaks at specific points. On an eReader, these breaks mess up the flow.
  • Can’t lend a book to a friend.
  • Don’t like reading on a screen / hurts my eyes.
  • Hard to jump back in a book to find a passage to reread.
  • eBooks should not be as expensive as paper books. Too costly for a digital item.

Many these are still pretty annoying issues with eReading today. The good news is that several are in the process of being solved but some, like being unable to have a library, are here to stay.

Thanks for all the feedback and results everyone!