Reading e-books takes longer than reading printed books

While e-reader manufacturers are doing everything possible to simulate the same reading experience as the traditional way from paper and ink, a newly published study suggests reading the book on e-book readers will take longer than print books.

Dr. Jacob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group has experimented on three different types of eReader devices: computers, Kindle 2 and iPad, and compared the results with reading a regular book.

Twenty-four different subjects will read a short story by Ernest Hemingway.

After the experiment, Nielsen found that readers of the e-book version will be 10% slower than those who read the printed version.

Those who read this story on computers even took longer, and they all considered it the worst way to read.

In addition to reading speed, test participants were also asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1-7.

The results of both the iPad and Kindle are equally popular with scores of 5.8 and 5.7, respectively. However, the computer is far removed from comfort when it only receives 3.6 points. Some people think that reading on a computer is no different than working.