Is there a difference, asks the true reader? Well, yes and no.
No, there is not much difference in the actual textual content you are reading, whether it is an electronic page or a printed page. The content is the same for the vast majority of books.
But, yes, there is a difference in what is delivered up as non-textual content in the e-format. The extra stuff — photos, illustrations, embedded video or audio (rarely) – is often poorly rendered or simply absent. And, the e-reader can certainly give the reader a hard time or an easy time. This is obvious when you try to read magazines. Spare us the flipping pages, where you have to tediously resize each page! So 20th century! It’s a truly awful experience that I keep subjecting myself to when my library enticingly offers a new issue of a desired magazine. I know of no magazine reader that does this well. Please send me a note if there is one. Freeport Press ran a survey last year that found most readers of magazines don’t like digital magazines and much prefer print.
The true reader is format agnostic. As long as the text is available, the reader will read. But if images are present, nothing works as well as the printed page. Will we find a solution for these image-heavy books in the electronic world? I hope so.
The real innovation in the ebook space will continue to be adding content that isn’t available in print — videos, primarily, but also new corrections, additions, revisions, annotations by the author, etc. Haven’t seen this happen much, but it’s there, waiting for the innovative author to use.