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Hi. I'm an avid reader and buy paper books online. I don't get to the library often because it's not geographically convenient. My main problem is space as I had a full library at my last house and ended up donating thousands of books to various literacy programs. Now, I read ebooks and buy what I know I want to keep for the ages.
I do. I love the feel of a paperback book. I'm not big on reading entire books through an e-reader or a PDF file (college professors are big on this!). I actually have a hard time focusing if I have to read something long if it is not in a traditional book format. I absolutely refuse to buy a Kindle or other e-reader. I'm also saving every book I own because I want my future kids to actually know what a real book is.
I LOVE holding an actual book in my hands and reading it. I get all my books from the library, so I hope they never close down! My FIL offered to buy me a Kindle, but I declined. I love the feel and smell of libraries and bookstores.
I got a Kindle for Christmas and promptly hated it with a passion even though I had asked for it. But now I am used to it and some of the advantages of ebooks are access to books that are out-of-print. It may not be profitable for a publisher to reissue a book in print but it is easy to digitalise a book. So that is a big advantage, imo. I think that is an advantage as well for writers, that readers can buy their older books so easily.
I am still not that crazy about it for current books because I don't want to see the publishing industry go down the tubes and I hate sorting through self-published books for the one in a million that is worth reading.
It is a very big advantage to Bible-reading, because of the ability to go quickly to a related Bible verse and Wikipedia and to click on place names if one isn't sure just where what was. (I just recently discovered that when you press down on a word in a book the meaning will come up )
It is an advantage to people who have difficulty reading. I had an old friend - literally old - she was in her 80s and died in her 90s - who loved to read and had eye trouble and she was seriously depressed when she couldn't read. She died a few years ago but I loved her very much and think of her a lot and how much she would have loved the ability to increase the print of books.
And of course, there is the advantage to carting around a large number of books around and literally never being out of reading material. Ever. That's just amazing and for someone like me who has literally thousands of books, there is an advantage to buying ebooks that I don't consider important enough to keep in an actual book form. I guess there is also a disadvantage since a local hospital, that gets donated books for fundraising actually postponed their annual book sale this year due to a lack of books, and I wondered if that had anything to do with people switching to ebooks. They didn't say and it could also be weather related since we had and are still having the most terrible winter in 78 years. But it did make me think of how switching to ebooks could affect used book fundraisers.
For reference books or books that I love and might like to reread, I think I would prefer an actual paper book.
And since I live in a rural area with no quick or easy access to books, there's an advantage right there, in that I can buy books instantly.
I like books and usually have one on me. I have nothing against e-readers though, I just don't want something else that needs a charger and electricity.
During the last power failure I couldn't cook on my electric stove, get heat from my heat pump, water from my well, watch TV or use my computer but my fully charged Kindle proved me with something to do during the many hours of darkness after the sun when down until I was ready to go to bed. Reading a paper book by candle light just doesn't work for these old eyes.
I do still read plenty of paper books but am glad I have an e-reader too.
I dont know..I cant read without the feel of those book pages in my hand.. the touch of slipper book cover..smell of fresh pages has its own class..one can not experience this through e-books.
To answer the OP's question, maybe it depends on where you live. Yes, many independent bookstores have closed in recent years. Yet even though Amazon calls Seattle home, local bookstore owners are seeing positive results. Some are turning profits for the first time in many years. As it turns out, many Amazon employees are not shopping at the company store or online. They're shopping at the local bookstores and buying print books.
One former Amazon employee has opened his own bookstore. It is his opinion that the e-book revolution has reached a plateau and people will return to paper books. (I"m not sure this will come to pass). He said that publishers want to keep local bookstores in business and they have helped by easing repayment rules and helping with promotions or advertising.
Millions of people, myself included, have severe visual problems (I'm legally blind but can still read if I super-size the font. For example, I'm typing this at an amplification factor of 4 (400%), as I'm legally blind. So, for people like me, who don't want to wear an insanely expensive bi-optic device (they generally leave me with a doozy of a headache) e-readers are a blessing.
That said, I still love bookstores, and DH and I still like to read books aloud together when we have the time. We used to have hundreds of books too - not sure if we had thousands, but maybe - but nowadays we just have paper books, preferably hardcover, that we know we'll read time and again and don't want to risk losing them to the cloud.
Just a few days ago, Darlin' (DH, my husband etc) bought me three old friends that we had lost because of our on-the-road lifestyle: Sophie's Choice; Look Homeward Angel; and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. And even though I can't read them by myself - he can- and will read them aloud to me, as we take a few days, snuggle up close, and just... abandon ourselves to the story. Delicious!
As a long-time author/novelist, I'll always want my own work in print. Who knows - maybe after I'm fertilizing daisies, my kids will actually GAS and give in and read them.
Mahrie.
P.S. Why is it that one's own kids don't care what Mum and Dad do nowadays? I wasn't like that; were you? Doesn't matter how high we place on the charts with music or books, our kids think it's somehow not 'Cool' to read/listen to us - and they all loved our work prior to going away to college, and they all still read books and listen to music - just not ours. Sigh....
I still love actual books and always will. I did receive a Kindle a couple of years ago for Christmas (I didn't ask for it). Kept it in the box for another year. Last year I opened it. I buy all my books from Amazon, but I have to admit it's really nice to order a book and have it delivered straight to Kindle within 30 seconds. So I broke down and I do get some books via Kindle. But I still like having physical books as well and I won't stop using those. I just don't buy from bookstores anymore - prices are always just as good and better if I buy gently used from Amazon...and shipping is free and within 2 days.
I have a stack of 6 library books here,plus 4 on reserve at my library,but I also just finished reading a book on my Kindle. I use both,but really if every book I wanted to read was available for the Kindle,that would suit me fine.
I love being able to read without a book closing on my thumb,lol!
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I love my Kindle!
