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I prefer to read printed books but the lack of space to storage them is a real problem. Ebooks are becoming more popular nowadays but I can't always find printed books in ebook format, especially when it comes to specific topics or books published decades ago which are not so popular.
Ebooks have the advantage that can be stored in an electronic device, you don't need a huge library. In addition, printed books can be cheap but also quite expensive when there are very limited copies or discontinued. Will ebooks replace printed books? This will take place soon or later?
As an additional discussion I would like to ask you which device would you use to read books in pdf format.
I have a Kindle and it never let's me down. I bought it intentionally to read Ebooks.
Oddly, I could never get used to the transition of using it to read books so now I use the Kindle as though it were a laptop, for email Amazon shopping, search engine use.
TACTILE IS WHERE IT'S AT!
Holding a book wherever I choose to read it and turning pages, having an intentional bookmark (book equipment) a tactile acknowledgment that enhances the activity of reading ~ and even having that front cover of color & title is as a visual messenger and noble companion of relaxation.
Keep friends connected and close by passing the book along to a fellow reader and thus books will have a way of finding you as well.
Actual, physical, in-hand books represent a harbinger of quiet & comfort that no "reading device" can ever satisfy for me.
Buy your soft or hardbound books, read them, then pass along the wealthy experience.
If not, the art of reading books will be drip, drip, dripping away into digital form, then
...........POOF! It's gone..
Last edited by countryswan; 08-02-2020 at 05:24 AM..
Reason: typo
I have a Kindle and it never let's me down. I bought it intentionally to read Ebooks.
Oddly, I could never get used to the transition of using it to read books so now I use the Kindle as though it were a laptop, for email Amazon shopping, search engine use.
TACTILE IS WHERE IT'S AT!
Holding a book wherever I choose to read it and turning pages, having an intentional bookmark (book equipment) a tactile acknowledgment that enhances the activity of reading ~ and even having that front cover of color & title is as a visual messenger and noble companion of relaxation.
Keep friends connected and close by passing the book along to a fellow reader and thus books will have a way of finding you as well.
Actual, physical, in-hand books represent a harbinger of quiet & comfort that no "reading device" can ever satisfy for me.
Buy your soft or hardbound books, read them, then pass along the wealthy experience.
If not, the art of reading books will be drip, drip, dripping away into digital form, then
...........POOF! It's gone..
Printed books are my haven, too. No electrical power required except at night, nothing to fail or need upgrades, the sheer physical contact with paper (“child of tree”), the act of underlining or highlighting using a *gasp* pen, seeing a delightful bookmark again.
I still buy books. Some I give away, others I keep because they are the ones that, if printed matter becomes rare, I’ll read over and over again. This also means I am still supporting the printed book industry!
Probably not for a very long time. As long as publishers continue to charge almost the same (in some cases more expensive) prices for eBooks compared to printed books, paper books will still rule. The eBooks usually offered at 40% - 50% less than paper price are usually books by new authors, or self published authors.
Publishers also charge ridiculous amount of money for public libraries for eBooks loaning rights (expensive $$ + rigid rules about the amount of downloads per book, etc). That's why the eBooks choices on your public libraries are abysmal - especially if you live in a smaller / poorer county with less funding.
I still don't buy paper books anymore - I've gone eBooks 100% for at least 5 years or more and never looked back. The thought of touching those paper books with all kinds of germs and whatever else just gives me the hibby-jibbees.
I am a library user and never really buy books so I don't have that attachment. I am surprised how much more I prefer reading on a kindle. I find it so much easier and don't have to see about how yellow the pages have become and how faint or small the print it.
I do agree that what is missing is the passing it along. I just really find the convenience of the ebooks is super appealing. If I were a book collector for sure I would feel differently.
The question was rhetorical. Of course they will, but not ever completely. All that is logically going the way of Kodak and film cameras. I am reasonably sure there are books many hundreds of years old, probably those on rather exotic types of parchment survive best vs. typical paper. Ink fades, they absorb water, etc.
There will always be a brick-and-mortar, or even virtual (ironic, no doubt) purveyor of rare books. In fifty years logically there will be very few books "printed". Objectively, that is a retarded way to pass information from A to B: too much materials to produce, plus shipping, plus storage at retailer plus later at recipient's home. Twenty one years ago I had this conversation with an ex, eBooks are much more prevalent now vs. then, but I don't have absolute publishing numbers in front of me to see the trend. It won't be linear at some point anyway.
It's really simple, college level supply/demand or nature of markets in-general: let us first consider "nice" tablets, a great way currently to read eBooks and do many more things, mostly consumptively. My Samsung S6 is "nice" in that it's close...but not quite...a laptop replacement. That will happen, 5-10 years from now I guess, and kiss laptops (or tablets) goodbye, all with be on one OS. 13" laptops are close to tablets now, my Surface 3 from Microsoft was not too many ticks away and that was a 2014 device (or so). It's close...really close, but too expensive for most consumers with those damn Surface devices at a thousand bucks and up.
OK, that then starts another small avalanche: get the cost of those down to near zero, or "ubiquity among consumers" because it (Apple, Samsung, who cares) is so darn useful to so many people. When something nice, and portable, as say a Surface 4 or latest version is only a couple hundred bucks, or less, then everyone can afford one. Don't get me wrong, I do believe the Kindle readers now are less than a hundred bucks, but that's not quite the answer to everyone's problems. Yet, anyway.
...which leads to books. If tiny...I don't know the sweet-spot, call it 7" - 11" maybe...super-powerful tablets are all over the place, and transferring files is easy and damn near automatic on-purchase, why on earth would anyone want a "paper" book? You can read latest newspaper, read a novel, or watch short videos from such a device seamlessly at this point. Lot of micro-transactions, requiring thumbprints or similar security, for papers / books / magazines. Not perfect security, but there are ways to keep it reasonably safe.
Oh, that day is coming. Not sure about twenty years...maybe thirty, hard to say. Then twenty years of eCommerce for media, almost exclusively: at that point, the paper book is an anachronisms for old people and artists, see above.
Good riddance. I buy books on Kindle monthly, what I'm after isn't real expensive, they seem to run typically $3.99 - $5.99. It's in my Kindle, I want to play with it later, well, there is it from either my big Samsung smartphone, or the aforementioned S6 tab. My tablet goes with me some places and is surely easy to read, just finished a book yesterday. Phone, less easy, so that's not my personal sweet-spot (6.5" or so screen).
Lately I've been reading a lot of library books on my computer. Just like the convenience of it. The email notifying
me that a book I was on a waiting list for is now available! When I had Grand Jury duty for two weeks,
my Kindle came in super handy. A lot of wait time between cases. It's easy to hold, you can enlarge the
font size, lots of storage.
I will admit, there was something wholesome about doing some research at the local library. And I wish
some teen books I liked as a youth were still available. Some are hard to find.
One thing that crossed my mind, with all this revision of history that is currently going on: the faction controlling information wouldn't have to burn any book. Just erase all the books they don't like from the Cloud. Easy Peasy. Gone forever.
Location: IN>Germany>ND>OH>TX>CA>Currently NoVa and a Vacation Lake House in PA
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I read during my subway commute, and there's no way I'm lugging books around. I've been an avid user of Kindles for 12 years or so, and they are amazing. I just finished the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, and each book in the series is near 1,000 pages. I had all 14 on my Kindle and never had that moment of panic when I neared the end of one volume and wished I would have thought to bring the next. They were all in the palm of my hands the entire time.
Also, there's a ton of free material available for download.
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When I had Grand Jury duty for two weeks,
