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Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#151

Post by NikolaNovak »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #62
NikolaNovak wrote: post #24

Yes. I read fiction as ebooks (basically exclusively since days of palm pilot and Treo, then kindle and phone and tablets), but far prefer physical books when learning a new topic including tech. Few reasons but I think it's at least partially because: 1. It's easier to mark or hold with my finger e.g. A table or reference or definition page, then return or glance at it as I progress next few pages of that topic. I f…

While I feel the same way towards point 2, I actually find it easier to follow along on a monitor. Sure, it requires a big monitor to display both the doc and the ide/editor, and possibly even the output (say the browser if it's a web framework).

Right, but that's cheating :-). I like everything better on my large monitors.

But they have zero portability, so to me they were not part of this comparison. If I am learning about a net new topic that I want to really dive into and engross myself and dedicate and get into the zone, I like to sit down on a comfy chair, lie down on the couch, or bench in a park, or best of all bring the book to shady lounge chair in Cuba lol! Kindle, tablet and physical book can do those things, my monitor setup less so :-)

Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#152

Post by falcolas »

account-5 wrote: post #18
falcolas wrote: post #15

I’ll generally download a local copy of the language spec and the standard library docs. Rust’s borrow checker aside, most mainline programming languages have enough in common it’s usually all I need. Google’s there when I need more. Elixir and forth were the big exceptions.

What did you do for them?

Mostly reading a lot of blog posts and whichever e-material was available. Also read a lot of code.

So on the scale for the original question, ebook over regular books. I used to use physical books in the past, but with the broad availability of material on the web, my need for them dropped dramatically.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#153

Post by zuramai »

No. I don't buy physical tech books. I prefer to read the digital source so I can learn from multiple source simultaneously. In case I want to read it again or come back to specific location in the book, I use bookmarks.

The only books I buy physically is fiction and non-fiction books. Fiction is the best when I read it physically while chilling and having a cup of tea. It just doesn't work if I read it in my phone, it just distracting and I kinda hate blue light when I want to get off from any device to chill.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#155

Post by Shadowed_ »

Completely switched to eBooks. Main reason is space and also availability. I move often and if I had all or most books that I read in paper form, it would both take too much space and be problem to move to other place. I don't miss paper books. I read fiction on eBook reader (first Kindle, but switched to Kobo for bigger screen) and for me, feeling is same as with paper to extent that sometimes when dust or hair drops on screen I move it away before turning page as I would do with paper book so it doesn't stay between pages. IT books I read on my computer. For them I prefer eBook format as it is easier and faster to navigate, you can do text search, copy from them etc.

Saving few trees from being converted to paper is also a motivation :)

Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#156

Post by jcpst »

justrudd wrote: post #139
jcpst wrote: post #86

Yes, and No. Yes, I still buy physical books to learn something new. I value being away from a screen. But I don’t buy the “Learn X” style of introductory material. All that info is online. I buy the dense deep-dives that are filled with advanced esoteric knowledge, and may take years to grok. Things that will not change much after 5-10 years. Something that I can reference and go back to over and over.

Same. Except the books I buy aren’t advanced :) The books I can see from my couch - Code Complete (McConnell), Transaction Processing (Gray), Algorithms (Cormen), Algorithms (Sedgwick), Starting Strength (Rippetoe), All the 5/3/1 books (Wendler), etc.

I would consider algorithms advanced. I’ve been programming professionally for 8+ years, and haven’t yet found a need to study algorithms. It seems like all the scenarios where I would need some scholarly algorithm knowledge have been abstracted by some library.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#157

Post by granneman »

atchoo wrote: post #119
darkteflon wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this a lot - particularly as there may be a range of reasons that you can’t get hold of a particular book in physical form. I’ve never used or looked into non-ecosystem e-readers. Do you have any recommendations?

I use the Calibre e-reader with custom style overrides to get my preferred spacing, margins etc. It's ugly out of the box but doesn't require much tweaking to look like Apple Books if you know css. Works great on MacOs/Linux/Windows (I use them all). If a book has hardcoded fonts/styles/spacing I don't like then I use the Calibre editor to remove them. I don't use Calibre as a library tool, I find that pretty annoyin…

What are your overrides? Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?

#160

Post by atchoo »

granneman wrote: post #157
atchoo wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the Calibre e-reader with custom style overrides to get my preferred spacing, margins etc. It's ugly out of the box but doesn't require much tweaking to look like Apple Books if you know css. Works great on MacOs/Linux/Windows (I use them all). If a book has hardcoded fonts/styles/spacing I don't like then I use the Calibre editor to remove them. I don't use Calibre as a library tool, I find that pretty annoyin…

What are your overrides? Thanks!

I use a window a bit bigger than a typical fiction paperback and a bit wider aspect ratio. I like a good bit of whitespace in the margin to help me concentrate. I don't want the text to feel crampt or my reading scanline to enter another window. After making the changes I zoom in (ctrl-mousewheel) until the text is roughly 20pt on a 34" screen (depends on the screen). The viewer might need to be restarted to sort out the layout changes.

This is what I have in my notes for the settings. Just a result of iterative poking until I like it so the css is uh... not fit for a code review :)

# Font

   Baskerville (google fonts) I think I might use Merriweather on some OS because they render differently, I can't recall offhand).
# Colours

    custom scheme:

    foreground: #2f2f2f

    background: #fcfcfc
# Page Layout > Padding

    100, 100

    75, 75
# Misc

  - remember window last position
# Headers and footers

  - progress bottom right
# Style > css

   p 
   { 
     line-height: 1.5em !important;
     font-size: 0.854em !important;
     padding-bottom: 25px; 
     text-indent: 35.868px !important;
   }
   
   div 
   { 
     line-height:1.5em; 
     padding-top: 1em; 
   }
   
   line-height: 1.5em;
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