Physical books still trump e-books for me, though I use both.
There is something nicer about a physical book which my e-reader is not able to replicate or replace.
E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
21–30 of 190 posts
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#22I hope this isn't the trend going forward. I don't get the traditionalist love of paperback books most of the time. Like the sort of people who go on and on about exploring book stores or the smell of new paper. I love my Kindle and I really hope to be able to use it as my primary reading source, its just so convenient, light, portable and unobtrusive (especially with that newer back-light option). But the price of n…
I hold fairly different opinions, though I agree that digital reading sources can make sense for completely new books read for pleasure.
As a longtime physical product, paper has a lot of benefits. My dad can give me a book he read in college, just grab it off the shelf. I can go buy books extremely cheaply secondhand, sometimes free. I can't imagine paying $10 for an ebook when I can go to a used bookstore and pay $3, and then I own it forever. Additionally, once I own it I can share it, give it away, write in the margins, dog-ear pages, leave post-it notes, etc. I also can't imagine a world where 20 years later I can trivially give my old Kindle eBooks to my children.
On the other hand, I much prefer having searchable digital technical reference books. I find the flipping and index/table-of-contents referencing to be very "immersion-breaking" when I'm programming. For example, it's much quicker and easier to Ctrl+F for "XCHG" than it is to dig through the intimidating multi-thousand page Intel x86 Instruction Reference. When I was taking an OS course, I had to do this all the time, and I much preferred the pdf reference over the physical one.
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#23I've been really disappointed with the pricing of eBooks. A new book is available for pre-order, and here is the Amazon pricing: Kindle – $26.35 Hardcover – $19.23 Audible – $27.61 Audio CD – $30.00 All logic suggests the electronic version should be cheaper. Prices like this will likely drive me, and others, to piracy. Yes, the value of the book is what I am willing to pay for it, but I feel insulted by the pricing…
> Prices like this will likely drive me, and others, to piracy. Especially since ebooks are small enough that you can download them in seconds. I love getting juiced for out-of-print books, especially ones that are in that gray area where the author and his direct descendants are dead and buried, but copyright lives on.
It's not just very old out-of-print books. There is a whole class of, for example, 10-20 year old fiction for which print copies are often readily available from Amazon sellers for the cost of shipping/handling ($3.99) or just a little more while the Kindle copy is still $9.99 or more. The thing is that I would much rather have the digital copy because I end up reading most of my books on planes or otherwise while traveling but it really bugs me to pay a big premium to do so.
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#24I hope this isn't the trend going forward. I don't get the traditionalist love of paperback books most of the time. Like the sort of people who go on and on about exploring book stores or the smell of new paper. I love my Kindle and I really hope to be able to use it as my primary reading source, its just so convenient, light, portable and unobtrusive (especially with that newer back-light option). But the price of n…
Just curious. What are the missing features in technical/programming ebooks in your opinion?
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#25E-ink readers are small and suited mostly to black-and-white paperback-sized novels or non-fiction. That still leaves an enormous number of books (perhaps the majority) that don't fit the paperback size such as illustrated children's book, or oversized books or...anything with a non-standard layout or larger than paperback-size. Plus, the lack of colour in e-ink readers remains a severe limitation.
E-books have taken their place alongside print but I don't think many people expected them to displace print books. Certainly not with the current crop of e-readers.
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#26Is this surprising when you are charged similarly for print and digital copies despite the production costs being nowhere near the same? Ebooks were supposed to be the cost effective, cut out the middlemen, pay the author directly format. What wasn't accounted for was that the book indexers have no incentive to pass on their savings to the consumer. edit: Let's not forget the artificial restrictions imposed by DRM, e…
It's not just that they have no incentive to pass on the savings, they actively do not want ebooks to become popular -- they've stated this outright at various points in their battles with Amazon, that their goal with ebook pricing/policies is to preserve their print business as much as possible, as they believe that's totally key to their future success.
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Prices like this will likely drive me, and others, to piracy. Especially since ebooks are small enough that you can download them in seconds. I love getting juiced for out-of-print books, especially ones that are in that gray area where the author and his direct descendants are dead and buried, but copyright lives on.
It's not just very old out-of-print books. There is a whole class of, for example, 10-20 year old fiction for which print copies are often readily available from Amazon sellers for the cost of shipping/handling ($3.99) or just a little more while the Kindle copy is still $9.99 or more. The thing is that I would much rather have the digital copy because I end up reading most of my books on planes or otherwise while tr…
If you're opposed to downloading these ebooks for free, you might consider getting an inexpensive used copy digitized.[0]
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#28I hope this isn't the trend going forward. I don't get the traditionalist love of paperback books most of the time. Like the sort of people who go on and on about exploring book stores or the smell of new paper. I love my Kindle and I really hope to be able to use it as my primary reading source, its just so convenient, light, portable and unobtrusive (especially with that newer back-light option). But the price of n…
After a long day of working in the garden, on my car or on a home improvement project, I like to relax in a hot bath with a good book. I'm not comfortable doing that with my Kindle.
I may not be the average book consumer but I buy a lot of books.
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#29What's the current law regarding resale of ebooks? Do I "own" them or am I merely licensing them?
Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead
#30I hope this isn't the trend going forward. I don't get the traditionalist love of paperback books most of the time. Like the sort of people who go on and on about exploring book stores or the smell of new paper. I love my Kindle and I really hope to be able to use it as my primary reading source, its just so convenient, light, portable and unobtrusive (especially with that newer back-light option). But the price of n…
Just curious. What are the missing features in technical/programming ebooks in your opinion?
The biggest one for me is that it is hard to read them on the typical I thought about getting a Kindle DX when they were making them. Although even then, my copy of Code Complete is as big as a 19" monitor, when it is open and laid flat.