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E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

nytimes.com

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Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#181
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goodreads? And some critical reading skills to pick out the shills?

Why should I waste time on this? I know that books in the SciFi section of my local bookshop will have a certain minimum standard without needing to wade through some reviews.

You have a better local bookstore than I do. Mine is all Star Wars expanded universe dreck (last decade or so, in prequel land or tying into a children's cartoon), Star Trek fan-fiction, Halo novelizations, etc. With some classic Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Bova, and a very few other authors thrown in to class up the joint, although usually just the more well-known titles I've already read.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 $…

I used to worry about the dad thing (well handing books to my son, to be more precise). However - I don't read that many books from my own dad, so maybe my son won't be bothered that much. Also, many books will be in the public domain by the time he might want to read them. Or there will be subscription models where he can just read them for free. Or, I would just have to buy it for him a second time, again, realisti…

Nah, I understand -- though I'm still fairly young, I collected a lot of records in high school and college. I recently moved into a Manhattan apartment. Guess what? Most of my records are now in my parents' basement. Book-wise, most are also at my parents' house, though I have a couple of fairly large art/photography books lined up precariously on the floor of my apartment.

I mostly brought up the dad thing because it actually happened a few months ago. I was visiting my parents and my dad, out of the blue, asks if I've read any Hemingway. I tell him I haven't, and he replies in a very out-of-character way that "Do you wanna be a Real Man? Real Men read Hemingway. Hold on..." He goes to the large bookshelf in another room, grabs a book of short stories, and plops it on the table. Out-of-character because the standard arrangement is me lending him sci-fi books for him to slowly read as he dozes off over the course of a few months. I've been slowly reading through the Hemingway stories on the train and I sometimes notice inscrutable/unreadable notes and underlines on some of the stories.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Op is talking about time-spans longer than we've had the internet. Don't flatter yourself by thinking you can predict the future. ( Ironically, neither Firefox nor Opera opened a .epub file out-of-the-box. So much for compatibility. )

True but html has the advantage of being a text based markup. The chances are that a text editor in 2050 will open an epub are fairly high. I don't know what the odds of being able to view a 2015 .mobi file at all in 2050 is.

I'm wondering if the downvoters really think that plain text will be unreadable in 35 years? Seems strange. I can open asci files from the 1970's just fine today...

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#184
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I waste time on this? I know that books in the SciFi section of my local bookshop will have a certain minimum standard without needing to wade through some reviews.

You have a better local bookstore than I do. Mine is all Star Wars expanded universe dreck (last decade or so, in prequel land or tying into a children's cartoon), Star Trek fan-fiction, Halo novelizations, etc. With some classic Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Bova, and a very few other authors thrown in to class up the joint, although usually just the more well-known titles I've already read.

I'm lucky.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#185
The NYTimes misinterpreted the AAP data it reported: http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/09/23/nytimes-mistakes-le...

A more complete look at the ebook market paints a very different picture: http://fortune.com/2015/09/24/ebook-sales/ https://stratechery.com/2015/are-ebooks-declining-or-just-th...

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#186

When I'm 85 I'll still be able to open a book I bought in 2012 and read it. Text on paper ain't never changing file format.

   You wont be able to read it without using a magnifying glass or maybe even hold it up with your hands because of its weight if its a big heavy book. 
  http://kindle-demographics.blogspot.sg/

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are developing a platform that can be used as a Calibre alternative to organize, read, make highlights, bookmarks and notes and have them synced across all devices. Check us out at https://bookfusion.com/ . We will be releasing an updated Android app and our IOS app soon. Feel free to send us some feedback at dc@bookfusion.com

My Calibre library is 2 gigs. Do you really want me to upload 2 gigs? Is there an offline mode? How do I access my books if there isn't?

Yes we want you to upload the 2 gig. We are a Dropbox for books with the added benefit of a single application to read multiple formats.

Our apps work both offline and online. You have the option to sync all books or only the top X most recently read.

Are you IOS or Android ?

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#188
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are developing a platform that can be used as a Calibre alternative to organize, read, make highlights, bookmarks and notes and have them synced across all devices. Check us out at https://bookfusion.com/ . We will be releasing an updated Android app and our IOS app soon. Feel free to send us some feedback at dc@bookfusion.com

Does it read all the formats that Calibre supports and convert between them? That's the use case for Calibre - and where most alternatives fall down.

We read all formats that Calibre support. We support natively EPUB and PDF. All other formats are converted to EPUB.

How can I reach you to discuss further ?

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#189
I've got a Kindle Paperwhite which I've used every so often but I still prefer 'wads of dead tree' books. I bought it thinking 'hey this is the future!' and expecting myself to get a lot of use out of it but I just haven't really. Last five books I've read have been physical copies. The only use I really get out of it now is if I want something on short notice and am not willing to wait for a physical delivery, which isn't often.

People cite the storage space of e-books as a plus for using them over paper books, so you can have lots of books when you're on the move. I've never understood this though. When I'm commuting to work, or travelling on a plane or something, how likely is it I'm going to read two or more books in one sitting?

I can see it if you need lots of technical texts at hand for reference or something, but most people use e-books to read novels and I don't understand why you need your entire library of novels at your fingertips while you take the train 40 minutes to another town. You're not going to read two or more books in that travel time.

If I'm sitting at home I will always prefer a hard copy of whatever I'm reading. In spite of how awesome people claim e-ink to be now I still find it much easier and more relaxing to read from paper, especially if it's a technical manual. Perhaps it's because I'm staring at computer screens all day at work, and when I program at home or play games. The last thing I want when reading for pleasure and to relax is to stare down at another screen.

Plus there is something meditative in the act of reading from a physical copy that I just don't get from an electronic device.

Then there is the issue of DRM which I am against in forms, and the dumb prices that are charged for e-books.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#190
post #164

If they priced the e-books a bit more reasonably then they'd sell more.

I'd be willing to pay 10 bucks for a thousand page views of any books from Google Books (not all from a single book). I like to dig around. A page view should count as a page where I spent more than 5 seconds. What counts for me most is the full text search with highlight capability, and of course, the sheer number of books they have in there. A single book should be much cheaper. I see ebooks priced at 100 bucks in…

To be honest the paying per page view somehow rubs me the wrong way. It'll make me think about cost whilst enjoying the book which I don't want.

I just want a reasonable price. e.g. I bought a book today. 10 GBP for paper. 5 for ebook. Thats pretty reasonable. Still good money but acknowledges that the real life costs are much lower. If its like 3% cheaper then thats just devoid of any link to real costs.

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