It is the multitude of form factors on the internet that keeps absorbing and reducing the total value of books. For what subject is a 300-page collection of "pages" still the best form factor? How can it compete, for example, with a StackOverflow page, when answering technical questions? Maybe a book is still useful for fiction, but how long will it take before people design better form factors even for novels?
How ebooks lost their shine
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#32"While ebooks, which are not things of beauty, have become more expensive; a new digital fiction release is often only a pound or two cheaper than a hardback." I'm betting has more to do with it than romantic notions of people preferring physical books. Given the choice of a fiction book for $10 in hardcopy or $9 as an ebook, I'll take the hardcopy. If ebooks (and movie downloads come to that) were priced the same as…
> a pound or two cheaper
Also, sometimes a pound or two lighter. (That's per book.)
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#33For practical reason, I prefer e-book nowadays. They don't take much physical space, easy to search, and so on. The only reason I buy hardcopies these day is photography books, which rely heavily on graphics.
I find graphics looks much better on a computer screen than it does on paper these days.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#34I wish they gave more clarity to this stat * Overall digital sales up 6% to £1.7bn despite a continuation of the drop in eBook sales down 3% I personally doubt that ebooks have 'lost their shine', I think this is more a matter of a journalist not being able to read into the numbers. I haven't bought the report, but what little I know about the book market, I know that in 2016, adult colouring books became a BIG thing…
I really don't get why ebooks are so pricy. If they were half the price of a book, I would actually consider buying them instead of borrowing them or only using Amazon Prime's free offerings.
Ebook prices are set to be artificially high by publishers in order to prop up the paper business. It's a strategy that has strongly diminishing returns and doesn't make much sense but I suppose it does slow the decline.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#35> "Here are some things that you can’t do with a Kindle. You can’t turn down a corner, tuck a flap in a chapter, crack a spine (brutal, but sometimes pleasurable) or flick the pages to see how far you have come and how far you have to go. You can’t remember something potent and find it again with reference to where it appeared on a right- or left-hand page. You often can’t remember much at all." I don't care about cr…
I nearly cried laughing at myself the first time I put my finger against a page to get a word definition.
Also, people who dog-ear books are war criminals.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#36It is the multitude of form factors on the internet that keeps absorbing and reducing the total value of books. For what subject is a 300-page collection of "pages" still the best form factor? How can it compete, for example, with a StackOverflow page, when answering technical questions? Maybe a book is still useful for fiction, but how long will it take before people design better form factors even for novels?
Indeed. Being stuck with the fixed page format is like being stuck in the "horseless-carriage" mentality. A4 or whatever paper sheet format should be completely abandoned in favor of dynamic text formatting - not unlike what browsers can do when displaying HTML.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#37I prefer PDF files rather than ebook formats. I don't like the idea of being locked into a particular technology, be it Apple's or Amazon's. I consider PDF viewers to be superior to the experience offered by ebook viewers. For example, Having to tap the left and right side of the screen to move between pages is a pain compared to swiping up or down in a fluid motion. Another issue is the waste of space by trying to s…
> no matter where I might be
Well, with a few exceptions, such as an airplane and some other places (on a trail, deep in the woods) where you may not have an internet connection.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#38I wish they gave more clarity to this stat * Overall digital sales up 6% to £1.7bn despite a continuation of the drop in eBook sales down 3% I personally doubt that ebooks have 'lost their shine', I think this is more a matter of a journalist not being able to read into the numbers. I haven't bought the report, but what little I know about the book market, I know that in 2016, adult colouring books became a BIG thing…
I really don't get why ebooks are so pricy. If they were half the price of a book, I would actually consider buying them instead of borrowing them or only using Amazon Prime's free offerings.
Partially because Amazon lost to the Publishers in 2014-15 - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachett... ? All ebook prices jumped after that.
I am not sure why no one is correlating the price increase to the the drop in Ebook sales, especially since Amazon at that point pointed out exactly this as a consequence - since ebooks have to compete with other digital media.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't get why ebooks are so pricy. If they were half the price of a book, I would actually consider buying them instead of borrowing them or only using Amazon Prime's free offerings.
Partially because Amazon lost to the Publishers in 2014-15 - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachett... ? All ebook prices jumped after that. I am not sure why no one is correlating the price increase to the the drop in Ebook sales, especially since Amazon at that point pointed out exactly this as a consequence - since ebooks have to compete with other digital media.
I'm surprised no one is focusing on this as well. I believe that ebooks being overpriced is the main reason they aren't selling well. If ebooks were at least the same price as paperbacks instead of more expensive I would buy more of them. But right now it's cheaper to buy physical copies of books than ebooks.
Re: How ebooks lost their shine
#40I'm a book aficionado. I just love books. Our house is filled with thousands and thousands of books. And I have a Kindle. 2 Main reasons:
(1) Travel. Going on a trip used to involve careful selection and (for longer trips) substantial packing weight and volume (I travel light), now I just take the Kindle, and don't even have to buy the books i want to read in advance
(2) Pint quality. I read lots of paperbacks, and frankly, the print quality on some of them has become so atrocious that it is almost impossible to enjoy the read. Blurred tiny prints on flimsy but coarse grained paper are no exception.
Still love the physicality of books, but i succumbed to the practicality of the e-reader