The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market • Hacker News Board

Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market

#31

Post by teh_klev » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:59 PM UTC

smogcutter wrote: post #29

teh_klev wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline. I'm not sure that's true. I own a Kindle but I find it's less expensive to purchase new paper books just about every time. Sure there's the occasional time when a book is on offer in the Kindle store, but it's pretty rare. I haven't re-charged my Kindle for more than a couple of years. Also there's a bunch of authors I've followed and read over the last 40…

> And then for many of us there's nothing quite like the feel of a paper book and, if you have space, building a physical library of stuff read, and stuff to be read and being able to peruse it when looking for the next thing to read. A lot of people dismiss this, but I think it’s absolutely true. A hugely formative part of my childhood was just browsing the bookshelves at home and pulling down whatever looked intere…

> A hugely formative part of my childhood was just browsing the bookshelves at home and pulling down whatever looked interesting

This is precisely how I widened the scope of what I read as a youngster. I get very excited when I visit a new friend's or acquaintance's house and see they've got a bunch of heavily populated bookshelves, and there are books lying around everywhere.

Another thing I forgot to add as a reason for the continued existence of paper books is flicking through older read books and discovering a bus or train ticket, or a receipt, used as a makeshift bookmark which can evoke strong memories or feelings from the time and place you'd read that particular book. And getting your favourite authors to sign first editions at book readings.

Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market

#32

Post by seabird » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 6:00 PM UTC

I'm curious as to whether or not the mall will be able to keep up. A student is quoted as saying "this place is outdated, the roads are dirty, the hygiene is poor, and in the summer it’s unbearably hot." I can see this being a side effect of the vendors focusing solely on a better selection at a lower price, because those are concrete metrics that they compete with others on. At the end of the day, it's all that really matters; if a place doesn't have the book I want at a price I can afford, any other conveniences mean nothing.

If I need the books, the uncomfortable location with a huge inventory that don't need to pad prices to deal with rent seems like the obvious first stop.

Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market

#33

Post by noyesno » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC

The vast majority of books printed up to the present day will never be available in digital format. Therefore, as long as there is interest to the older material, the secondhand book stores will thrive in one form or another.

Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market

#34

Post by billpollock » Fri, Nov 22, 2019, 7:14 AM UTC

RickJWagner wrote: post #12

I'm a huge packrat and have quite a few old books (especially tech titles. I'm never ready to admit I won't be coding Visual Basic again one day....) But I can see the future. I've been accumulating titles on my Kindle, and I really like using it. I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.

That doesn't seem to be the case in the book business. Certainly not the case with us. We're selling more paper books than ever.

Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market

#35

Post by EliRivers » Mon, Nov 25, 2019, 10:56 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #23

EliRivers wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline. On what grounds, may I ask? There currently doesn't seem to be a long-term declining trend in paper book sales, so are you expecting a significant change in technology or society that will cause a long-term decline? Or (possibly) did you conclude this (quite reasonably) when there was such a trend and haven't checked recently?

I think we'll see the decline happen once there's a generation that grew up with ebooks as an option. All the reasons people give for preferring paper books seem to amount to habit and nostalgia; people who've grown up taking Kindles on holiday will see no reason not to use them all the time.

All the reasons people give for preferring paper books seem to amount to habit and nostalgia

I disagree. Here are some reasons for prefering paper books that are not habit or nostalgia:

Longevity.

Reliability.

Isolation and permanence of content - nobody is going to come into my house and edit my physical books. Some eReader eco-systems are robust in this regard; others remain under the control of a thrid party.

Ease of mark-up, and the range of mark-up available is an order of magnitude superior to those of eBooks.

Phenomenally intuitive bookmarking interface. So easy to bookmark different places and so fast and easy to use those bookmarks.

High-quality images and colours.

Screen size; I have many books that present a large, very high resolution view. For books that benefit from it - art books in particular - this is a real advantage. The best eBook reader can't compare, and small kindles and the like are just terrible in comparison for this. Large eBook reader systems such as a desktop PC with a huge, high resolution monitor is better, but this is something of a high-cost option.

Multi-screen - I can open a lot of physical books at once, and they simply expand into available space (really fast, too - the loading time is so short that I barely notice). Having five or six ebooks open at once and flitting between them quickly is either impossible or much less satisfactory than the physical book version. I habitually have three or more physical books open at once, and five or six is not uncommon. I suppose you could call this one "habit", in that I am in the habit of being able to look at five or six books at once, easily flitting between them at speed.

Realtive self-contained operation; they rely only on a light-source being available to operate for decades or even longer. eBooks require much more support in terms of software, power and hardware.

Random-access interface; the speed with which I can change pages (not just consecutive pages, but large numbers of pages at once) using a physical book is an order of magnitude better than an eBook, and I will often find part of a book I seek using this random access method. Even when I am familiar with an eBook's layout, quickly finding a particular section is just much more clumsy. The reading experience is damaged by this inferior aspect of the interface.