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No one buys books

elysian.press

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Re: No one buys books

#331

Post by Tor3 »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #222
SubmarineClub wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another benefit to paper books, in my experience, is it's a lot easier to remember the rough location of a particular passage (towards the front, middle, near the end, etc.) than with digital A progress bar really doesn't replace the context of the stack of pages behind and ahead of your current page.

It's pretty easy to highlight passages with most e-reader software. Some even let you write a note that goes with the highlight. You can then look through a list of all highlighted passages.

It's when something comes up and you remember that you read something relevant in the past. In most of those cases it's not about "Ah, this is something I may want to check again at a later time, so let's highlight it". So, there's no list of highlighted passages to search through.

Indeed this is one of those things I miss about paper books. When the above happens I have a terrible time finding that on my Kindle. Most of the time I'm not able to, while with a paper book I didn't have that problem, mostly.

Re: No one buys books

#332

Post by grepLeigh »

From the article:

>>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?"

I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local branch even has a Makerspace with 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and other misc tools.

Re: No one buys books

#334

Post by Tor3 »

wolverine876 wrote: post #241
iamacyborg wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paper books are also just orders of magnitude easier to flip through and re-read specific chapters, paragraphs or sections. I can skim through a shelf full of books in a way that I’m just not able to with ebooks, even with stuff like full text search available in Calibre.

> Paper books are also just orders of magnitude easier to flip through and re-read specific chapters, paragraphs or sections. Whatever works for you, of course. PDFs have bookmarks, which instantly take me to a specific spot on a specific page. Also, I can open multiple instances of the PDF, viewing multiple pages of the same book (or some PDF readers allow split screens to do the same thing). Edit: And if I don't re…

I prefer PDFs for informative material (various documentation), though they're less useful if it's just a photocopied old manual (no OCR).

It's when reading books (literature, not documentation) that the e-readers have something going for them. I read nearly all my books on the Kindle, but I never use it for documentation - I've tried, that's just cumbersome. PDFs on a PC are fine.

Re: No one buys books

#336

Post by Tor3 »

criddell wrote: post #105
echelon_musk wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older I get the less I trust myself to know how to administer or even to care how to work any current or future reading e-device. A printed book requires light as just about it's only dependency! I definitely agree with you about the distractions of digital devices. Switching to a book is a focused mode.

The older I get, the more I appreciate being able to select a larger font with my Kindle. I love books, but the accessibility features of a modern ereader are pretty great too.

The ability to select a font size I like is one of my main three reasons for using a Kindle.

Re: No one buys books

#337

Post by petre »

yreg wrote: post #51

I recently started buying paper books. Yes, it's not particularly ecological, but I found that I'm able to focus at the text much better this way. My Kindle (despite plenty of obvious advantages) just doesn't really work for me. It took me years to realize this, but I always start to tinker with the brightness settings, switch pages back and forth, go into the book library and back, play with highlighting words, etc.…

> Yes, it's not particularly ecological

As if food packaging is particulary ecological, but we continue to order food, eat takeaway and processed food reliant on packaging.

I also buy paper books. Cheap paperback ones.

Books can easily be recycled as opposed to food packaging which mostly ends up in landfills or litters the environment.

Re: No one buys books

#338

Post by Tor3 »

hollandheese wrote: post #221
echelon_musk wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older I get the less I trust myself to know how to administer or even to care how to work any current or future reading e-device. A printed book requires light as just about it's only dependency! I definitely agree with you about the distractions of digital devices. Switching to a book is a focused mode.

E-readers are often very simple devices. Their main audience is older people. Light being a dependency of reading a printed book is one of the biggest plus for e-ink readers. You don't need light, they already come with it! It's so much easier reading with a Kindle (in dark mode) at bed time than it is a paper book.

Well, yes and no.. I do use the backlight on my Kindle if it's dark, but this changes how it looks. I have a Paperwhite Kindle. With the backlight on it's more like reading on LCD, though not as bad. The Kindle looks much nicer if I can use a bedside lamp instead of the backlight, just as I would with a paper book.

Re: No one buys books

#339

Post by [deleted] »

grepLeigh wrote: post #332

From the article: >>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?" I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local…

[deleted]

Re: No one buys books

#340

Post by yellow_postit »

grepLeigh wrote: post #332

From the article: >>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?" I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local…

It’s funny seeing this comment and the article about Seattle libraries reducing digital copies both on HNews front page at the same time.

I love libraries.

It also feels like all our public institutions in the US are crumbling under assault from all sides.

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