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No one buys books

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Re: No one buys books

#281

Post by pests »

vundercind wrote: post #82
bombcar wrote: post #25

The entire book industry rides on the backs of bibles, hobbits, and extremely ravenous caterpillars. Seems almost poetic, somehow.

I gotta admit: I rarely make time for any recent fiction. Too busy catching up on the last 5,000 years. I don’t expect that to change before I die. Film has a similar problem—there are plausibly low-thousands existing films worth my time, a whole lot of them 30+ years old. I could never watch a film made after 2000 and not run out of good entertainment in my lifetime. They’re damn lucky the Mouse got copyright extend…

There are gems coming out today that will be considered great works by our descendants.

By avoiding current authors or media you miss out on the cultural story and critique/commentary that influences all our media. Sure, the last 5000 years are interesting, but isn't right now pretty amazing too? You might accidently read the best book ever written but you won't know until history plays out. But I think it's important to see how recent history has shaped the narrative of the worlds authors in today's world.

Weve lived through a lot of major events. Everyone does. But these are our events.

Re: No one buys books

#282

Post by techsupporter »

WalterBright wrote: post #272

I've been buying scifi books from thrift stores for a decade or more. But in the last couple years, there's been a near complete collapse in it. The racks of scifi have abruptly dwindled to a handful of lonely books. The entire book section has dramatically shrunk as well. This is across thrift stores, not just one. Is it: 1. nobody buys physical books anymore 2. nobody donates physical books anymore 3. donations see…

> nobody donates physical books anymore

It's partially number one but definitely this for me, insofar as thrift stores go. The two thrift stores around me that take books are Goodwill and the Salvation Army and I won't donate anything to them any more.

My book donations go to the neighborhood independent bookstore for them to price and resell and keep their employees paid.

The large chain bookstore near me still has several shelves of science fiction, new release and perennial favorites, so I think at least some are still being made and sold. Hopefully you can find what you seek.

Re: No one buys books

#283

Post by owlninja »

paxys wrote: post #182
bodantogat wrote: post #176

To add to the woes of the publishing industry, a lot of sales are lost due to piracy. $300MM a year for the US alone (per a 2019 article). https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2019/07/28/us-publish...

> according to data from the Authors Guild Despite the narrative that copyright holders in every industry like to push, a pirated copy is not equal to a lost sale. Their actual losses are likely a small fraction of that number.

Is the thinking that the person who pirated it was never going to buy it anyways?

Re: No one buys books

#284

Post by dhosek »

SubmarineClub wrote: post #125
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.

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.

My own personal anecdata on this comes from being able to find a passage I read in a 500-page book in 1992 for a class I was taking in 1998. I could probably even find that same passage now if I were to walk across the room to the bookcase where I have that book.

Although on the other hand, I was also able to turn up an article I’d read online a couple years later when it was relevant to a friend’s relationship with her newly out trans kid, but it was definitely a different sort of recall and lookup happening in the latter case.

Re: No one buys books

#285

Post by karmakaze »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #150
karmakaze wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not good news. I just got my first eInk reader today and first thing I did was go through all the navigation setup pages. I have one professional development book and was going find a work of fiction to start. Hope it works out.

FWIW - This (GP post) is not my experience with eReaders. Not sure if they have the eInk one or not (like the Fire or tablet ones), but I have the eInk sort. Anyway, I really like it because it's far lighter weight than a paperback, easier to hold, and I can have like the entire library on there and take it with me. I don't experience the distraction that they are referring to, because there's really not anything els…

Thanks (everyone) for the replies and different viewpoints.

I already went through all the setup menus, including messing with fonts, layouts, making some collection/folders, and downloading some samples to preview.

So far it all seems pretty good. I don't think I'll be too distracted by it. The 7" screen is a tad small, but I really do like the size and weight so will keep it. Anything larger/heavier will likely not be kept on my person so loses a lot of use.

Another great use I just discovered is loading it with pdf's of all my device/appliance/toys manuals in a User Manuals collection.

Re: No one buys books

#286

Post by karmakaze »

jhbadger wrote: post #268
Nifty3929 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW - This (GP post) is not my experience with eReaders. Not sure if they have the eInk one or not (like the Fire or tablet ones), but I have the eInk sort. Anyway, I really like it because it's far lighter weight than a paperback, easier to hold, and I can have like the entire library on there and take it with me. I don't experience the distraction that they are referring to, because there's really not anything els…

Also, while I know the readership of HN skews young, but when you reach your 50s, having the ability to make the text larger in an ebook is a killer feature.

Yeah my vision is still good but farsighted so need low-strength reading glasses, larger fonts, or what I've started doing with this eReader is just getting good at reading fuzzy letters with a relaxed gaze at less than arms length. It's actually less straining than trying to force focusing closer than is comfortable.

I tried using landscape mode or larger fonts but didn't like the extra page scrolling/turning. Eventually I suppose we'll get lightweight and normal looking AR glasses for reading eBooks.

Re: No one buys books

#287

Post by treflop »

Anon4Now wrote: post #135
paxys wrote: post #101

Can't help but feel for the publishing industry considering how shafted they got by tech. You distribute books all over the country? Amazon can do it better and cheaper. You print books? Well we have e-books now. You have a massive back catalog? Google just scanned all of it. You do marketing? Authors now have their own followings on social media and can reach them directly. You give cash advances? Fans on Kickstarte…

Businesses that remain stagnant don't get shafted so much as outmaneuvered. Instead of investing and pivoting, they cling to the old business model. Short term, their decisions make financial sense, but long term, it's a death sentence. Meanwhile, Amazon is looked at as the behemoth in the industry, yet it probably isn't thought of as an online book store / publisher by most people. I think of so many things before I…

I don't think a company that publishes books is going to be able to pivot to building an online book selling platform that easily. They just don't have anyone with the knowledge nor the capital to hire the people who then know who else to hire.

Just like I don't see someone working in construction picking up programming or some software engineer picking up construction. It happens, but generally both are just not built the same.

Re: No one buys books

#288

Post by LargeWu »

johnloeber wrote: post #209
roughly wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do the same - I far prefer paper books for reading, and mostly because it makes an enormous difference in my ability to focus. Re: the ecological side - I'm not actually convinced that a paperback book is markedly more of an ecological burden than an e-reader and the rest of the associated infrastructure. I think it's possible the e-reader pencils out in the long term, but I think a full lifecycle accounting of the…

Worrying about the environmental impact of books is misguided. You use far more paper products in the course of your everyday life: paper bags, cardboard packaging, paper towels, etc. etc. Even for an avid reader, the impact is negligible.

With paper books I'm more concerned with having to have space to put it when I'm done. But, I find it more enjoyable to read a physical book, and am more likely to re-read it.
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