Books Won't Die • Hacker News Board

Re: Books Won't Die

#91

Post by tracker1 » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 11:31 PM UTC

aaron-santos wrote: post #22

I interviewed at a print on demand book binding automation shop about five years ago. Naturally one of the topics was the sustainability of paper media on short and long terms. I'll be the first to admit that the interviewer had a vested interest in selling the idea that paper books aren't going away any time soon, but the argument was compelling. As long as children are taught to read on paper books, we will have an…

As far as I'm concerned, trees are a renewable resource... we can (and do) plant and grow more. Clear-cutting for farming is the biggest issue with tree loss, and that's pretty much outside the US. Not paper production. Growing trees takes carbon out of the atmosphere, using it and burying it making room for new trees is not a bad thing.

Beyond this, an actual book gives you a lot more context to help remember things... the feel, shape and even the physically relative position of a given page vs the book as a whole. You lose that when you go digital. You also tend to be tethered to some DRM scheme that can take your books away.

Re: Books Won't Die

#92

Post by tracker1 » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 11:38 PM UTC

HSO wrote: post #88

theli0nheart wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're describing is functional attachment. Emotionally, how would you feel if all of the printed books in the world were to disappear today? Would you miss them?

I don‘t think I would. I just don‘t see the point anymore. Don‘t get me wrong, I once was a romantic too! :) I used to spend entire afternoons after school in the bookstore or libraries and had a pretty good library. Now when I see paper books I groan a little. Too heavy, too much material/waste, too impractical, and most of all kind of fusty. What‘s the point.

Trees are a renewable resource... we can, and do grow more when they're used for paper. Or do you worry about running out of lettuce or carrots?

I get that it may be impractical for some... for some of us, we have a VERY hard time remembering long form content without the additional context a physical book provides. I simply cannot hold over 200 or so pages of content without that extra content... I get completely lost most of the time around page 50 in an eReader. I don't know how to describe it better. I can eat through 800 pages or so of a highly technical book in a weekend. I'm lucky if I can get through 100 pages on an eReader in that same time-frame.

Why do I get as irritated by this? Because, I'm not trying to stop the production of eReaders, which do have a LOT of actual environmental waste, compared to a few thousand books.

Re: Books Won't Die

#93

Post by HSO » Mon, Sep 23, 2019, 8:35 AM UTC

tracker1 wrote: post #92

HSO wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don‘t think I would. I just don‘t see the point anymore. Don‘t get me wrong, I once was a romantic too! :) I used to spend entire afternoons after school in the bookstore or libraries and had a pretty good library. Now when I see paper books I groan a little. Too heavy, too much material/waste, too impractical, and most of all kind of fusty. What‘s the point.

Trees are a renewable resource... we can, and do grow more when they're used for paper. Or do you worry about running out of lettuce or carrots? I get that it may be impractical for some... for some of us, we have a VERY hard time remembering long form content without the additional context a physical book provides. I simply cannot hold over 200 or so pages of content without that extra content... I get completely lo…

I don‘t have an opinion on the macro picture of whether paper books are a net drag or benefit to the environment because I haven‘t done the math. I was only responding to OP that being taught on paper books somehow means lifelong attachment. I grew up in a paper world and like I said now even have „negative attachment“ to paper. That‘s one counterexample, and I know a few others. Soclearly it‘s not a general truth.