Ebooks or Print Books?

29 Comments to “Ebooks or Print Books?”

1. 

   Melanie MacekJanuary 11, 2013 at 1:31 pm

   I switch between the two depending on my mood. Some books I want to be able to read a page or two while I’m waiting somewhere and other I want to hold while I curl up on the couch and read. Like the gentleman in the video said, vinyl is coming back and I think the more prevalent e-readers and e-books become, there will be people out there who appreciate the physicality of a print book and the entire experience it lends to the reader.
2. 

   Gerard de MarignyJanuary 11, 2013 at 1:44 pm

   Thanks PG, hope you’re well.

   Question: What will tyrants burn if there are no longer any paper books … Kindles?

   c”,)

   • 

     Passive GuyJanuary 11, 2013 at 2:18 pm

     iPhones first, then Kindles, Gerard.

     • 

       Sandra Ulbrich AlmazanJanuary 11, 2013 at 2:54 pm

       But at what temperature do they burn?
   • 

     Tom SimonJanuary 11, 2013 at 3:00 pm

     They’ll burn Nature’s fuel, Gerard, like they used to in the old days: Heretics!
   • 

     Jeff PfeifferJanuary 21, 2013 at 11:41 am

     They won’t burn kindles, they’ll just recycle them. Tyrants of the future will be much more eco-friendly.
3. 

   Dan BeckerJanuary 11, 2013 at 3:29 pm

   Fahren i 451?
4. 

   Randall WoodJanuary 11, 2013 at 4:05 pm

   I don’t know if they burn, but thanks to an earlier post from PG we do know that they blend!

   Blending iphones just doesn’t make the same statement as the burning book though.

   • 

     DanyelleJanuary 11, 2013 at 6:00 pm

     We could always blend, then burn. >:)
5. 

   Eric WelchJanuary 11, 2013 at 4:09 pm

   I so miss my clay tablet. It astounds me that when people (almost always old and in bookstores) are asked about digital v paper books, all they can come up with is smell and touch. I’m into content. I’m into reading and learning and being entertained. I want that content delivered in the most efficient and inexpensive way possible. If all you want is smell and feel, carry around an aerosol.

   • 

     Donald WellsJanuary 11, 2013 at 4:10 pm

     AMEN!
   • 

     ClampsJanuary 11, 2013 at 6:10 pm

     What about “engaging in random conversations about books” because it’s hard to tell what somebody’s reading on a Kindle? What about gravity?
   • 

     Meryl YourishJanuary 11, 2013 at 9:39 pm

     You know, there’s a musty smell of old books in used bookstores that, after a while, smells BAD. Why is it people never mention that part about the smell?

     And those darned silverfish larva. You don’t have them in ebooks.

     

     • 

       C. R. ReavesJanuary 12, 2013 at 12:27 am

       No silverfish, but sometimes you have formatting gremlins. :c (Not that you don’t have those in print too. xD )

       • 

         Deb KinnardJanuary 12, 2013 at 8:10 am

         Maybe we PVers can make millions of dollars, pounds, and/or euros with a pocket sized aerosol spray. We could call it ScentoBook.
     • 

       Tom SimonJanuary 12, 2013 at 8:56 am

       And those darned silverfish larva. You don’t have them in ebooks.

       Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s an app for that.

       • 

         K. A. JordanJanuary 12, 2013 at 12:11 pm

         Wouldn’t that be hilarious?

         An app that puts random black pixels in ebook files and crawls around eating random letters.

         LOL!

         • 

           Meryl YourishJanuary 12, 2013 at 1:07 pm

           There was a program I found in the late 80s called “drip.com”. If you loaded it on your computer, you started it by hitting the spacebar. Slowly but surely, letters would start falling off the monitor display, and then they’d drop faster and faster until you had no more words on the screen.

           At the time, I had a bunch of friends that never seemed to be able to say “I don’t know” to something they had no knowledge of. So at a party one night, the hostess and I loaded it onto her computer, knowing that people would head for the BBSes (it was a thing then). I clicked the spacebar and then we pretended to be shocked at what was happening to her monitor. “It’s broken!” “Is it a virus”? We waited a few minutes, until the partygoers had all given their various (and hilariously wrong) theories, and then I said “Wait a sec” and hit the key to restore the screen to its normal display.

           So yeah, there’s an app that eats words, and it’s been around since the 80s. I imagine you can find plenty more these days.
         • 

           Keran ParizekJanuary 12, 2013 at 9:52 pm

           There was a crawling-bug for Windows, back in the day. I think it was called Roach Stomp. It made cockroaches crawl out from under your windows, and you splatted them by clicking on them with the mouse.
   • 

     Jeff PfeifferJanuary 21, 2013 at 11:53 am

     Depending on what you consider to be old, I am 46, and I appreciate the new technology, but also like holding an actual print book in my hands. My twenty year old, and my seventeen year old daughters agree with me, as well as my nine year old daughter and twenty year old son. I don’t think you can skew your opinion based on age, and I don’t think my kids are unusual in their preferences.

     And yet, I’m sure there were scroll users who lamented the loss of the heft and feel of a twenty pound document in scroll form, that you had to roll out on a large table, when the codex started to take over. I think e books are great because they’re more affordable, portable, and up datable. For news and reference material especially, that’s great. For fiction, I think you can enjoy the best of both formats, depending on your preference or how mobile you tend to be.

     The downside to e books, is they aren’t owned by the purchaser, who only gets what essentially amounts to a license to read for the works, and if your e reader is stolen or destroyed, what do you do about all those lost books? Paper books can last for centuries, and can withstand some damage. Besides, it’s very unusual to have your book stolen, no real money resale value in that. You can’t say the same for e readers.
6. 

   Michael BrownJanuary 11, 2013 at 4:38 pm

   None of the above. I love audio books!
7. 

   Suzan HardenJanuary 11, 2013 at 6:18 pm

   Whatever happened to parchment? Dead sheep are so much sturdier than paper.
8. 

   Sarah McCabeJanuary 11, 2013 at 6:48 pm

   This seems to really want to emphasize that people who read ebooks still buy print books. Well and good. But one of the things that really struck me about the whole 1 star review controversy yesterday was the amount of reviewers who were saying they just don’t and/or won’t buy print books anymore. And you know, none of them would have been in the book store to be asked this question cause they’re not buying print books anymore.

   The whole smell of books thing… I’ll admit I do like the smell of books. But I also acknowledge that it’s a purely sentimental thing. I was one of those kids for whom books were an escape during dark times. So the smell of books is comforting to me. But once the people who grew up smelling books a lot have died off, there’s just going to be the people who grew up with their iphones and tablets and have no sentimental attachment to the smell of books. They won’t care about any of that aesthetic nonsense.

   Ebooks have so many practical advantages. Print books have a few aesthetic ones. I wonder which one will win with the up and coming generations.

   • 

     C. R. ReavesJanuary 12, 2013 at 12:37 am

     I don’t know about people not caring in the future. There’s a big retro push these last five years or so. More people are learning dying industries or ancient crafts or old-fashioned skills than ever, aren’t they?

     It’s quite fashionable to sew your own clothes, make your own quilts, bake, bind your own books, create physical photo albums, craft your own jewelry, hand-letter special items, develop film using old techniques, woodworking, clay shaping, hand-pulled candies; etc. People like making things that are one of a kind (or at least, not machine-made entirely) and buying those things or trading for them if they can’t make them themselves/can’t take the time to.

     People will want things that are more special/unique/exclusive. But they’ll want it for special things. So I see it going where people will gravitate more towards ebooks or similar in the future and then seek out limited edition physical books for their favorites/collections. Not mass-market paperbacks. And probably not even mass-market print runs. But print that is special.

     • 

       Robert ForresterJanuary 12, 2013 at 5:52 am

       I agree, and one thing that people often forget when it comes to books is the sheer number that are bought as gifts during Christmas and other gift-giving times. In the UK, the sales charts are full of minor celebrity autobiographies, cookbooks and even novels written by z-list celebrities, many of which are bought as gifts, and I don’t think that will ever go away. One of the disadvantages of the eBook is that you can’t wrap one up and see somebody open it on Christmas morning.

       Personally, given a choice, I prefer a paperback over an eBook any day, not that I’m opposed to eBooks or don’t read them. I admit, there’s not much difference to the reading experience but I just prefer it, but I am one of these people that has always had a romantic attachments to paper books. Price will make me buy an eBook, especially if it is an author I don’t know, but if there is little difference in paperback and eBook price I’ll get the paperback. If it is an author whose work I’ve long anticipated, I’ll buy the hardback, regardless of cost. I do like the immediacy of eBooks, being able to download and read straight away, but then if it is a book I’ve been waiting for its release, I’ll order it from the book store and pick it up the day it comes out. Admittedly, I get most of my reading material from the local library these days, but I do enjoy the perusing of actual books, in both the library and bookstore, far more than the virtual shelves of Amazon. But that’s just me.
9. 

   MiraJanuary 11, 2013 at 7:46 pm

   Propaganda.

   Can’t blame them for trying.

   • 

     Jim SelfJanuary 14, 2013 at 11:35 pm

     We asked people who had already walked into a physical bookstore if they thought paper books would last! They all thought so! It’s SCIENTIFIC!

     At least two of the guys were speaking like insiders. One was a bookstore owner. So yeah.
10. 

    CandaceJanuary 12, 2013 at 10:13 am

    Shared on my Facebook page at Change It Up Editing and Writing Services:

    Personally, I love the smell of books . . . but I’m also still mourning the demise of library card catalogues (and no, I’m not 101 years old!)
11. 

    Mik FinkelJanuary 13, 2013 at 4:32 pm

    Went to my ereader and have not looked back. Have had no desire to crack open a paper book.

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