For those of us who look forward to one day being published in the traditional manner, this sounds like really good news. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ph...meback-after-many-years-of-decline-2016-08-22
Awesome! For me, there's nothing like holding a physical book in my hands when I read. I much prefer it over reading on a screen. I would be curious to see what book sales are like over the years as a whole including kindle, audio books, etc.
Agree! It makes me feel a little old to still love an actual book but more & more it seems like I'm not the only one. Makes me feel a little better!
Seems that ebooks are kind of like digital watches. They have their place, but they certainly aren't the be-all-end-all of reading materials.
The only reason I use an ebook reader ATM is because I go to bed a few hours after my wife and the low-light display keeps me from waking her up while I read myself to sleep. But I also think it would feel more real to be published in the traditional manner and be able to hold that sucker in my hand and say, "I did that."
yeah I agree. something odd about 'saving' your favorite book in cyber space & never really able to look at just the presence of it unless you use your kindle or log on to the internet. Times change. No doubt about that.
Never read a book on a fucking 'device', and never will. If real books die out I'll just stop reading.
Only that they're utterly void of everything that is great about real books. My dad uses Kindle and he's constantly telling me how badly formatted a lot of the stuff he downloads is.
But... aren't books about words and ideas? Isn't that what makes them great? And aren't the words and ideas the same on kindle as on paper? I don't know what your dad's reading or why it's poorly formatted, but I really don't believe that "proper formatting" is anywhere near the top of the list when I start analyzing why books are important to me.
I'm talking about missing words, paragraphs that end for no reason... just bad, unreadable formatting. I love Jack Vettriano's paintings, but I'd rather see the originals than look at pictures of them.
Well, bad formatting is bad formatting - is he reading self-published stuff? Most of the e-books I read are perfectly clear. And I agree, there's value in seeing the originals of paintings...but we're not reading original manuscripts when we read paper books, we're reading copies. So I'm not sure the parallel really works....
Like most prejudices, I can't justify it. I just hate e-books and everything they stand for, and I won't be persuaded otherwise.
I enjoy e-books and traditional paper books for different reasons. I think e-books are great on the go and for casual reading. However, if it's a book I'm reading for a class or one I'm trying to take a closer look at, I need a hard copy. I'm a faster e-booker reader, but I think I'm a better close reader with paper versions.
I like both formats, for different reasons. I love to read, and read a lot. My home is already stuffed with books, despite frequent culls. Ebooks allow me to buy fiction books I'll likely read only once, without clogging up the bookcases. It also allows me to sample certain kinds of non-fiction as well. However, if it's the kind of book I intend to page back and forth, or look at pictures or tables or such, a paper book is a much better prospect. If I had an infinite amount of space (like a real 'library room') I'd probably stick to paper books. I do prefer reading them, as I find the Kindle difficult to hold for a long time, and I get fed up with tapping so frequently. I've bought myself a lap pillow to hold the kindle, but I end up using it to hold real books just as much! But if you want to go on holiday, or go anywhere that you might want to spend time reading? Well, that's where the Kindle comes into its own. Fantastic device. I will probably always own one. However, I see no reason why the two formats can't both exist. They have different strengths and weaknesses. I'd hate to lose either one, but if I had to choose, I'd keep the paper books and dump the Kindle.
Not to mention you don't actually have control over it either. Amazon can pull books from the list whenever they want. If they start doing that, they'll lose customers fast, but it's entirely possible. You don't own the book on Kindle, you only own the right to read it.
If I had a pound for every 'e-book vs real book' thread I've seen I'd have £9, and let me tell you they're all a waste of time.
I like how instant the gratification is with e-books as well. Read a review of a book that sounds interesting? I could jot down a note for the next time I'm in a town with a bookstore and hope they have it in stock (the nearest bookstore to me is over 1/2 hour of highway driving away and it's very small) or I could order a paper copy online and wait a few days at least for it to arrive, or I could click one button on my computer and be reading within the minute. I don't like waiting.
I'm not sure if this is true with non-Amazon e-book sellers--I'd think once it's on the Kindle, the other sellers wouldn't have access to it?
Yeah, it's TOO easy sometimes. Just click and 'voila.' Fortunately most eBooks are fairly cheap. I've probably got as many loaded on my Kindle that I haven't read yet as the ones I actually have. That's not the case with my paper books. If I buy them, I do read them. Another thing I really like about Kindle is the ability to transfer ordinary text files (like stuff I'm beta-reading for others) onto the Kindle. The only downside is that I can't scribble notes in the margins, but it does make the process a lot easier (and less expensive) than printing it all off. I just found out recently that owners of the Kindle Fire (the newest one? not sure) can get the Kindle voice reader to read any of the loaded books out loud. What a boon to people who struggle to read for whatever reason. I've got two friends who are partially sighted who love this feature. It gives them cheap access to books they would otherwise have had to buy as expensive audio books. The 'robot' voice is actually rather good, and even makes a fair job of accents.
Good god, yes. The other night I finished A Companion to Wolves and immediately bought The Tempering of Men, because I wasn't ready to be done with all these gorgeous, northernly Germanic fellahs, their wolves, their lives, their loves, their rough grappling in both war and passion. It was 12:30 am.
