But I suppose there are some people that fetishize the smell of wood pulp and who love signaling how smart they are to the world with shelves of impressive-looking unread books, and who therefore overlook a reading experience that is superior in every other way.
I'm a voracious reader, and have an iPad, a Kindle, and shelves of (mostly read) books.
Out-of-print -- with e-books, that means it's really out of print. With a traditional book, it means you need to talk to a used book store.
Used -- you can't save money by buying your e-books used. Nor can you sell them if you decide they have no further value to you.
Unanticipated Reading -- e-books are great for unanticipated delays where you brought an e-book device, but didn't bring a book.
Outdoor use -- you can take a paperback up a mountain, onto a lake, or into the jungle knowing that if it gets wet your losses are capped at $25, and if you fall down, it won't be damaged. With the e-book, a fall or weather could result in expensive damage.
Travel -- the paperback book doesn't need to be charged, doesn't need a power plug converter, works during takeoff and landing, and doesn't immediately mark you as a person who is worth robbing.
Portability -- you can carry a lot more e-books than books.
Search -- e-books are great for reference texts, where you intend to do a lot of searching for content, rather than linear reading. paper indexes are good, but not as powerful.
Markup -- e-books have a 'highlight' capability, and some note capabilities that seem like they'd work nicely in an academic context, but I generally prefer my system of post-it notes, scribbles in the margin, and underlines, which doesn't cleanly translate to e-books.
Disaster Recovery -- e-books are replaced from backups, or not at all. books are replaced by homeowners insurance payout.
Public Image -- my iPad and Kindle both mark me as an early adopter tech guy. a book likely says nothing about me, unless the person looking has an opinion about the title in question.
Permanence -- I'm relatively confident that my paper library will endure for as long as there's somebody who values the content of the books. I'm not confident my e-book library will be usable in 10 years. (between DRM, format incompatibility, and accidental data loss.)
Images -- books currently beat e-books pretty solidly when it comes to imagery. I can't really imagine getting a Photography book as an e-book at this point in time.
Visual ease -- e-books let you adjust the font, but paper books are often (though not always) easier to read.
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Or maybe e-books are superior in every single way, and I only buy books to fetishize the smell of wood pulp, whilst filling shelves to signal to my wife, kids, pets and good friends that I'm intelligent.
Many of your points in favor of paper books exist because of flaws in the Copyright regime, not the eBook format itself. Fortunately there exists ways to (partially) circumvent the copyright regime. And hopefully market norms will evolve to be more open and permissive over time.
Books are the next vinyl records. Sure, there are some advantages to them. Enthusiasts will cling to them for a long time, mostly because of feelings of nostalgia and the desire to mark themselves as members of a particular subculture. But the advantages of digital formats are so large that books are going to be relegated to niche markets. Considering my own personal reading habits, I can't wait for that to happen.
Indeed most of your arguments in favor of books can also be made to support CDs or vinyl records over digital music.
Lastly, you forgot to mention the environmental impact of books and eBooks. Books have to be manufactured and carted around. eBook devices also have this drawback, but eBooks themselves do not.
But I suppose there are some people that fetishize the smell of wood pulp and who love signaling how smart they are to the world with shelves of impressive-looking unread books, and who therefore overlook a reading experience that is superior in every other way.
Your original statement was not set in a possible future, or in an theoretically different copyright regime.
Today, in the world we live in, books and e-books each continue to have their own strengths and weaknesses, with substantial portions of the market being better served with paper books, and a growing portion being better served by e-books, as reader technology improves.
Your comment was wrong. It was very, very wrong. And it still is.
And now I'm going to go curl up with a paper book, and fall asleep. I'm not using one of my readers, because that's a recipe for a broken reader.
I'm a voracious reader, and have an iPad, a Kindle, and shelves of (mostly read) books.
Out-of-print -- with e-books, that means it's really out of print. With a traditional book, it means you need to talk to a used book store.
Used -- you can't save money by buying your e-books used. Nor can you sell them if you decide they have no further value to you.
Unanticipated Reading -- e-books are great for unanticipated delays where you brought an e-book device, but didn't bring a book.
Outdoor use -- you can take a paperback up a mountain, onto a lake, or into the jungle knowing that if it gets wet your losses are capped at $25, and if you fall down, it won't be damaged. With the e-book, a fall or weather could result in expensive damage.
Travel -- the paperback book doesn't need to be charged, doesn't need a power plug converter, works during takeoff and landing, and doesn't immediately mark you as a person who is worth robbing.
Portability -- you can carry a lot more e-books than books.
Search -- e-books are great for reference texts, where you intend to do a lot of searching for content, rather than linear reading. paper indexes are good, but not as powerful.
Markup -- e-books have a 'highlight' capability, and some note capabilities that seem like they'd work nicely in an academic context, but I generally prefer my system of post-it notes, scribbles in the margin, and underlines, which doesn't cleanly translate to e-books.
Disaster Recovery -- e-books are replaced from backups, or not at all. books are replaced by homeowners insurance payout.
Public Image -- my iPad and Kindle both mark me as an early adopter tech guy. a book likely says nothing about me, unless the person looking has an opinion about the title in question.
Permanence -- I'm relatively confident that my paper library will endure for as long as there's somebody who values the content of the books. I'm not confident my e-book library will be usable in 10 years. (between DRM, format incompatibility, and accidental data loss.)
Images -- books currently beat e-books pretty solidly when it comes to imagery. I can't really imagine getting a Photography book as an e-book at this point in time.
Visual ease -- e-books let you adjust the font, but paper books are often (though not always) easier to read.
----
Or maybe e-books are superior in every single way, and I only buy books to fetishize the smell of wood pulp, whilst filling shelves to signal to my wife, kids, pets and good friends that I'm intelligent.
sigh