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The Gabbers  Amanda"I read anything that holds my attention past the first 100 pages, primarily genre fiction of all types, ’serious’ literature, classics and travelogues." read more...
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Actual books vs. Ebooks
« So Happy Together! | Home | The price of ebooks »  I recognize and accept that books will eventually make a permanent transition from paper to various electronic formats. I accept that one day my grandkids or great grandkids, should I be blessed with them, will stare in wonder at my bookcases and ask me, “what are those grandma?” Kind of like the day I over heard the following conversation between two of my children while we were at my mother’s house. The kids were, maybe, eight and four. The four year old asks, “what are these black things, sis?” “These are giant cds. They have stuff on both sides. You have to have a special machine to play them. They sound awful. All scratchy and bumpy.” “So why did grandpa keep them if they’re all ruined?” “‘Cuz they remind him of the old days he says.” Many readers are already making the transition to digital, particularly for short series titles. Lots of readers are transitioning over to iphone to make use of the app that allows you to read on the phone. My library has titles available as a three week download for several platforms. They even have little portable players with a book on it that patrons can borrow. While I’m glad these new technologies potentially allow me hoard, er..treasure lots of more titles in a significantly smaller space, part of me mourns the potential loss of actual books. There are many good reasons for transitioning off of paper, most of them having to do with dwindling natural resources, increasing energy costs, lack of enough shelf space to hold them all and the like. Likely there are just as many, if not more, reasons to value the eventual transition to digital: greater variety of genres and formats and publishers, better price points, wider availability, etc. So other than price, what’s stopping me from changing over? Speaking as a somewhat of a traditionalist, though, digital just isn’t the same. Digital books just don’t have the same cachet. I can’t clutch my cell phone to my chest at the end of a fabulous romance and sigh with happiness. Well, ok, I can, but it isn’t the same. Really. It isn’t. Also? I want to be able to move my books from place to place as I please without worrying about potentially breaking the law. *Whine, whine, whine* For me most important issue is DRM (digital rights management). I want to be able to move my books from gadget to gadget, from reader to reader or phone to reader or computer to reader or whatever other combination I can come up with, as I please without worrying over having to either hack the DRM, which is against the law I believe, or buy everything all over again. Have you switched over from books to ebooks, partially or completely? If you have, what prompted you? If you haven’t, what’s holding you back? DRM? Price? Lack of wide availability of your chosen authors or genres? General reluctance to change? This entry was posted by Amanda on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 6:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 9 Responses to “Actual books vs. Ebooks”Leave a Comment |
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June 18th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I’ve gone digital for Harlequin, but am still pretty much print-only for everything else. What I’m running up against is that I like “tangible” keepers. Those books that I read and love? I like having a print copy. I just do. So I’ve found that when I read a Harlequin ebook and I love it? I turn around and pick up a paper copy for my Dead Tree collection.
Also, I’m a bit of a ho for book covers. I love shiny, pretty, colorful book covers. And you don’t get those with ebooks.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Wendy~ Tangible keepers, I like that phrase. I think that’s my issue with digital, aside from DRM. As a physical artifact I love books. Looking at them, the covers, the end papers, the binding stitches, the whole item. Books make me happy. I don’t get the same effect with a file on my computer. It simply isn’t the same.
~Amanda
June 18th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I haven’t made the switch yet. I’m going to wait a few more years to see what new readers come out. But I will also Never Ever get rid of my books. And I don’t think they will ever go the way of the Dodo bird, either, I think a book case will still be the best piece of furniture in a livingroom 50 years from now.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Eva~ Yup. Totally agree with you on the keeping books issue & the bookcases make the room decorating theory too. Not so sure that books in their current form won’t ever disappear though. I can see a possibility that in the future trees will be so valuable that books made of paper won’t be viable anymore. Not likely to be soon though.
~Amanda
June 18th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I do think that there’s a certain aspect of of “collecting” that keeps people away from electronic books. I know that I actually enjoy ebooks but still don’t like to “break up sets” in terms of having some books in a series in ebook and some in paperback. And I’m not going to intentionally buy two, so that means for now I’m pretty much sticking to epublished in electronic form and print in print. Plus, too, I like the generally smaller size of ebooks that are meant to be published that way. Again, I think they suit the format better. Call me traditional.
Oh, and regarding the future of paper books and trees. Nothing says paper has to be made from wood. Or only from wood. Fine paper generally has some type of other plant fiber in it to give it a sheen and texture but where do you think the terms “trash” and “rags” came from in the print business? It isn’t just about the content of what’s printed. It’s about what the substrate is made from. Whenever wood pulp is in short supply, and that has always happened a lot, whatever is available gets used. That could be just about any type of fiberous material, which almost always includes throwaway old rags of all kinds added to all kinds of plant fibers.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
BevBB~ I never thought of other fibers for books. I’m glad you brought that up. It’s a wonderful idea & hopefully someone with some ingenuity & some backing will start trying it out. I always love a nice box of linen stationery.
As for breaking up sets, I agree. Once I start collecting a series, I want them all in the same format. It’s an issue that can drive me batty if an author’s books change format mid series. Genrerally they go from paperback to hardcover & while I’m happy it’s an ‘upgrade’ for her, it means my collection won’t match.
~Amanda
June 18th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I’m not an expert on papermaking by any means but I have studied the process and the main reason wood pulp is the most used in paper is that it’s simply more more durable longterm, which is what we want the books to do - last. Every continent has native fibers that have traditionally been used to make paper, though. And after all, a lot of natural cloth is plant fiber. The problem is that they each have different strengths and weaknesses from wood, but their greatest advantage is that they grow faster than trees. So, it would be a balancing act.
But then most things in life are.
Oh, and I hate it when a print book in the middle of a series is released in a completely different size, like a trade in the middle of a mass market paperback group. Grrrr. I’d actually take an ebook over that.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I also buy harlequin titles via my reader, because of the price difference when they are bundled. I do most of my reading at night, so the backlight on the reader is handy at those times, which is another plus for ebooks. However, I am a member of a book club that I get discounted prices that are often better than ebooks prices, so in that instance the print books win. I do a lot of travelling for work, so for that reason I have grown to prefer my reader—it is so much easier on plane rides.
That said, I like print books for cookbooks, anything with illustrations or pictures in it.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Marial~ I’m sure a reader must be a plus over actual books when you travel so much. When the prices come down I might try a reader simply for the backlight. LOL Sounds ridiculous I know, but my Hubby works an odd shift & likes to read before bed & those little booklights just don’t do the trick. I use a facemask, but a backlit reader would be better. We’ll see.
~Amanda