4 ms·

I really prefer reading on a e-paper display, mostly because it's right there and always ready to go, but also because the light is better than any physical boo

by lsc 10y ago

I really prefer reading on a e-paper display, mostly because it's right there and always ready to go, but also because the light is better than any physical booklight I've ever used. It is super convenient; the other day I was cornered by skunks on my bicycle ride home, and I was able to quietly stop and read for the half-hour or whatever that it took them to get off of the bay trail. I don't dread lines or anything of that sort because I always have a book with me, and the lighting is such that no matter how dark it is, I can read it, and the lighting is dim enough that I probably won't bother other people. But... but it is annoying that I can't practically lend or give away any of these books, and I'm paying substantially more on the kindle than I would for used physical books. I spend a few hundred dollars a month on kindle books, a number that would be dramatically smaller if I bought (used) physical books. Heck, I think kindle books are often more expensive than their physical counterparts, just because there's no inventory to keep about; there's no reason for the publisher to get rid of books that sell slowly. Right now I'm studying high school/remedial college math, history, literature, and eh, even after I'm done with the books in question, I won't be able to stock a library for my little cousins with my leavings. The e-book is a nice solution, sure, but it's a nice solution for people with a lot of disposable income. I remember, as a kid, reading my parents libraries, and then going through all the castoffs I could find. In the e-book world? a kid on the budget I had as a kid would be restricted to texts written before 1923, and/or would resort to piracy.

ashark 10y ago
> a kid on the budget I had as a kid would be restricted to texts written before 1923, and/or would resort to piracy. It's tough to beat the affordability of used mass-market paperbacks—there are usually at least a few decent titles at Goodwill, where even the hardbacks are only a dollar—and our local library's ebook lending system takes about 50x as much time and effort to get you the book you want as piracy, and is so complicated that I can't see all but the most dedicated and tech-literate figuring it out. I understand ebooks, but I don't understand the ebook market. It all seems about 50-75% too expensive to even be an option, especially since you can't recoup some of the money by re-selling.
- lsc 10y ago
  >I understand ebooks, but I don't understand the ebook market. It all seems about 50-75% too expensive to even be an option, especially since you can't recoup some of the money by re-selling. It's great, I think, for consumers with money and for authors; I'm happy to pay the premium (in fact, amazon, are you listening? I'd pay like 5x as much for the device and pay your e-textbook prices if you made an e-paper display capable of dealing with math books. c'mon, how hard would it be to integrate LaTeX?) and the authors get a bigger cut. That's the thing about selling; often it makes more sense to only serve the top 10% at 10x the price than it does to serve the whole market. The problem is that it used to be that someone like me now buying a lot of books would result in those books being recycled out and sold to someone like me as a kid for very little money; It's that secondary market that suffers, and that secondary market, well, it's just not something that matters very much, if you measure in dollars and cents, because me as a kid had almost no money. The thing is, I think that secondary market was something of a social good; I have the disposable income now to pay extra for my books, in part because me-as-a-kid had access to those nearly free books.

by lsc 10y ago

ashark 10y ago

> a kid on the budget I had as a kid would be restricted to texts written before 1923, and/or would resort to piracy. It's tough to beat the affordability of used mass-market paperbacks—there are usually at least a few decent titles at Goodwill, where even the hardbacks are only a dollar—and our local library's ebook lending system takes about 50x as much time and effort to get you the book you want as piracy, and is so complicated that I can't see all but the most dedicated and tech-literate figuring it out. I understand ebooks, but I don't understand the ebook market. It all seems about 50-75% too expensive to even be an option, especially since you can't recoup some of the money by re-selling.

lsc 10y ago
>I understand ebooks, but I don't understand the ebook market. It all seems about 50-75% too expensive to even be an option, especially since you can't recoup some of the money by re-selling. It's great, I think, for consumers with money and for authors; I'm happy to pay the premium (in fact, amazon, are you listening? I'd pay like 5x as much for the device and pay your e-textbook prices if you made an e-paper display capable of dealing with math books. c'mon, how hard would it be to integrate LaTeX?) and the authors get a bigger cut. That's the thing about selling; often it makes more sense to only serve the top 10% at 10x the price than it does to serve the whole market. The problem is that it used to be that someone like me now buying a lot of books would result in those books being recycled out and sold to someone like me as a kid for very little money; It's that secondary market that suffers, and that secondary market, well, it's just not something that matters very much, if you measure in dollars and cents, because me as a kid had almost no money. The thing is, I think that secondary market was something of a social good; I have the disposable income now to pay extra for my books, in part because me-as-a-kid had access to those nearly free books.