It's interesting to note that The Verge uses the word "prefer" in the title of their article but the underlying Pew Research report[1] does not have that word a

It's interesting to note that The Verge uses the word "prefer" in the title of their article but the underlying Pew Research report[1] does not have that word anywhere. What Pew did was telephone some people asking them how often they read and also whether the format was ebook or paper. It seems logical to infer a "preference" from the answers to those questions. However, it's not that simple because a major reason people read "paper" is the higher cost of ebooks (which also includes the significant cost of a Kindle device.) In other words, the economics of paper vs ebooks may be skewing why more people read hardcopy books instead of electronic ones. (E.g. If you telephone people asking them what car they drive, more will respond with Kia and Cheverolet but that does not mean people prefer them over Lexus and BMW.) To extract a pure preference, it seems like you'd have to devise a marketing experiment which disguises the costs like this: Choice A: $450 for 50 New York Times best sellers in paperback format. Choice B: $450 for a Kindle preloaded with the same 50 ebooks. Then you observe which package actually sells the most. We'd then see if more people value the paperback with the ability to resell, the tactile sensation, the simplicity of no batteries more than the e-reader with the minimal space & weight, the font size adjustability, the searchability, the ability to load more ebooks after the 50 preloaded ones, etc. The above experiment may also have different outcomes depending on genre (fiction/novels, non-fiction/college textbooks) and age group (20-something, over-50, etc). [1]Pew Research pdf downloadable here: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/#the-share-of-americans-who-have-read-a-book-in-the-last-year-is-largely-unchanged-since-2012-more-americans-read-print-books-than-either-read-e-books-or-listen-to-audio-books http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/#the...