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>Why do I read physical books? I like all of the things you mentioned people shouldn't care about. The look, the feel, the physical manifestation, and most of a
by vivekd 10y ago
>Why do I read physical books? I like all of the things you mentioned people shouldn't care about. The look, the feel, the physical manifestation, and most of all the smell of a stale book after a few decades. It's lovely.
I doubt this is true for everyday reading. Because if that were true you would just open up old books and sniff them and rub them in your hands from time to time. And yet I have never once seen anyone do this. Lets face it, we read books for the words not for the feel for the books.
People are just going back to "feel" based sentiments now to justify what they see as a major change in a cherished hobby which they dislike. And while feel based arguments for preserving books aren't completely without merit, they only apply to a narrow type of book and a narrow type of reading (beautiful classic books) and not to actual every day reading.
I understand the nice qualities in old classic books. I get the nice feeling of opening up a really old book that has been around for a long time - but that really is a limited scope sort of use that doesn't capture every day use of books, and it's not really connected to the reading - it has more the value that an antique or a collectible has.
I think the best example is two copies of Shakespeare I have. One is an old classic version of Shakespeare in hard cover printed on high quality paper with ink illustrations. The other is a college paperback copy of Hamlet with torn covers and introduction pages. The prior might not be a good candidate for replacement with an e-reader but the latter certainly would. But if your goal was just to read Hamlet, both would be just as effective. This isn't to say there isn't a place for the great feeling you get with the hardcover beautiful Shakespeare book, just that the feeling isn't necessarily connected to the actual reading of Hamlet.
- soulbadguy 10y agoYou are basicly doubling down on the same fallacies the previous post was pointing to. > I doubt this is true for everyday reading For some of us books are not everyday reading... > Because if that were true you would just open up old books and sniff them and rub them in your hands from time to time. And yet I have never once seen anyone do this. Lets face it, we read books for the words not for the feel for the books Following the same line of thinking, since I never saw anyone eating raw salt I should conclude that people don't really like salt ? You are trying to reduce reading a book to sum of arbitrary components...
- kakarot 10y ago> Because if that were true you would just open up old books and sniff them and rub them in your hands from time to time. Slow down, mister. That is EXACTLY what I do. And it's why I love visiting libraries. Maybe you need to get out more, or at least stop assuming the world operates the same way as the extremely limited sample of people you have encountered. It's like you think I'm making this shit up just to argue with you or something. "If that were true"... really? I'm not trying to convince you to have the same preferences as me. Nor am I condemning your preference of digital media. But again, why are you condemning my own preferences, and why are you trying to convince me to have yours? I love digital media as much as the next guy and I've got lots of ebooks so I clearly understand the value in them. But there's no "justification" as to why I also like owning physical books. Who do I need to justify myself to? No one. In fact apparently I have to defend myself, if anything. > Lets face it, we read books for the words not for the feel for the books. Let's face it, you are attempting to speak for the motivations of everyone on planet Earth, when you have no right or authority to do so. That is a downright ignorant thing to say. You should try going to an old book sale, the kind with tons of 50 cent bins. I could spend hours in places like that. It really might change your perspective on the legitimacy of the preference for physical media. What, should I stop buying vinyls, too? Just like books, their physical manifestation are symbolic of the material within, and best of all, absolutely no DRM.