4 ms·

The author has a very good point: buying ebooks is a crappy consumer experience. If that wasn't true, dead-tree books would be as rare as Compact Discs.

MrPowers 6y ago
Buying books from fnac.com sounds like a bad experience. I've bought books from https://leanpub.com/ https://leanpub.com/ without any problems.
m4r35n357 6y ago
Yep, I have plenty of books dating back to the seventies (some even older). They are all still perfectly functional. Not heard of a 50 year old epub or pdf yet, wonder if it will ever happen ;)
- blackoil 6y ago
  I have over 100 books in my backpack that I carry where I go and get more books whenever I feel like, and I do not have Hermoine's magic handbag. So pros/cons of each method.
  - fullstop 6y ago
    Don't need a bookmark either. Plus, built-in dictionary, and you can highlight passages without permanently marking up the book. It does need to be charged occasionally, though.
- falcolas 6y ago
  I used to collect physical books, but there are so many new and novel stories out there that I don’t reread most of them. So it’s a waste of space to keep 98% of them around anymore. Purging them was cathartic.
gilbetron 6y ago
Click on my kindle icon for "store", find book, click buy, have it seconds later. Alternatively, go to amazon.com and find book, click buy, shows up on my kindle seconds later.
- falcolas 6y ago
  Kindle has definitely made it as friction free as possible. The lock-in used to be moderately annoying, but I have a phone that can natively handle other formats (not to mention the kindle app), so I just don’t care anymore.
- ssully 6y ago
  Yeah, Amazon's ebook buying experience is about as seamless as one could ask for. I do not think the ebook buying experience has anything to do with why paper books are still around.
blackoil 6y ago
Majority paper book readers read because of the preference for medium or availability and not for some tenet.
Timpy 6y ago
That's only the case if subjective convenience were the only deciding factor in ebook vs paper books

MrPowers 6y ago

Buying books from fnac.com sounds like a bad experience. I've bought books from https://leanpub.com/ https://leanpub.com/ without any problems.

m4r35n357 6y ago

Yep, I have plenty of books dating back to the seventies (some even older). They are all still perfectly functional. Not heard of a 50 year old epub or pdf yet, wonder if it will ever happen ;)

blackoil 6y ago
I have over 100 books in my backpack that I carry where I go and get more books whenever I feel like, and I do not have Hermoine's magic handbag. So pros/cons of each method.
- fullstop 6y ago
  Don't need a bookmark either. Plus, built-in dictionary, and you can highlight passages without permanently marking up the book. It does need to be charged occasionally, though.
falcolas 6y ago
I used to collect physical books, but there are so many new and novel stories out there that I don’t reread most of them. So it’s a waste of space to keep 98% of them around anymore. Purging them was cathartic.

gilbetron 6y ago

Click on my kindle icon for "store", find book, click buy, have it seconds later. Alternatively, go to amazon.com and find book, click buy, shows up on my kindle seconds later.

falcolas 6y ago
Kindle has definitely made it as friction free as possible. The lock-in used to be moderately annoying, but I have a phone that can natively handle other formats (not to mention the kindle app), so I just don’t care anymore.
ssully 6y ago
Yeah, Amazon's ebook buying experience is about as seamless as one could ask for. I do not think the ebook buying experience has anything to do with why paper books are still around.

blackoil 6y ago

Majority paper book readers read because of the preference for medium or availability and not for some tenet.

Timpy 6y ago

That's only the case if subjective convenience were the only deciding factor in ebook vs paper books